God’s Blessings for Israel

27 On that day (A)the Lord will punish [a](B)Leviathan the fleeing serpent,
With His fierce and great and mighty sword,
Even [b]Leviathan the twisted serpent;
And (C)He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.

On that day,
“A [c](D)vineyard of beauty, sing of it!
I, the Lord, am its keeper;
(E)I water it every moment.
So that no one will [d]damage it,
I (F)guard it night and day.
I have no wrath.
Should [e]someone give Me (G)briars and thorns in battle,
Then I would step on them, (H)I would burn them [f]completely.
Or let him [g](I)rely on My protection,
Let him make peace with Me,
Let him (J)make peace with Me.”
[h]In the days to come Jacob (K)will take root,
Israel will (L)blossom and sprout,
And they will fill the [i]whole world with (M)fruit.

Like the striking of Him who has struck them, has (N)He struck them?
Or like the slaughter of His slain, [j]have they been slain?
You contended with them [k]by banishing them, by (O)driving them away.
With His fierce wind He has expelled them on the day of the (P)east wind.
Therefore through this Jacob’s wrongdoing will be (Q)forgiven;
And this will be [l]the full price of the [m](R)pardoning of his sin:
When he makes all the (S)altar stones like pulverized chalk stones;
When [n]Asherim and incense altars will not stand.
10 For the fortified city is (T)isolated,
A [o]homestead deserted and abandoned like the desert;
(U)There the calf will graze,
And there it will lie down and [p]feed on its branches.
11 When its (V)limbs are dry, they are broken off;
Women come and make a fire with them,
For they are not a people of (W)discernment,
Therefore (X)their Maker (Y)will not have compassion on them.
And their Creator will not be gracious to them.

12 On that day the Lord (Z)will thresh from the flowing stream of the (AA)Euphrates River to the brook of Egypt, and you will be (AB)gathered up one by one, you sons of Israel. 13 It will come about also on that day that a great (AC)trumpet will be blown, and those who were perishing in the land of (AD)Assyria and who were scattered in the land of Egypt will come and (AE)worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.

Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 27:1 Or sea monster
  2. Isaiah 27:1 Or sea monster
  3. Isaiah 27:2 Some mss a vineyard of wine
  4. Isaiah 27:3 Lit punish
  5. Isaiah 27:4 Lit who
  6. Isaiah 27:4 Lit altogether
  7. Isaiah 27:5 Lit take hold of
  8. Isaiah 27:6 Lit Those coming
  9. Isaiah 27:6 Lit face of the world
  10. Isaiah 27:7 Lit he was slain
  11. Isaiah 27:8 Some ancient versions by exact measure
  12. Isaiah 27:9 Lit all the fruit
  13. Isaiah 27:9 Lit removing
  14. Isaiah 27:9 I.e., wooden symbols of a female deity (Asherah)
  15. Isaiah 27:10 Lit pasture
  16. Isaiah 27:10 Lit consume

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.