Isaiah 27
1 In that day, the Lord will visit, with his harsh and great and strong sword, against Leviathan, the barred serpent, and against Leviathan, the twisted serpent, and he will slay the whale that is in the sea.
In that day the LORD will take His sharp, great, and mighty sword, and bring judgment on Leviathan the fleeing serpent —Leviathan the coiling serpent—and He will slay the dragon of the sea.
2 In that day, the vineyard of pure wine will sing to them.
In that day: “Sing about a fruitful vineyard.
3 I am the Lord, who watches over it. I will suddenly give drink to it. I will watch over it, night and day, lest perhaps someone visit against it.
I, the LORD, am its keeper; I water it continually. I guard it night and day so no one can disturb it;
4 Indignation is not mine. Who will be a thorn and a brier to me in battle? I will advance against them. I set them on fire together.
I am not angry. If only thorns and briers confronted Me, I would march and trample them, I would burn them to the ground.
5 Or will he, instead, take hold of my strength? Will he make peace with me? Will she make peace with me?
Or let them lay claim to My protection; let them make peace with Me— yes, let them make peace with Me.”
6 As they advance with violence against Jacob, Israel will flourish and spring forth, and they will fill the face of the world with offspring.
In the days to come, Jacob will take root. Israel will bud and blossom and fill the whole world with fruit.
7 Has he struck him with the scourge that he himself used to strike others? Or has he killed in the manner that he himself used to kill his victims?
Has the LORD struck Israel as He struck her oppressors? Was she killed like those who slayed her?
8 You will judge this by comparing one measure to another, when he has been cast out. He has decided this, by his stern spirit, for the day of heat.
By warfare and exile You contended with her and removed her with a fierce wind, as on the day the east wind blows.
9 Therefore, concerning this, the iniquity of the house of Jacob will be forgiven. And this is the reward of all: that their sin be taken away, when he will have made all the stones of the altar to be like crushed cinders. For the sacred groves and the shrines shall not stand.
Therefore Jacob’s guilt will be atoned for, and the full fruit of the removal of his sin will be this: When he makes all the altar stones like crushed bits of chalk, no Asherah poles or incense altars will remain standing.
10 For the fortified city will be desolate. The shining city will be abandoned and will be left behind like a desert. In that place, the calf will pasture, and in that place, he will lie down, and he will feed from its summits.
For the fortified city lies deserted— a homestead abandoned, a wilderness forsaken. There the calves graze, and there they lie down; they strip its branches bare.
11 Its harvest will be crushed by dryness. Women will arrive and teach it, for it is not a wise people. Because of this, he who made it will not take pity on it, and he who formed it will not spare it.
When its limbs are dry, they are broken off. Women come and use them for kindling; for this is a people without understanding. Therefore their Maker has no compassion on them, and their Creator shows them no favor.
12 And this shall be: in that day, the Lord will strike, from the channel of the river, even to the torrent of Egypt. And you shall be gathered together, one by one, O sons of Israel.
In that day the LORD will thresh from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, O Israelites, will be gathered one by one.
13 And this shall be: in that day, a noise will be made with a great trumpet. And those who had been lost will approach from the land of the Assyrians, with those who had been outcasts in the land of Egypt. And they will adore the Lord, on the holy mountain, in Jerusalem.
And in that day a great ram’s horn will sound, and those who were perishing in Assyria will come forth with those who were exiles in Egypt. And they will worship the LORD on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.
