Isaiah 23–25

Oracle against Tyre

23The oracle of Tyre:

Wail, ships of Tarshish, for the house is destroyed so that no one can enter;^a

it is announced to them from the land of Cyprus.

²Be still, inhabitants of the coast,

merchant of Sidon, who travels over the sea, they filled you.

³And on the great waters is the seed of Shihor,

the harvest of the Nile is its produce,

and she was the merchandise of the nations.

⁴Be ashamed, Sidon, for the sea,

the fortress of the sea said, saying,

“I was not in labor,

and I have not given birth,

and I have not reared young men,

brought^b up young women.”

⁵When the report comes to Egypt,

they will be in anguish at the report about^c Tyre.

⁶Cross over to Tarshish!

Wail, inhabitants of the coast!

⁷Is this your exultant one,^d her origin from the days of long ago?

Her feet brought her to dwell afar as an alien.

⁸Who has planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,^e

whose merchants were princes,

her traders the honored ones of the earth?

⁹Yahweh of hosts has planned it:

to defile the pride of all glory,

to humble all the honored ones of the earth.

¹⁰Cross over your own land like the Nile, daughter of Tarshish;

there is no longer a harbor.^f

¹¹He has stretched his hand out over the sea;

he has made kingdoms shake.

Yahweh has commanded concerning Canaan

to destroy her fortresses.

¹²And he said,

“You will not continue^g to exult, crushed one, virgin^h daughter of Sidon.

Arise, cross over to Cyprus! There will be no rest for you even there.”

¹³Look at the land of the Chaldeans!

This people no longer exists.

Assyria destinedⁱ it for wild animals.

They erected its siege towers;

they demolished its citadel fortresses.

It made her like a ruin.

¹⁴Wail, ships of Tarshish!

For your fortress is destroyed.

¹⁵And this will happen on that day: And Tyre will be forgotten seventy years,^j

like the days of one king. At the end of seventy years,^k it will be for Tyre like the song of the prostitute:

¹⁶“Take a harp,

go around the city, forgotten prostitute!

Do it well, playing a stringed instrument!

Make numerous songs,^l that you may be remembered.”

¹⁷And this shall happen:

at the end of seventy years,^m Yahweh will visit Tyre,

and she will return to her harlot’s wages,

and she will commit fornication

with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth.

¹⁸And this shall happen:

her merchandise and her harlot’s wages will be set apart for Yahweh;

it will not be stored up,

and it will not be hoarded,

but her merchandise will be for those who live before the presenceⁿ of Yahweh,

for eating to satiation and for fine clothing.

The Judgment on the Earth

24Look! Yahweh is about to lay the earth waste

and is about to devastate it,

and he will twist her surface,

and he will scatter her inhabitants.

²And it shall be as with the people, so with the priest;

as with the slave, so with his master;

as with the female slave, so with her mistress;

as with the buyer, so with the seller;

as with the lender, so with the borrower;

as with the creditor, so with the one to whom he lends.

³The earth shall be utterly laid waste,

and it shall be utterly plundered,

for Yahweh has spoken this word.

⁴The earth dries up, it withers;

the world languishes, it withers.

The elevated of the people of the earth languish,

⁵and the earth is defiled beneath its inhabitants.

For they have transgressed laws;

they have passed by statutes;^a

they have broken the everlasting covenant.

⁶Therefore a curse devours the earth,

and the inhabitants in it suffer for their guilt.

Therefore the inhabitants of the earth burn,

and few men are left.^b

⁷The new wine dries up;

the vine languishes.

All the merry of heart sigh;

⁸the joy of the tambourine has stopped.

The noise of the jubilant has ceased;

the joy of the lyre has stopped.

⁹They do not drink wine with song;

strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.

¹⁰The city of emptiness is broken;

every house is shut so that no one can enter;^c

¹¹there is an outcry over the wine in the streets.

All joy turns into darkness;^d

the joy of the earth disappears.

¹²Desolation is left in the city;

the gate is crushed into a state of ruin.

¹³For it shall be like this in the midst of the earth,

among the nations,

like the beating of an olive tree,

like gleanings when a grape harvest is at an end.

¹⁴They lift up their voices;^e they sing for joy;

they shout out from the west over the majesty of Yahweh.

¹⁵Therefore glorify Yahweh in the east,

the name of Yahweh the God of Israel in the coastlands of the sea.

¹⁶We hear songs from the edge^f of the earth:

“Glory to the righteous one!”

But I say, “Ruin to me!

Ruin to me! Woe to me!

The treacherous ones deal treacherously,

and the treacherous ones deal treacherously with treachery!”

¹⁷Terror and the pit and the snare are upon you, inhabitants^g of the earth!

¹⁸And this shall happen:

The one who flees from the sound of the terror shall fall into the pit,

and the one who goes up from inside the pit^h shall be caught in the snare,

for the windows from heaven are opened,

and the foundations of the earth tremble.

¹⁹The earth is utterly broken;

the earth is torn asunder;

the earth is shaken violently.

²⁰The earth staggers to and fro like the drunkard,

and it sways like a hut,

and its transgression is heavy upon it,

and it falls and does not rise again.

²¹And this shall happen on that day:

Yahweh will punish the host of heaven in heaven,

and the kings of the earth on the earth.

²²And they will be gathered in a gathering, like a prisoner inⁱ a pit.

And they will be shut in^j a prison and be punished after^k many days.

²³And the full moon will be ashamed

and the sun will be ashamed,

for Yahweh of hosts will rule on Mount Zion^l and in Jerusalem,

and before his elders in glory.

Praise for Salvation

25Yahweh, you are my God; I will exalt you.

I will praise your name,

for you have done wonderful things,^a

plans^b of old,^c in faithfulness, trustworthiness.

²For 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.

³Therefore strong peoples will glorify you;

a city of ruthless nations, they will fear you.

⁴For 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

⁵the 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.

⁶And 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.

⁷And on this mountain he will destroyⁱ the face of the shroud,

the shroud over all peoples,

and the woven covering over all nations.

⁸He 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.

⁹And 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.”

¹⁰For 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.

¹¹And it^m 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.

¹²And 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.