Isaiah 23–25

23RD CHAPTER

Tyre Will Be Punished

¹This is the divine revelation about Tyre. 

Cry loudly, you ships of Tarshish! 

Your port at Tyre is destroyed. 

Word has come to the ships from Cyprus. 

²Be silent, you inhabitants of the coastland, you merchants from Sidon. 

Your messengers have crossed the sea. 

³The grain of Shihor is on the Mediterranean. 

The harvest of the Nile River is brought to Tyre. 

Tyre became the marketplace for the nations. 

⁴Be ashamed, Sidon, because the stronghold by the sea has spoken, 

“I’ve never been in labor or given birth. 

I’ve raised no sons. 

I’ve brought up no daughters.” 

⁵When the news reaches Egypt, 

the Egyptians will shudder over the news about Tyre. 

⁶Travel to Tarshish! 

Cry loudly, you inhabitants of the seacoast! 

⁷Is this your bustling city founded in the distant past? 

Is this the city that sent its people to settle in distant lands? 

⁸Who planned such a thing against Tyre, the city that produced kings? 

Its merchants are princes. 

Its traders are among the honored people of the world. 

⁹The Lord of Armies planned this 

in order to dishonor all arrogant people 

and to humiliate all the honored people of the world. 

¹⁰Travel through your country like the Nile, people of Tarshish. 

You no longer have a harbor. 

¹¹The Lord has stretched his hand over the sea to shake kingdoms. 

He has commanded that Canaan’s fortifications be destroyed. 

¹²He says, “You will no longer be joyful, 

my dear abused people Sidon.” 

Get up, and travel to Cyprus. 

Even there you will find no rest. 

¹³Look at the land of the Babylonians. 

These people will be gone. 

Assyria gave this land to the desert animals. 

Assyria set up battle towers, 

stripped palaces bare, 

and turned these places into ruins. 

¹⁴Cry loudly, you ships of Tarshish, because your fortress will be destroyed. ¹⁵When that day comes, Tyre will be forgotten for 70 years, the lifetime of one king. At the end of the 70 years, Tyre will be like the prostitute in this song: 

¹⁶“Take your lyre. 

Go around in the city, you forgotten prostitute. 

Make sweet music. 

Sing many songs so that you’ll be remembered.” 

¹⁷At the end of 70 years the Lord will come to help Tyre. Then she will go back to earning money as a prostitute. She will become a prostitute for all the world’s kingdoms. ¹⁸Her profits and her earnings will be turned over to the Lord for his holy purpose. It won’t be stored or hoarded. Her merchandise will belong to those who live in the presence of the Lord so that they will have plenty of food and expensive clothing. 

24TH CHAPTER

The Lord’s Great Triumph

¹The Lord is going to turn the earth into a desolate wasteland. 

He will mar the face of the earth and scatter the people living on it. 

²The same will happen to people and priests, 

male slaves and masters, 

female slaves and masters, 

buyers and sellers, 

lenders and borrowers, 

debtors and creditors. 

³The earth will be completely laid waste and stripped 

because the Lord has spoken. 

⁴The earth dries up and withers. 

The world wastes away and withers. 

The great leaders of the earth waste away. 

⁵The earth is polluted by those who live on it 

because they’ve disobeyed the Lord’s teachings, 

violated his laws, 

and rejected the everlasting promise.^a

⁶That is why a curse devours the earth, 

and its people are punished for their guilt. 

That is why those who live on the earth are burned up, 

and only a few people are left. 

⁷New wine dries up, and grapevines waste away. 

All happy people groan. 

⁸Joyful tambourine music stops. 

Noisy celebrations cease. 

Joyful harp music stops. 

⁹People no longer drink wine when they sing. 

Liquor tastes bad to its drinkers. 

¹⁰The ruined city lies desolate. 

The entrance to every house is barred shut. 

¹¹People in the streets call for wine. 

All joy passes away, 

and the earth’s happiness is banished. 

¹²The city is left in ruins. 

Its gate is battered to pieces. 

¹³That is the way it will be on earth among the nations. 

They will be like an olive tree which has been shaken 

or like what’s left after the grape harvest. 

¹⁴They raise their voices. 

They shout for joy. 

From the sea they sing joyfully about the Lord’s majesty. 

¹⁵Honor the Lord in the east. 

Honor the name of the Lord God of Israel along the coastlands. 

¹⁶From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise 

that honor the Righteous One. 

But I kept saying, 

“I’m wasting away! I’m wasting away! 

How horrible it is for me! 

Traitors continue to betray, 

and their treachery grows worse and worse.” 

¹⁷Disasters, pits, and traps 

are in store for those who live on earth. 

¹⁸Whoever flees from news of a disaster will fall into a pit. 

Whoever climbs out of that pit will be caught in a trap. 

The floodgates in the sky will be opened, 

and the foundations of the earth will shake. 

¹⁹The earth will be completely broken. 

The earth will shake back and forth violently. 

The earth will stagger. 

²⁰The earth will stumble like a drunk 

and sway like a shack in the wind. 

Its disobedience weighs heavy on it. 

It will fall and not get up again. 

²¹On that day the Lord will punish heaven’s armies in heaven 

and earth’s kings on earth. 

²²They’ll be gathered like prisoners in a jail 

and locked in prison. 

After a long time they’ll be punished. 

²³The moon will be embarrassed. 

The sun will be ashamed, 

because the Lord of Armies will rule 

on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem. 

He will be glorious 

in the presence of his respected leaders. 

25TH CHAPTER

The Lord Protects the Weak

¹O Lord, you are my God. 

I will highly honor you; I will praise your name. 

You have done miraculous things. 

You have been completely reliable 

in carrying out your plans from long ago. 

²You have turned cities into ruins, 

fortified cities into piles of rubble, 

and foreigners’ palaces into cities that will never be rebuilt. 

³That is why strong people will honor you, 

and cities ruled by the world’s tyrants will fear you. 

⁴You have been a refuge for the poor, 

a refuge for the needy in their distress, 

a shelter from the rain, and shade from the heat. 

(A tyrant’s breath is like a rainstorm against a wall, 

⁵like heat in a dry land.) 

You calm the uproar of foreigners. 

The song of tyrants is silenced 

like heat that is ⸤reduced⸥ by the shadow of a cloud. 

Death Will Be Swallowed Up

⁶On this mountain the Lord of Armies will prepare for all people 

a feast with the best foods, 

a banquet with aged wines, 

with the best foods and the finest wines. 

⁷On this mountain he will remove 

the veil of grief covering all people 

and the mask covering all nations. 

⁸He will swallow up death forever. 

The Almighty Lord will wipe away tears from every face, 

and he will remove the disgrace of his people from the whole earth. 

The Lord has spoken. 

⁹On that day ⸤his people⸥ will say, 

“This is our God; we have waited for him, and now he will save us. 

This is the Lord; we have waited for him. 

Let us rejoice and be glad because he will save us.” 

¹⁰The Lord’s power will be on this mountain. 

Moab will be trampled beneath him 

like straw that is trampled in a pile of manure. 

¹¹The Moabites will stretch out their hands in the manure 

like swimmers who stretch out their hands to swim. 

⸤The Lord⸥ will humble those arrogant people 

despite the movements of their hands. 

¹²He will bring down Moab’s high fortified walls, 

level them, and throw them into the dust on the ground.