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The LORD’s Vineyard

¹ In that day the LORD will take His sharp, great, and mighty sword, and bring judgment on Leviathan, the fleeing serpent—Leviathan, the coiling serpent—and He will slay the dragon of the sea.² In that day: “Sing about a fruitful vineyard.³ I, the LORD, am its keeper; I water it continually. I guard it night and day so no one can disturb it.⁴ I am not angry. If only thorns and briers confronted Me, I would march and trample them, I would burn them to the ground.⁵ Or let them lay claim to My protection; let them make peace with Me—yes, let them make peace with Me.”⁶ In the days to come, Jacob will take root. Israel will bud and blossom and fill the whole world with fruit.

⁷ Has the LORD struck Israel as He struck her oppressors? Was she killed like those who slayed her?⁸ By warfare^(a) and exile You contended with her and removed her with a fierce wind like the day of the east wind.⁹ Therefore Jacob’s guilt will be atoned for, and the fruit of the removal of his sin will be this^(a): When he makes all the altar stones like crushed bits of chalk, no Asherah poles or incense altars will remain standing.¹⁰ For the fortified city will be deserted, a homestead abandoned and forsaken like a wilderness. There the calves will graze, and there they will lie down and strip its branches bare.¹¹ When its limbs are dry, they will be broken off. Women will come and use them for kindling, for they are a people without understanding. Therefore their Maker will have no compassion on them, and their Creator will show them no grace.¹² In that day the LORD will thresh from the flowing Euphrates^(a) to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, O Israelites, will be gathered one by one.¹³ And in that day a great trumpet will sound, and those who were perishing in Assyria will come forth with those who were exiles in Egypt. And they will worship the LORD on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.