Leviathan Slain

27 On that day the Lord with His harsh, great, and strong sword, will bring judgment on Leviathan,(A) the fleeing serpent—Leviathan, the twisting serpent. He will slay the monster that is in the sea.(B)

The Lord’s Vineyard

On that day
sing about a desirable vineyard:(C)
I, Yahweh, watch over it;
I water it regularly.
I guard it night and day
so that no one disturbs it.
I am not angry,
but if it produces thorns and briers(D) for Me,
I will fight against it, trample it,
and burn it to the ground.
Or let it take hold of My strength;
let it make peace with Me—
make peace with Me.
In days to come, Jacob will take root.(E)
Israel will blossom and bloom(F)
and fill the whole world with fruit.

Did the Lord strike Israel
as He struck the one who struck Israel?(G)
Was he killed like those killed by Him?
You disputed with her
by banishing and driving her away.[a]
He removed her with His severe storm
on the day of the east wind.
Therefore Jacob’s iniquity(H) will be purged in this way,
and the result of the removal of his sin will be this:(I)
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 deserted,
pastures abandoned and forsaken like a wilderness.
Calves will graze there,
and there they will spread out and strip its branches.
11 When its branches dry out, they will be broken off.
Women will come and make fires with them,
for they are not a people with understanding.(J)
Therefore their Maker(K) will not have compassion on them,
and their Creator will not be gracious to them.

12 On that day(L)
the Lord will thresh grain from the Euphrates River
as far as the Wadi of Egypt,(M)
and you Israelites will be gathered one by one.
13 On that day
a great trumpet(N) will be blown,
and those lost in the land of Assyria will come,
as well as those dispersed in the land of Egypt;
and they will worship the Lord
at Jerusalem on the holy mountain.

Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 27:8 Hb obscure

27 In that day the Lord will take his terrible, swift sword and punish Leviathan,[a] the swiftly moving serpent, the coiling, writhing serpent. He will kill the dragon of the sea.

“In that day,
    sing about the fruitful vineyard.
I, the Lord, will watch over it,
    watering it carefully.
Day and night I will watch so no one can harm it.
    My anger will be gone.
If I find briers and thorns growing,
    I will attack them;
I will burn them up—
    unless they turn to me for help.
Let them make peace with me;
    yes, let them make peace with me.”
The time is coming when Jacob’s descendants will take root.
    Israel will bud and blossom
    and fill the whole earth with fruit!

Has the Lord struck Israel
    as he struck her enemies?
Has he punished her
    as he punished them?
No, but he exiled Israel to call her to account.
    She was exiled from her land
    as though blown away in a storm from the east.
The Lord did this to purge Israel’s[b] wickedness,
    to take away all her sin.
As a result, all the pagan altars will be crushed to dust.
    No Asherah pole or pagan shrine will be left standing.
10 The fortified towns will be silent and empty,
    the houses abandoned, the streets overgrown with weeds.
Calves will graze there,
    chewing on twigs and branches.
11 The people are like the dead branches of a tree,
    broken off and used for kindling beneath the cooking pots.
Israel is a foolish and stupid nation,
    for its people have turned away from God.
Therefore, the one who made them
    will show them no pity or mercy.

12 Yet the time will come when the Lord will gather them together like handpicked grain. One by one he will gather them—from the Euphrates River[c] in the east to the Brook of Egypt in the west. 13 In that day the great trumpet will sound. Many who were dying in exile in Assyria and Egypt will return to Jerusalem to worship the Lord on his holy mountain.

Footnotes

  1. 27:1 The identification of Leviathan is disputed, ranging from an earthly creature to a mythical sea monster in ancient literature.
  2. 27:9 Hebrew Jacob’s. See note on 14:1.
  3. 27:12 Hebrew the river.