Isaiah 24–27

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. 

26TH CHAPTER

The Lord’s People Praise Him for Salvation

¹On that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: 

We have a strong city. 

Its walls and fortifications provide safety. 

²Open the gates, and let the righteous nation come in, 

the nation that remains faithful. 

³With perfect peace you will protect those whose minds cannot be changed, 

because they trust you. 

⁴Trust the Lord always, 

because the Lord, the Lord alone, is an everlasting rock. 

⁵He has brought down those who live high in the towering city. 

He levels it. 

He levels it to the ground and throws it into the dust. 

⁶Feet trample it, 

the feet of the oppressed, 

the footsteps of the poor. 

⁷The path of the righteous is level. 

O Upright One, you make the road of the righteous smooth. 

⁸Certainly, we wait with hope for you, O Lord, 

⸤as we follow⸥ the path of your guiding principles. 

We want to remember you and your name. 

⁹With my soul I long for you at night. 

Yes, with my spirit I eagerly look for you. 

When your guiding principles are on earth, 

those who live in the world learn to do what is right. 

¹⁰Although the wicked are shown pity, 

they do not learn to do what is right. 

They do what is wrong in the upright land 

and do not see the majesty of the Lord. 

¹¹O Lord, your power is visible, but they do not see it. 

They will see how devoted your people are, 

and they will be put to shame. 

Your burning anger will destroy your enemies. 

¹²O Lord, you will establish peace for us, 

since you have done everything for us. 

¹³O Lord, our God, you are not the only master to rule us, 

but we acknowledge only you. 

¹⁴The wicked are dead. 

They are no longer alive. 

The spirits of the dead won’t rise. 

You have punished them, destroyed them, 

and wiped out all memory of them. 

¹⁵You have expanded the nation, O Lord. 

You have expanded the nation. 

You are honored. 

You have extended all the land’s boundaries. 

¹⁶O Lord, the people have come to you in trouble. 

They were humbled by oppression, by your discipline upon them. 

¹⁷O Lord, when we are with you, 

we are like pregnant women ready to give birth. 

They writhe and cry out in their labor pains. 

¹⁸We were pregnant; we writhed with labor pains 

only to give birth to the wind. 

We weren’t able to bring salvation to the land, 

and no new people were born on earth. 

¹⁹Your dead will live. 

Their corpses will rise. 

Those who lie dead in the dust will wake up and shout for joy, 

because your dew is a refreshing dew, 

and the earth will revive the spirits of the dead. 

²⁰My people, go to your rooms, 

and shut the doors behind you. 

Hide for a little while until his fury has ended. 

²¹The Lord is going to come out from his dwelling place 

to punish those who live on earth for their sins. 

The earth will uncover the blood shed on it 

and will no longer cover up its dead bodies. 

27TH CHAPTER

The Lord’s People Will Worship on His Holy Mountain

¹On that day the Lord will use his fierce and powerful sword 

to punish Leviathan,that slippery snake, 

Leviathan, that twisting snake. 

He will kill that monster which lives in the sea. 

²On that day sing about a delightful vineyard. 

³I, the Lord, watch over it. 

I water it continually. 

I watch over it day and night 

so that no one will harm it. 

⁴I am no longer angry. 

If only thorns and briars would confront me! 

I would fight them in battle and set all of them on fire. 

⁵Or else let them come to me for protection. 

Let them make peace with me. 

Yes, let them make peace with me. 

⁶In times to come Jacob will take root. 

Israel will blossom, bud, 

and fill the whole world with fruit. 

⁷Will the Lord hurt Israel as he hurt others who hurt them? 

Will he kill them as he killed others? 

⁸He punished Israel by sending it away. 

He removed it with a fierce blast from the east winds. 

⁹In this way the wrongdoings of the descendants of Jacob are covered up. 

This is the way they will turn from their sins— 

when they turn all the altar stones into powdered chalk 

and no poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah 

or incense altars are left standing. 

¹⁰The fortified city is isolated. 

The homestead is left deserted, abandoned like the desert. 

Calves will graze there. 

They will lie down. 

They will feed on the branches. 

¹¹When the branches are dried up, 

they will be broken off. 

Women will come and build a fire with them. 

These people don’t understand ⸤these things⸥. 

That is why their maker won’t have compassion on them, 

and their Creator won’t have pity on them. 

¹²On that day the Lord will begin his threshing^c

from the flowing stream of the Euphrates River 

to the brook of Egypt. 

People of Israel, you will be gathered one by one. 

¹³On that day a ram’s horn will be blown loudly. 

Those who are dying in Assyria 

and those who are banished to Egypt 

will come and worship the Lord 

on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.