Isaiah 27 YLT
Summary: The LORD will punish "leviathan the piercing serpent" and slay the dragon in the sea, imagery of ultimate victory over chaos and hostile powers, followed by a renewed song of the vineyard in which the LORD Himself keeps it, watering it continually and guarding it from harm, no longer angry with briers and thorns but ready to burn them if they arise. Jacob's future blossoming is tied to purging idolatry: when altars are made like chalkdust and Asherim no longer stand, the sin of Jacob will be purged and its fruit will be the removal of sin. The chapter pictures a defenced city left desolate, its inhabitants a people of no understanding, so their Maker will show them no favor. It closes with a hopeful ingathering, the LORD threshing from the Euphrates to Egypt, and a great trumpet sounding to gather the lost from Assyria and outcasts from Egypt to worship in Jerusalem.
1In 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.
2In that day, `A desirable vineyard,' respond ye to her,
3I, Jehovah, am its keeper, every moment I water it, Lest any lay a charge against it, Night and day I keep it!
4Fury is not in Me; Who giveth Me a brier--a thorn in battle? I step into it, I burn it at once.
5Or--he doth take hold on My strength, He doth make peace with Me, Peace he doth make with Me.
6Those 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.
7As the smiting of his smiter hath He smitten him? As the slaying of his slain doth He slay?
8In measure, in sending it forth, thou strivest with it, He hath taken away by His sharp wind, In the day of an east wind,
9Therefore 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.
10For 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.
11In 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.
12And 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.
13And 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!
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