Isaiah 24:1–27:13
The Lord’s Devastation of the Earth
24 See, the Lord is going to lay waste the earthm
and devastaten it;
he will ruin its face
and scattero its inhabitants—
for priest as for people,p
for the master as for his servant,
for the mistress as for her servant,
for seller as for buyer,q
for borrower as for lender,
for debtor as for creditor.r
3 The earth will be completely laid wastes
and totally plundered.t
The Lord has spokenu this word.
4 The earth dries upv and withers,w
the world languishes and withers,
the heavensx languish with the earth.y
5 The earth is defiledz by its people;
they have disobeyeda the laws,
violated the statutes
and broken the everlasting covenant.b
6 Therefore a cursec consumes the earth;
its people must bear their guilt.
Therefore earth’s inhabitants are burned up,d
and very few are left.
7 The new wine dries upe and the vine withers;f
all the merrymakers groan.g
8 The joyful timbrelsh are stilled,
the noisei of the revelersj has stopped,
9 No longer do they drink winem with a song;
the beer is bittern to its drinkers.
10 The ruined cityo lies desolate;p
the entrance to every house is barred.
11 In the streets they cry outq for wine;r
all joy turns to gloom,s
all joyful sounds are banished from the earth.
12 The city is left in ruins,t
its gateu is battered to pieces.
and among the nations,
as when an olive tree is beaten,v
or as when gleanings are left after the grape harvest.w
14 They raise their voices, they shout for joy;x
from the westy they acclaim the Lord’s majesty.
15 Therefore in the eastz give glorya to the Lord;
exaltb the namec of the Lord, the God of Israel,
in the islandsd of the sea.
16 From the ends of the earthe we hear singing:f
“Gloryg to the Righteous One.”h
But I said, “I waste away, I waste away!i
Woej to me!
The treacherousk betray!
With treachery the treacherous betray!l”
17 Terrorm and pit and snaren await you,
people of the earth.o
18 Whoever fleesp at the sound of terror
will fall into a pit;q
whoever climbs out of the pit
will be caught in a snare.r
The floodgates of the heavenss are opened,
the foundations of the earth shake.t
19 The earth is broken up,u
the earth is split asunder,v
the earth is violently shaken.
20 The earth reels like a drunkard,w
it sways like a hutx in the wind;
so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebelliony
that it fallsz—never to rise again.a
21 In that dayb the Lord will punishc
the powersd in the heavens above
and the kingse on the earth below.
22 They will be herded together
like prisonersf bound in a dungeon;g
they will be shut up in prison
and be punisheda after many days.h
the suni ashamed;
for the Lord Almighty will reignj
on Mount Zionk and in Jerusalem,
and before its elders—with great glory.l
25 Lord, you are my God;m
I will exalt you and praise your name,n
for in perfect faithfulnesso
you have done wonderful things,p
things plannedq long ago.
2 You have made the city a heap of rubble,r
the foreigners’ strongholdu a city no more;
it will never be rebuilt.v
3 Therefore strong peoples will honor you;w
cities of ruthlessx nations will revere you.
4 You have been a refugey for the poor,z
a refuge for the needya in their distress,
a shelter from the stormb
and a shade from the heat.
For the breath of the ruthlessc
is like a storm driving against a wall
5 and like the heat of the desert.
You silenced the uproar of foreigners;e
as heat is reduced by the shadow of a cloud,
so the song of the ruthlessf is stilled.
6 On this mountaing the Lord Almighty will prepare
a feasth of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine—
the best of meats and the finest of wines.i
7 On this mountain he will destroy
the shroudj that enfolds all peoples,k
the sheet that covers all nations;
8 he will swallow up deathl forever.
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tearsm
from all faces;
he will remove his people’s disgracen
from all the earth.
The Lord has spoken.o
9 In that dayp they will say,
“Surely this is our God;q
we trustedr in him, and he saveds us.
This is the Lord, we trusted in him;
let us rejoicet and be glad in his salvation.”u
10 The hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain;v
but Moabw will be trampled in their land
as straw is trampled down in the manure.
11 They will stretch out their hands in it,
as swimmers stretch out their hands to swim.
God will bring downx their pridey
despite the clevernessa of their hands.
12 He will bring down your high fortified wallsz
and lay them low;a
he will bring them down to the ground,
to the very dust.
26 In that dayb this song will be sungc in the land of Judah:
We have a strong city;d
God makes salvation
2 Open the gatesg
that the righteoush nation may enter,
the nation that keeps faith.
3 You will keep in perfect peacei
those whose minds are steadfast,
because they trustj in you.
4 Trustk in the Lord forever,l
for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rockm eternal.
5 He humbles those who dwell on high,
he lays the lofty city low;
he levels it to the groundn
and casts it down to the dust.o
6 Feet tramplep it down—
the feet of the oppressed,q
the footsteps of the poor.r
7 The path of the righteous is level;s
you, the Upright One,t make the way of the righteous smooth.u
8 Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws,a v
we waitw for you;
your namex and renown
are the desire of our hearts.
9 My soul yearns for you in the night;y
in the morning my spirit longsz for you.
When your judgmentsa come upon the earth,
the people of the world learn righteousness.b
10 But when grace is shown to the wicked,c
they do not learn righteousness;
even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evild
and do not regarde the majesty of the Lord.
11 Lord, your hand is lifted high,f
but they do not seeg it.
Let them see your zealh for your people and be put to shame;i
let the firej reserved for your enemies consume them.
12 Lord, you establish peacek for us;
all that we have accomplished you have donel for us.
13 Lord our God, other lordsm besides you have ruled over us,
but your namen alone do we honor.o
14 They are now dead,p they live no more;
their spiritsq do not rise.
You punished them and brought them to ruin;r
you wiped out all memory of them.s
15 You have enlarged the nation, Lord;
you have enlarged the nation.t
You have gained glory for yourself;
you have extended all the bordersu of the land.
16 Lord, they came to you in their distress;v
when you disciplinedw them,
they could barely whisperx a prayer.b
17 As a pregnant woman about to give birthy
writhes and cries out in her pain,
so were we in your presence, Lord.
18 We were with child, we writhed in labor,
but we gave birthz to wind.
We have not brought salvationa to the earth,
and the people of the world have not come to life.b
19 But your deadc will live, Lord;
their bodies will rise—
let those who dwell in the dustd
wake up and shout for joy—
your dewe is like the dew of the morning;
the earth will give birth to her dead.f
20 Go, my people, enter your rooms
and shut the doorsg behind you;
hideh yourselves for a little while
until his wrathi has passed by.j
21 See, the Lord is comingk out of his dwellingl
to punishm the people of the earth for their sins.
The earth will disclose the bloodn shed on it;
the earth will conceal its slain no longer.
27 In that day,o
the Lord will punish with his swordp—
his fierce, great and powerful sword—
Leviathanq the gliding serpent,r
Leviathan the coiling serpent;
he will slay the monsters of the sea.
2 In that dayt—
“Singu about a fruitful vineyard:v
I waterw it continually.
I guardx it day and night
so that no one may harmy it.
If only there were briers and thorns confronting me!
I would march against them in battle;
I would set them all on fire.z
5 Or else let them come to me for refuge;a
let them make peaceb with me,
yes, let them make peace with me.”
6 In days to come Jacob will take root,c
Israel will bud and blossomd
and fill all the world with fruit.e
as he struckf down those who struck her?
Has she been killed
as those were killed who killed her?
8 By warfarea and exileg you contend with her—
with his fierce blast he drives her out,
as on a day the east windh blows.
9 By this, then, will Jacob’s guilt be atonedi for,
and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin:j
When he makes all the altar stonesk
to be like limestone crushed to pieces,
no Asherah polesb l or incense altarsm
will be left standing.
10 The fortified city stands desolate,n
an abandoned settlement, forsakeno like the wilderness;
there the calves graze,p
there they lie down;q
they strip its branches bare.
11 When its twigs are dry, they are broken offr
and women come and make firess with them.
For this is a people without understanding;t
so their Maker has no compassion on them,
and their Creatoru shows them no favor.v
12 In that day the Lord will threshw from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt,x and you, Israel, will be gatheredy up one by one. 13 And in that dayz a great trumpeta will sound. Those who were perishing in Assyria and those who were exiledb in Egyptc will come and worshipd the Lord on the holy mountaine in Jerusalem.