[1] 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. [2] "In that day, sing about the fruitful vineyard. [3] I, the LORD, will watch over it, watering it carefully. Day and night I will watch so no one can harm it. [4] My anger will be gone. If I find briers and thorns growing, I will attack them; I will burn them up- [5] unless they turn to me for help. Let them make peace with me; yes, let them make peace with me." [6] The time is coming when Jacob's descendants will take root. Israel will bud and blossom and fill the whole earth with fruit! [7] Has the LORD struck Israel as he struck her enemies? Has he punished her as he punished them? [8] 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. [9] 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. [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 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.
