The vineyard of Yahweh

¹ On that day, with his fierce, strong, and power ful sword, Yahweh will punish Leviathan, the twisting serpent always fleeing; he will slay the dragon of the sea.

² On that day, he will say, “Praise my fruitful vineyard! ³ I, Yahweh, am its keeper; I water it every moment. So that no one will harm it, day and night I guard it.”

⁴ – “I have no wall, who will cleanse me from thorns?”

– “I myself will march against them, I will burn them altogether. ⁵ Or if they come to me for refuge, let them make peace with me, yes, let them make peace with me.”

⁶ In days to come Jacob will take root,

Israel will blossom and bear many a shoot

and fill the face of the earth with fruit.

⁷ Has Yahweh beaten them as he beat those who beat them?

Has he slain them as he slew those who slew them?

⁸ With expulsion and exile

the city has been punished;

with a blast as fierce as a storm from the east,

she has been pursued and carried off.

⁹ By this, therefore, the guilt

of Jacob will be expiated

and he will atone for his sins

when he pulverizes all the altar stones

like chalkstones crushed to pieces.

No more Asherah poles or incense altars!

¹⁰ For the fortified city is abandoned:

it lies deserted now,

a forsaken habitation

left like a wilderness.

There the calves graze,

there they lie down, and there

they strip bare its branches.

¹¹ Its dry boughs are broken;

women come and make fire with them.

This is a people without understanding;

therefore their Maker will not spare them;

he will not show compassion on them.

¹² On that day,

between the Euphrates and the Wadi of Egypt,

Yahweh will thresh out the grain.

One by one you will be gleaned,

O people of Israel.

¹³ On that day

a great trumpet will blow,

and those who were perishing

in the land of Assyria

and those who were driven out

to the land of Egypt

will return to worship the Lord

on the mountain in Jerusalem.