< Isaiah 27 >
1 In that day, the LORD with his hard and great and strong sword will punish leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and leviathan, the twisted serpent; and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea.
In that day God shall bring [his] holy and great and strong sword upon the dragon, even the serpent that flees, upon the dragon, the crooked serpent: he shall destroy the dragon.
2 In that day, sing to her, “A pleasant vineyard!
In that day [there shall be] a fair vineyard, [and] a desire to commence [a song] concerning it.
3 I, the LORD, am its keeper. I will water it every moment. Lest anyone damage it, I will keep it night and day.
I am a strong city, a city in a siege: in vain shall I water it; for it shall be taken by night, and by day the wall shall fall.
4 Wrath is not in me, but if I should find briers and thorns, I would do battle! I would march on them and I would burn them together.
There is no woman that has not taken hold of it; who will set me to watch stubble in the field? because of this enemy I have set her aside; therefore on this account the Lord has done all that he appointed.
5 Or else let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me. Let him make peace with me.”
I am burnt up; they that dwell in her shall cry, Let us make peace with him, let us make peace,
6 In days to come, Jacob will take root. Israel will blossom and bud. They will fill the surface of the world with fruit.
they that are coming are the children of Jacob. Israel shall bud and blossom, and the world shall be filled with his fruit.
7 Has he struck them as he struck those who struck them? Or are they killed like those who killed them were killed?
Shall he himself be thus struck, even as he struck? and as he killed, shall he be thus slain?
8 In measure, when you send them away, you contend with them. He has removed them with his rough blast in the day of the east wind.
Fighting and reproaching he will dismiss them; did you not meditate with a harsh spirit, to kill them with a wrathful spirit?
9 Therefore by this the iniquity of Jacob will be forgiven, and this is all the fruit of taking away his sin: that he makes all the stones of the altar as chalk stones that are beaten in pieces, so that the Asherah poles and the incense altars shall rise no more.
Therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be taken away; and this is his blessing, when I shall have taken away his sin; when they shall have broken to pieces all the stones of the altars as fine dust, and their trees shall not remain, and their idols shall be cut off, as a thicket afar off.
10 For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness. The calf will feed there, and there he will lie down, and consume its branches.
The flock that lived [there] shall be left, as a deserted flock; and [the ground] shall be for a long time for pasture, and there shall flocks lie down to rest.
11 When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off. The women will come and set them on fire, for they are a people of no understanding. Therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them, and he who formed them will show them no favor.
And after a time there shall be in it no green thing because of [the grass] being parched. Come hither, you women that come from a sight; for it is a people of no understanding; therefore he that made them shall have no pity upon them, and he that formed them shall have no mercy [upon them].
12 It will happen in that day that the LORD will thresh from the flowing stream of the Euphrates to the brook of Egypt; and you will be gathered one by one, children of Israel.
And it shall come to pass in that day [that] God shall fence [men] off from the channel of the river as far as Rhinocorura; but do you gather one by one the children of Israel.
13 It will happen in that day that a great shofar will be blown; and those who were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and those who were outcasts in the land of Egypt, shall come; and they will worship the LORD in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.
And it shall come to pass in that day [that] they shall blow the great trumpet, and the lost ones in the land of the Assyrians shall come, and the lost ones in Egypt, and shall worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.