Isaiah 27

Isaiah 27

In that day the Lord will take his terrible
Swift sword and punish Leviathan
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
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

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
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

Yet the time will come when the Lord will
Gather them together like hand-picked grain
One by one he will gather them
From the Euphrates River in the east
To the brook of Egypt in the west
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