Isaiah 24–27

THE EARTH JUDGED

24Look, the Lord is stripping the earth bare

and making it desolate.

He will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants:

²people and priest alike,

servant and master,

female servant and mistress,

buyer and seller,

lender and borrower,

creditor and debtor.

³The earth will be stripped completely bare

and will be totally plundered,

for the Lord has spoken this message.^c

⁴The earth mourns and withers;

the world wastes away and withers;

the exalted people of the earth waste away.

⁵The earth is polluted by its inhabitants,^d

for they have transgressed teachings,

overstepped decrees,

and broken the permanent covenant.^e

⁶Therefore a curse has consumed the earth,^f

and its inhabitants have become guilty;

the earth’s inhabitants have been burned,

and only a few survive.

⁷The new wine mourns;^g

the vine withers.

All the carousers now groan.

⁸The joyful tambourines^h have ceased.

The noise of the jubilant has stopped.

The joyful lyre has ceased.

⁹They no longer sing and drink wine;

beer is bitter to those who drink it.

¹⁰The city of chaos is shattered;ⁱ

every house is closed to entry.^j

¹¹In the streets they cry^A for wine.

All joy grows dark;

earth’s rejoicing goes into exile.

¹²Only desolation remains in the city;

its gate has collapsed in ruins.

¹³For this is how it will be on earth

among the nations:

like a harvested olive tree,

like a gleaning after a grape harvest.^k

¹⁴They raise their voices, they sing out;

they proclaim in the west

the majesty of the Lord.

¹⁵Therefore, in the east honor the Lord!

In the coasts and islands of the west

honor the name of the Lord,

the God of Israel.

¹⁶From the ends of the earth we hear songs:

The Splendor of the Righteous One.^l

But I said, “I waste away! I waste away!^A

Woe is me.”

The treacherous act treacherously;

the treacherous deal very treacherously.^m

¹⁷Panic, pit, and trap await youⁿ

who dwell on the earth.^o

¹⁸Whoever flees at the sound of panic

will fall into a pit,

and whoever escapes from the pit

will be caught in a trap.

For the floodgates on high are opened,^a

and the foundations of the earth are shaken.^b

¹⁹The earth is completely devastated;

the earth is split open;

the earth is violently shaken.

²⁰The earth staggers like a drunkard^c

and sways like a hut.

Earth’s rebellion weighs it down,

and it falls, never to rise again.

²¹On that day^d the Lord will punish

the army of the heights in the heights

and the kings of the ground on the ground.

²²They will be gathered together

like prisoners in a pit.^e

They will be confined to a dungeon;^f

after many days they will be punished.

²³The moon will be put to shame

and the sun disgraced,

because the Lord of Armies will reign as king

on Mount Zion in Jerusalem,

and he will display his glory

in the presence of his elders.^g

SALVATION AND JUDGMENT ON THAT DAY

25Lord, you are my God;^h

I will exalt you. I will praise your name,

for you have accomplished wonders,

plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.

²For you have turned the city into a pile of rocks,ⁱ

a fortified city, into ruins;

the fortress of barbarians^j is no longer a city;

it will never be rebuilt.

³Therefore, a strong people will honor you.

The cities of violent nations will fear you.

⁴For you have been a stronghold for the poor person,

a stronghold for the needy^k in his distress,

a refuge from storms and a shade from heat.^l

When the breath of the violent

is like a storm against a wall,

⁵like heat in a dry land,

you will subdue the uproar of barbarians.

As the shade of a cloud cools the heat of the day,

so he will silence the song of the violent.

⁶On this mountain,^Am

the Lord of Armies will prepare for all the peoples a feast of choice meat,ⁿ

a feast with aged wine, prime cuts of choice meat,^B fine vintage wine.

⁷On this mountain

he will swallow up the burial shroud,

the shroud over all the peoples,

the sheet covering all the nations.^o

⁸When he has swallowed up death once and for all,^p

the Lord God will wipe away the tears

from every face^q

and remove his people’s disgrace^r

from the whole earth,

for the Lord has spoken.

⁹On that day it will be said,

“Look, this is our God;

we have waited for him, and he has saved us.

This is the Lord; we have waited for him.

Let’s rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”^s

¹⁰For the Lord’s power will rest on this mountain.

But Moab^t will be trampled in his place^C

as straw is trampled in a dung pile.

¹¹He will spread out his arms in the middle of it,

as a swimmer spreads out his arms to swim.

His pride will be brought low,

along with the trickery of his hands.^u

¹²The high-walled fortress will be brought down,

thrown to the ground, to the dust.^v

THE SONG OF JUDAH

26On that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

We have a strong city.

Salvation is established as walls and ramparts.^w

²Open the gates

so a righteous nation can come in—

one that remains faithful.

³You will keep the mind that is dependent on you

in perfect peace,^a

for it is trusting in you.

⁴Trust in the Lord forever,

because in the Lord, the Lord himself, is an everlasting rock!^b

⁵For he has humbled those who live in lofty places—

an inaccessible city.^c

He brings it down; he brings it down to the ground;

he throws it to the dust.

⁶Feet trample it,

the feet of the humble,

the steps of the poor.

GOD’S PEOPLE VINDICATED

⁷The path of the righteous is level;^d

you clear a straight path for the righteous.

⁸Yes, Lord, we wait for you

in the path of your judgments.

Our desire is for your name and renown.^e

⁹I long for you in the night;^f

yes, my spirit within me diligently seeks you,

for when your judgments are in the land,

the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

¹⁰But if the wicked man is shown favor,

he does not learn righteousness.

In a righteous land he acts unjustly

and does not see the majesty of the Lord.

¹¹Lord, your hand is lifted up to take action,

but they do not see it.

Let them see your zeal for your people

and be put to shame.

Let fire consume your adversaries.

¹²Lord, you will establish peace for us,

for you have also done all our work for us.

¹³Lord our God, lords other than you have owned^A us,

but we remember your name alone.^g

¹⁴The dead do not live;

departed spirits do not rise up.

Indeed, you have punished and destroyed them;

you have wiped out all memory of them.^h

¹⁵You have added to the nation, Lord.ⁱ

You have added to the nation; you are honored.

You have expanded all the borders of the land.^j

¹⁶Lord, they went to you in their distress;^k

they poured out whispered prayers

because your discipline fell on them.^B

¹⁷As a pregnant woman about to give birth

writhes and cries out in her pains,^l

so we were before you, Lord.

¹⁸We became pregnant, we writhed in pain;

we gave birth to wind.

We have won no victories on earth,

and the earth’s inhabitants have not fallen.

¹⁹Your dead will live; their bodies^C will rise.^m

Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust!

For you will be covered with the morning dew,^D

and the earth will bring out the departed spirits.

²⁰Go, my people, enter your rooms

and close your doors behind you.

Hide for a little while until the wrath has passed.ⁿ

²¹For look, the Lord is coming from his place^o

to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity.^p

The earth will reveal the blood shed on it

and will no longer conceal her slain.

LEVIATHAN SLAIN

27On that day the Lord with his relentless, large, strong sword will bring judgment on Leviathan,^q the fleeing serpent—Leviathan, the twisting serpent. He will slay the monster that is in the sea.^r

THE LORD’S VINEYARD

²On that day

sing about a desirable vineyard:^a

³I am the Lord, who watches over it

to water it regularly.

So that no one disturbs it,

I watch over it night and day.

⁴I am not angry.

If only there were thorns and briers^b for me to battle,

I would trample them

and burn them to the ground.

⁵Or let it take hold of my strength;

let it make peace with me—

make peace with me.

⁶In days to come, Jacob will take root.^c

Israel will blossom and bloom^d

and fill the whole world with fruit.

⁷Did the Lord strike Israel

as he struck the one who struck Israel?^e

Was Israel killed like those killed by the Lord?

⁸You disputed with Israel

by banishing and driving her away.^A

He removed her with his severe storm

on the day of the east wind.

⁹Therefore Jacob’s iniquity^f will be atoned for in this way,

and the result of the removal of his sin will be this:^g

when he makes all the altar stones

like crushed bits of chalk,

no Asherah poles or incense altars will remain standing.

¹⁰For the fortified city will be desolate,

pastures deserted and abandoned like a wilderness.

Calves will graze there,

and there they will spread out and strip its branches.

¹¹When its branches dry out, they will be broken off.

Women will come and make fires with them,

for they are not a people with understanding.^h

Therefore their Makerⁱ will not have compassion on them,

and their Creator will not be gracious to them.

¹²On that day^j

the Lord will thresh grain from the Euphrates River

as far as the Wadi of Egypt,^k

and you Israelites will be gathered one by one.

¹³On that day

a great trumpet^l will be blown,

and those lost in the land of Assyria will come,

as well as those dispersed in the land of Egypt;

and they will worship the Lord

at Jerusalem on the holy mountain.