Isaiah 27
1 In that day lay a charge doth Jehovah, With his sword — the sharp, and the great, and the strong, On leviathan — a fleeing serpent, And on leviathan — a crooked serpent, And He hath slain the dragon that [is] in the sea.
At that time the Lord will take his sharp, large, and strong sword, and punish Leviathan, the slithering serpent, and Leviathan, the coiled serpent, and he will kill the sea dragon.
2 In that day, 'A desirable vineyard,' respond ye to her,
At that time, sing about a beautiful vineyard.
3 I, Jehovah, am its keeper, every moment I water it, Lest any lay a charge against it, Night and day I keep it!
I, the Lord, take care of it, watering it often. I guard it night and day so that nobody can damage it.
4 Fury is not in Me; Who giveth Me a brier — a thorn in battle? I step into it, I burn it at once.
I'm not angry anymore. If there are thorns and brambles I would go and fight them, burning them all up,
5 Or — he doth take hold on My strength, He doth make peace with Me, Peace he doth make with Me.
Otherwise they should come to me for protection. They should make their peace with me, yes, make their peace with me.
6 Those coming in He causeth to take root, Jacob doth blossom, and flourished hath Israel, And they have filled the face of the world [with] increase.
In the future the descendants of Jacob will be like a tree taking root. Israel will flower and send out shoots, and fill the whole world with fruit!
7 As the smiting of his smiter hath He smitten him? As the slaying of his slain doth He slay?
Has the Lord hit Israel as he hit those that attacked them? Were they killed like their killers were killed?
8 In measure, in sending it forth, thou strivest with it, He hath taken away by His sharp wind, In the day of an east wind,
You dealt with them by sending them into exile, by banishing them. He drove them away with his powerful force, like when the east wind blows.
9 Therefore by this is the iniquity of Jacob covered, And this [is] all the fruit — To take away his sin, in His setting all the stones of an altar, As chalkstones beaten in pieces, They rise not — shrines and images.
Through this experience Jacob's guilt will be forgiven. The removal of their sins will come to fruition when they take all the pagan altar stones and crush them to pieces like chalk—no Asherah poles or altars of incense will be left standing.
10 For the fenced city [is] alone, A habitation cast out and forsaken as a wilderness, There doth the calf delight, And there it lieth down, And hath consumed its branches.
The fortified city will be abandoned, its houses as empty and lonely as a desert. Cattle will graze and rest there, stripping bare the branches of its trees.
11 In the withering of its branch it is broken off, Women are coming in setting it on fire, For it [is] not a people of understanding, Therefore pity it not doth its Maker, And its Former doth not favour it.
Their dry branches are broken off and used by women to make fires. This is a people that doesn't have any sense, so their Maker won't feel sorry for them, and their Creator won't help them.
12 And it hath come to pass, in that day, Beat out doth Jehovah from the branch of the river, Unto the stream of Egypt, And ye are gathered one by one, O sons of Israel.
At that time the Lord will thresh the grain harvested from the Euphrates River to the Wadi of Egypt, and you Israelites will be gathered up one by one.
13 And it hath come to pass, in that day, It is blown with a great trumpet, And come in have those perishing in the land of Asshur, And those cast out in the land of Egypt, And have bowed themselves to Jehovah, In the holy mount — in Jerusalem!
At that time a loud trumpet will sound, and those who were dying in Assyria will return along with those exiled in Egypt. They will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.
