Isaiah 27
1 At that time, Yahweh will punish Leviathan, the swift-moving monster/dragon, that coiling serpent that lives in the sea. Yahweh will kill it with his sharp, huge, and powerful sword.
On that day Yahweh with his hard, great and fierce sword will punish Leviathan the slithering serpent, Leviathan the squirming serpent, and he will kill the monster that is in the sea.
2 At that time, [Yahweh will say], “You [Israeli people, who are like] [MET] a fruitful vineyard, must sing!
In that day: A vineyard of wine, sing of it.
3 I will [protect you] [like a farmer] [MET] waters his crops carefully [in order that they will grow well]. I will guard you day and night, in order that no one harms you.
“I, Yahweh, am its protector; I water it every moment. I guard it night and day so no one will hurt it.
4 I am no [longer] angry [with my people]; [if any of your enemies try to injure you like briers and thorns injure people] [MET], I will attack them [in battles]; I will get rid of them completely,
I am not angry, Oh, that there were briers and thorns! In battle I would march against them; I would burn them all together;
5 unless they request me to protect them; I strongly invite them to make peace with me [DOU]!”
unless they grasp my protection and make peace with me; let them make peace with me.
6 There will be a time when the (descendants of Jacob/Israeli people) will [prosper like] a plant that has good roots; they will be like [MET] trees that bud and blossom and bear a lot of fruit; [what they do will bless] all the people in the world.
In the coming day, Jacob will take root; Israel will blossom and bud; and they will fill the surface of the ground with fruit.”
7 [But now I ask], has Yahweh punished us Israelis like he punished our enemies? Has he punished us as much as he punished them?
Has Yahweh attacked Jacob and Israel as he attacked those nations who attacked them? Have Jacob and Israel been killed as in the slaughter of those nations that were killed by them?
8 [No, he has not done that], [but] he punished us Israeli people and (exiled us/forced us to leave our country); we were taken away from our land as though [SIM] we were struck by a windstorm from the east.
In exact measure you have contended, sending Jacob and Israel away; he drove them away with his fierce breath in the day of the east wind.
9 Yahweh did that in order to punish us for our sins, and remove our guilt. As a result [of our being exiled], all the altars to other gods [in Israel] will be demolished, and we will be forgiven for the sins that we have committed. There will be no more poles for worshiping the goddess Asherah, or altars for burning incense to other gods; they will all be torn down.
So in this way, the iniquity of Jacob will be atoned for, for this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin: when he will make all the altar stones as chalk and crushed to pieces, and no Asherah poles or incense altars will remain standing.
10 The cities that have strong walls around them will be empty; like the desert, they will have no one living in them. The houses will be abandoned, and the streets will be full of weeds. Calves will eat grass there and lie down there; they will chew up all the leaves on the trees.
For the fortified city is desolate, the habitation is deserted and forsaken like the wilderness. There a calf feeds, and there he lies down and consumes its branches.
11 [The Israeli people are like] [MET] dry branches on a tree; women break them off and use them to make fires [under their cooking pots]. Our Israeli people do not have any sense; so Yahweh, who created them, will not act mercifully toward them or be kind to them.
When the boughs are withered, they will be broken off. Women will come and make fires with them, for this is not a people of understanding. Therefore their Maker will not have compassion on them, and he who made them will not be merciful to them.
12 [However], there will be a time when Yahweh will gather them together [again; he will separate them from the people who have conquered them, like people] separate wheat from chaff. He will bring them [back to Israel], one by one, from [the land between] the Euphrates River [in the northeast] and the brook at the border of Egypt [in the southwest].
It will come about on that day that Yahweh will thresh from the Euphrates River to the Wadi of Egypt and you, the people of Israel, will be gathered together one by one.
13 At that time, a trumpet will be blown very loudly. And those who were exiled to Assyria and Egypt and who almost died there will return to Jerusalem, to worship Yahweh on [Zion], his holy hill.
On that day a great trumpet will be blown; and the perishing ones in the land of Assyria will come, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, they will worship Yahweh on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.
