Isaiah 23–25

CHAPTER 23

An Oracle Concerning Tyre

¹The ¹oracle concerning ^aTyre.

Wail, O ^bships of ^cTarshish,

For Tyre is destroyed, without house or ^2dharbor;

It is revealed to them from the land of ^3eCyprus.

^2aBe silent, you inhabitants of the coastland,

You merchants of Sidon;

¹Your messengers crossed the sea

³And were on many waters.

^aThe ¹grain of ^2bShihor, the harvest of the Nile was her revenue;

And she was the nations’ ^cgain.

⁴Be ashamed, O ^aSidon;

For the sea speaks, the strong defense of the sea, saying,

“I have neither travailed nor given birth;

I have neither brought up choice men nor reared virgins.”

⁵When the report reaches Egypt,

They will be in ^atravail at the report of Tyre.

⁶Pass over to ^aTarshish;

Wail, O inhabitants of the coastland.

⁷Is this your ^aexultant city,

Whose origin is from days of old,

Whose feet used to lead her to sojourn in distant places?

⁸Who has counseled this against Tyre, ^athe bestower of crowns,

Whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth?

^9aYahweh of hosts has counseled it, to ^bdefile the pride of all beauty,

To make contemptuous all the ^chonored of the earth.

¹⁰¹Overflow your land like the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish;

There is no more ²restraint.

¹¹He has ^astretched His hand out ^bover the sea;

He has ^cmade the kingdoms tremble;

Yahweh has given a command concerning Canaan to ^ddemolish its strong defenses.

¹²So He said, “^aYou shall exult no more, O crushed virgin daughter of Sidon.

Arise, pass over to ^1bCyprus; even there you will find no rest.”

¹³Behold, the land of the Chaldeans—this is the people which was not; ^aAssyria established it for ^bdesert creatures—they erected their siege towers, they stripped its palaces, ^cthey made it a ruin.

¹⁴Wail, O ^aships of Tarshish,

For your strong defense is destroyed.

¹⁵Now it will be in that day, that Tyre will be forgotten for ^aseventy years like the days of one king. At the end of seventy years it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the harlot:

¹⁶Take your harp, walk about the city,

O forgotten harlot;

Pluck the strings skillfully, sing many songs,

That you may be remembered.

¹⁷And it will be at ^athe end of seventy years that Yahweh will visit Tyre. Then she will go back to her harlot’s wages and will ^bplay the harlot with all the kingdoms ¹on the face of the earth.

¹⁸And her ^again and her harlot’s wages will be ^bset apart to Yahweh; it will not be treasured up or hoarded, but her gain will become sufficient food and choice attire for those who inhabit the presence of Yahweh.

CHAPTER 24

Yahweh Will Empty the Earth

¹Behold, Yahweh ^aempties the earth to destruction, eviscerates it, distorts its surface, and scatters its inhabitants.

²And the people will be like the priest, the male slave like his master, the female slave like her mistress, the buyer like the seller, the lender like the borrower, the ^acreditor like the debtor.

³The earth will be completely emptied to destruction and completely plundered, for Yahweh has spoken this word.

⁴The ^aearth mourns and withers; the world languishes and withers; the ^bexalted of the people of the earth languish.

⁵The earth is also ^apolluted ¹by its inhabitants, for they trespassed laws, violated statutes, ^bbroke the everlasting covenant.

⁶Therefore, a ^acurse devours the earth, and those who inhabit it are held guilty. Therefore, the ^binhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men remain.

⁷The ^anew wine mourns;

The vine languishes;

All the glad of heart sigh.

⁸The ^ajoy of tambourines ceases;

The rumbling of those exulting stops;

The joy of the harp ceases.

⁹They do not drink wine with song;

^aStrong drink is ^bbitter to those who drink it.

¹⁰The ^acity of chaos is broken down;

^bEvery house is shut up so that none may enter.

¹¹There is an ^aoutcry in the streets concerning the wine;

^bAll gladness ¹turns to gloom.

The joy of the earth is taken away into exile.

¹²Desolation remains in the city,

And the ^agate is struck down to ruins.

¹³For ^athus it will be in the midst of the earth among the peoples,

As the ¹shaking of an olive tree,

As the gleanings when the grape harvest is over.

^14aThey lift up their voices, they shout for joy;

They cry out from the ¹west concerning the majesty of Yahweh.

¹⁵Therefore ^aglorify Yahweh in the ¹east,

The ^bname of Yahweh, the God of Israel,

In the ^2ccoastlands of the sea.

¹⁶From the ^aends of the earth we hear songs, “^bGlory to the Righteous One,”

But I say, “^1cI waste away! ²I waste away! Woe is me!

The ^dtreacherous deal treacherously,

And the treacherous deal very treacherously.”

^17aPanic and pit and pitfall

Are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth.

¹⁸Then it will be that he who flees the sound of panic will fall into the pit,

And he who ¹climbs out of the pit will be caught in the pitfall;

For the ^awindows ²above are opened, and the ^bfoundations of the earth quake.

^19aThe earth is broken asunder;

The earth is ^bsplit through;

The earth is shaken violently.

²⁰The earth ^areels to and fro like a drunkard

And it totters like a ¹shack,

For its ^btransgression is heavy upon it,

And it will fall, ^cnever to rise again.

²¹So it will be in that day,

That Yahweh will ^apunish the host of heights on high,

And the ^bkings of the earth on earth.

²²They will be gathered together

Like ^aprisoners in the ¹pit,

And will be confined in prison;

And after many days they will ^bbe punished.

²³Then the ^amoon will be humiliated and the sun ashamed,

For ^bYahweh of hosts will reign on ^cMount Zion and in Jerusalem,

And His glory will be before His elders.

CHAPTER 25

Yahweh Will Swallow Up Death

¹O Yahweh, You are ^amy God;

I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name;

For You have ^bworked wonders,

^cCounsels formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.

²For You have made a city into a ^aheap,

A ^bfortified town into a ruin;

A ^cpalace of strangers is a city no more,

It will never be rebuilt.

³Therefore a strong people will ^aglorify You;

^bTowns of ruthless nations will fear You.

⁴For You have been a ^astrong defense for the poor,

A strong defense for the needy in his distress,

A ^brefuge from the storm, a shade from the heat;

For the breath of the ^cruthless

Is like a rain storm against a wall.

⁵Like heat in a dry land, You subdue the ^arumbling of strangers;

Like heat by the shadow of a cloud, the song of the ruthless is ¹silenced.

^6aAnd Yahweh of hosts will prepare a ¹lavish banquet for ^ball peoples on this mountain;

A banquet of ²aged wine, ³choice pieces with marrow,

And ⁴refined, aged wine.

⁷And on this mountain He will swallow up the ^1acovering which is over all peoples,

Even the veil which is ²stretched over all nations.

⁸He will ^aswallow up death for all time,

And Lord Yahweh will ^bwipe tears away from all faces,

And He will remove the ^creproach of His people from all the earth;

For Yahweh has spoken.

⁹And it will be said in that day,

“Behold, ^athis is our God in whom we have ^bhoped that ^cHe would save us.

This is Yahweh in whom we have hoped;

^dLet us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.”

¹⁰For the hand of Yahweh will rest on this mountain,

And ^aMoab will be trodden down in his place

As straw is trodden down in the water of a manure pile.

¹¹And he will ^aspread out his hands in the middle of it

As a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim,

But Yahweh will ^blay low his lofty pride together with the trickery of his hands.

¹²The ^aunassailable fortifications of your walls He will bring down,

Lay low, and cast to the ground, even to the dust.