Isaiah 25:1–28:15
25 Yahweh, you are my God; I will exalt you.
I will praise your name,
for you have done wonderful things,a
plansb ⌊of old⌋,c in faithfulness, trustworthiness.
2 For you have ⌊made⌋d the city a heap,
the fortified city a ruin,
the palace of foreigners ⌊is no longer⌋e a city;
it will ⌊never⌋f be rebuilt.
3 Therefore strong peoples will glorify you;
a city of ruthless nations, they will fear you.
4 For you have been a refuge to the poor,
a refuge to the needy in his distress,
a shelter from the rainstorm,
a shade from the heat.
For the breath of the ruthless was like a rainstorm against a wall,g
5 the noise of foreigners like heat in a dry land.
You subdued the heat with the shade of a cloud;
the song of the ruthless was silenced.
6 And on this mountain Yahweh of hosts will make for all peoples a ⌊rich feast⌋,h
a feast of aged wines, fat filled with marrow, filtered aged wine.
7 And on this mountain he will ⌊destroy⌋i the face of the shroud,
the shroud over all peoples,
and the woven covering over all nations.
8 He will ⌊destroy⌋j death forever,
and the Lord Yahweh will wipe off the tears from all faces,
and he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth,
for Yahweh has spoken.
9 And one will say, on that day,
“Look! This is our God! We have waited for him and he saved us!
This is Yahweh; we waited for him!
Let us be glad,
and let us rejoice in his salvation.”
10 For the hand of Yahweh will rest on this mountain,
and Moab shall be trampled down under him
as ⌊a heap of straw is trampled down⌋k in ⌊waters of⌋l a dung heap.
11 And itm will spread out its hands in the midst of it,
just as the swimmer spreads out to swim,
and its pride will be brought low with the movementn of its hands.
12 And he will throw down the fortification of the high point of your walls;
he will bring it low;
he will ⌊send it⌋o to the ground,
to the dust.
26 On that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
“⌊We have a strong city⌋;a
he sets up victory like walls and ramparts!b
2 Open the gates ⌊so that⌋c the righteous nation who keeps faithfulness may enter!
3 You will protect a firm inclination in peace,
in peace because he trusts in you.
for in Yah, Yahweh you have an everlasting rock.
5 For he has thrown down the inhabitants of the height,
he lays low the lofty city.
He lays it low to the ground;
he throws her to the dust.
the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy.”
7 The way of the righteous is a straight path;
⌊you clear the level path of the righteous⌋.d
8 Surely we wait for you in the path of your judgments, Yahweh,
for your name and renown are the desire of the soul.
9 I desire you with all my soul in the night;
also I seek you with my spirit within me,
for when your judgments are ⌊upon⌋e the earth,
the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
10 Though the wicked person is shown compassion, he does not learn righteousness;
he acts unjustly in the land of uprightness,
and he does not see the majesty of Yahweh.
11 Yahweh, though your hand reaches high, they do not see it.
Let them see, and let them be ashamed of the zeal of people.
Indeed, let the fire of your enemies consume them.
12 Yahweh, you will establish peace for us,
for you have done even all of our works for us.
13 Yahweh, our God, lords besides you ruled over us,
⌊but we praise your name alone⌋.f
dead spirits do not rise
because you have punished and destroyed them,
and you have destroyed all memory of them.
15 You have added to the nation, Yahweh.
You have added to the nation; you are honored.
You have extended all the ends of the land.
16 Yahweh, in distress they have visited you;
they poured out an ⌊incantation⌋;g
your discipline was on them.
17 Like a pregnant woman on the point of giving birth, she writhes;
she cries in her labor pains.
So we were because of your presence, Yahweh.
18 We became pregnant, we writhed;
we gave birth to wind.
We cannot bring about deliverance on the earth,
and no inhabitants of the world are born.
19 Your dead shall live; ⌊their corpses⌋h shall rise.
Wake up and sing for joy, dwellers of the dust,
for your dew is ⌊celestial dew⌋,i
and the earth will give birth to dead spirits.j
20 Go, my people, enter into your chambers
and shut your doorsk behind you;
hide for ⌊a very little⌋l while,
until the wrath has passed over.
21 For look! Yahweh is about to come out from his place
to punish the iniquity of the inhabitantsm of the earth against him,
and the earth will disclose her blood
and will no longer cover her slain.
27 On that day, Yahweh will punish with his cruel, great and strong sword Leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and Leviathan, the twisting serpent, and he will kill the sea monster that is in the sea.
“A vineyard of beauty! Sing in praise of it!
I water it ⌊again and again⌋.a
Lest one afflict harm on it,
I guard it night and day;
4 ⌊I have no wrath⌋.b
Whatever gives me thorns and briers,
I will step forth against in battle.
I will set it on fire altogether.
5 Or let it grasp at my protection;
let it make peace with me;
peace let it make with me.”
6 ⌊Days are coming⌋,c let Jacob take root;
Israel will blossom and send out shoots,
and they will fill the face of the world with fruit.
7 Does he strike him ⌊as he struck down those who struck him⌋?d
Or is he killed ⌊as those who killed him were killed⌋?e
8 By expellingf her, by her sending away, you argue with her.
He removed them with his strong wind,
in the day of the east wind.
9 Therefore by this he will make atonement for the guilt of Jacob,
and this will be all of the fruit of the removal of his sin:
⌊when he makes⌋g all the stones of the altar like crushed stones of chalk,
no poles of Asherah worship or incense altars will stand.
10 For the fortified city is solitary,
a settlement deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness;
the calf grazes there,
lies down there and destroys its branches.
11 ⌊When its branches are dry⌋,h they are broken;
women are coming and setting light to it.
For it is not a people of understanding;
therefore his maker will not have compassion on him,
and his creator will not show him favor.
on that day, Yahweh will thresh from the floodwaters of the Euphrates to the wadii of Egypt, and as for you, you will be gathered one by one, sons of Israel.
on that day, a great trumpet will be blown,
and those who were lost in the land of Assyria will come,
and those who were scattered in the land of Egypt,
and they will bow down to Yahweh on the ⌊holy mountain⌋j at Jerusalem.
Judgment against the Leaders of Ephraim
28 Ah! The garland of the pride of the drunkards of Ephraim
and the withering flower of the glory of his beauty,
which is at the head of ⌊the rich valley⌋,a
⌊ones overcome⌋b with wine!
2 Look! The Lord has a mighty and strong one,
like a rainstorm of hail, a wind storm of destruction,
like a rainstorm of mighty overflowing waters,
he will put them to the earth with his hand.
3 The garland of the pride of the drunkards of Ephraim
will be trampledc by feet,
4 and the withering flower of the glory of its beauty
which is at the head of ⌊the rich valley⌋d
will be like its early fig before summer,
⌊which the one who sees it swallows⌋e while it is still in his hand.
5 In that day, Yahweh of hosts will become a garland of glory
and a diadem of beauty to the remnant of his people,
6 and a spirit of justice to the one who sits over judgment,
and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.
7 And these also stagger because of wine
and stagger because of strong drink;
priest and prophet stagger because of strong drink;
they are confusedf because of wine.
They stagger because of strong drink;
they err in vision.
They stagger in the rendering of a decision,
8 for all the tables are full of disgusting vomit, ⌊with no place left⌋.g
9 To whom will he teach knowledge,
and to whom will he explain the message?
Those who are weaned from milk,
those taken from the breast?
10 For it is blah-blah upon blah-blah,
blah-blah upon blah-blah,
gah-gah upon gah-gah,
gah-gah upon gah-gah,h
a little here, a little there.
11 For he will speak with ⌊stammering⌋i and another tongue to this people, 12 to whom he has said,
“This is rest; give rest to the weary;
and this is repose”; yetj they were not willing to hear.
13 And to them the word of Yahweh will be
blah-blah upon blah-blah
blah-blah upon blah-blah
gah-gah upon gah-gah
gah-gah upon gah-gah,k
a little here, a little there,
so that they may go and stumble backward
and be broken and ensnared and captured.
14 Therefore hear the word of Yahweh, men of mockery,
rulers of these people in Jerusalem:
“We have ⌊made⌋l a covenant with death,
and we have made an agreement with Sheol.
The overwhelming flood, when it passes through, will not come to us,
for we have made liesm our refuge,
and we have hidden ourselves in falsehood.”