Isaiah 27
27
The Judgment and Deliverance of Israel
1On that day,
The Lord will punish with his sword
that is cruel, great, and strong,
Leviathan the fleeing serpent,
Leviathan the coiled serpent;
he will slay the dragon#Leviathan…dragon: the description of Leviathan is almost identical to a passage from a much earlier Ugaritic text. The sea dragon became a symbol of the forces of evil which God vanquishes even as he overcame primeval chaos; cf. notes on 30:7; 51:9–10; Jb 3:8; 7:12; no power can challenge God. Leviathan is even spoken of playfully in Ps 104:26. in the sea.#Jb 40:25–32; Ps 74:12–14; Ez 32:2.
2#This passage mitigates the harsh words on Israel as the Lord’s vineyard in 5:1–7; here is given the rain there withheld, though Israel’s welfare is still made dependent on fidelity. On that day—
The pleasant vineyard, sing about it!#Is 5:1; Am 5:11.
3I, the Lord, am its keeper,
I water it every moment;
Lest anyone harm it,
night and day I guard it.#Is 5:2–7.
4I am not angry.
But if I were to find briers and thorns,
In battle I would march against it;
I would burn it all.#Is 10:17.
5But if it holds fast to my refuge,
it shall have peace with me;#Jb 22:21.
it shall have peace with me.
6In days to come Jacob shall take root,
Israel shall sprout and blossom,
covering all the world with fruit.#Is 37:31–32; Hos 14:5–6.
7#Israel was not treated as sternly as were its enemies whom God used to punish it. God did, however, drive Israel from its land, and if it wants to make peace with God, it must change its former cultic practices, destroying its altars and sacred groves (cf. 17:7–11). Was he smitten as his smiter was smitten?
Was he slain as his slayer was slain?
8Driving out and expelling, he struggled against it,
carrying it off with his cruel wind on a day of storm.#Jer 18:17.
9This, then, shall be the expiation of Jacob’s guilt,
this the result of removing his sin:
He shall pulverize all the stones of the altars
like pieces of chalk;
no asherahs or incense altars shall stand.
10For the fortified city shall be desolate,
an abandoned pasture, a forsaken wilderness;
There calves shall graze, there they shall lie down,
and consume its branches.
11When its boughs wither, they shall be broken off;
and women shall come to kindle fires with them.
For this is not an understanding people;
therefore their maker shall not spare them;
their creator shall not be gracious to them.#Is 1:3; 5:13; Jer 4:22.
12On that day,
The Lord shall beat out grain
from the channel of the Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt,
and you shall be gleaned#Gleaned: God will harvest his people who have been scattered from Assyria to Egypt. Note the same language of gleaning to describe the remnant of the Northern Kingdom in 17:5–6. one by one, children of Israel.
13On that day,#The remnant of Israel will return to Jerusalem for worship; cf. 11:10–16.
A great trumpet shall blow,
and the lost in the land of Assyria
and the outcasts in the land of Egypt
Shall come and worship the Lord
on the holy mountain, in Jerusalem.#Is 11:11–16.
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Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc
Isaiah 27
27
1 #
Job 41.1; Ps 74.14; 104.26 On that day the LORD will use his powerful and deadly sword to punish Leviathan, that wriggling, twisting dragon, and to kill the monster#27.1 Leviathan… monster: Legendary monsters which were symbols of the nations oppressing Israel. that lives in the sea.
2On that day the LORD will say of his pleasant vineyard, 3“I watch over it and water it continually. I guard it night and day so that no one will harm it. 4I am no longer angry with the vineyard. If only there were thorns and briars to fight against, then I would burn them up completely. 5But if the enemies of my people want my protection, let them make peace with me. Yes, let them make peace with me.”
6In days to come the people of Israel, the descendants of Jacob, will take root like a tree, and they will blossom and bud. The earth will be covered with the fruit they produce.
7Israel has not been punished by the LORD as severely as its enemies, nor lost as many people. 8The LORD punished his people by sending them into exile. He took them away with a cruel wind from the east.#27.8 Verse 8 in Hebrew is unclear. 9But Israel's sins will be forgiven only when the stones of pagan altars are ground up like chalk, and no more incense altars or symbols of the goddess Asherah are left.
10The fortified city lies in ruins. It is deserted like an empty wilderness. It has become a pasture for cattle, where they can rest and graze. 11The branches of the trees are withered and broken, and women gather them for firewood. Because the people have understood nothing, God their Creator will not pity them or show them any mercy.
12On that day, from the Euphrates to the Egyptian border, the LORD will gather his people one by one, like someone separating the wheat from the chaff.
13When that day comes, a trumpet will be blown to call back from Assyria and Egypt all the Israelites who are in exile there. They will come and worship the LORD in Jerusalem, on his sacred hill.#27.13 sacred hill: See 2.3.
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Good News Bible. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.