1In that day the Lord will take his terrible, swift sword and punish Leviathan,27:1 The identification of Leviathan is disputed, ranging from an earthly creature to a mythical sea monster in ancient literature. the swiftly moving serpent, the coiling, writhing serpent. He will kill the dragon of the sea.
2“In that day,
sing about the fruitful vineyard.
3I, the Lord, will watch over it,
watering it carefully.
Day and night I will watch so no one can harm it.
4My anger will be gone.
If I find briers and thorns growing,
I will attack them;
I will burn them up—
5unless they turn to me for help.
Let them make peace with me;
yes, let them make peace with me.”
6The time is coming when Jacob’s descendants will take root.
Israel will bud and blossom
and fill the whole earth with fruit!
7Has the Lord struck Israel
as he struck her enemies?
Has he punished her
as he punished them?
8No, 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.
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.
10The fortified towns will be silent and empty,
the houses abandoned, the streets overgrown with weeds.
Calves will graze there,
chewing on twigs and branches.
11The 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.
12Yet the time will come when the Lord will gather them together like handpicked grain. One by one he will gather them—from the Euphrates River27:12 Hebrew the river. in the east to the Brook of Egypt in the west.
13In 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.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
