Isaiah 24–27

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.

CHAPTER 26

Yahweh Will Establish Peace

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

“We have a ^bstrong city;

He sets up walls and ramparts for ^csalvation.

²“Open the ^agates, that the ^brighteous nation may enter,

The one that keeps faithfulness.

³“The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect ^apeace

Because he trusts in You.

⁴“^aTrust in Yahweh forever,

For in Yah—Yahweh Himself—we have an everlasting ^bRock.

⁵“For He has laid low those who settle on high, the ^1aexalted city;

^bHe brings it low, He brings it low to the ground, He casts it to the dust.

⁶“^aThe foot will trample it,

The feet of the ^bafflicted, the steps of the poor.”

⁷The ^away of the righteous is upright;

O Upright One, ^bmake the path of the righteous level.

⁸Indeed, while following the way of ^aYour judgments, O Yahweh,

We have hoped for You eagerly;

^bYour name—the ^cmemory of You—is the desire of our souls.

^9aAt night ¹my soul longs for You,

Indeed, ²my spirit within me ^bseeks You earnestly;

For when the earth ³experiences Your judgments,

The inhabitants of the world ^clearn righteousness.

¹⁰Though the wicked is shown favor,

He does not ^alearn righteousness;

He ^bdeals unjustly in the land of uprightness,

And does not perceive the majesty of Yahweh.

¹¹O Yahweh, Your hand is raised up high, yet they ^ado not behold it.

¹They behold ^bYour zeal for the people and are put to shame;

Indeed, ^2cfire will devour Your adversaries.

¹²Yahweh, You will establish ^apeace for us,

Since You have also performed for us all our works.

¹³O Yahweh our God, ^aother masters besides You have ruled us;

But through You alone we ^bbring Your name to remembrance.

^14aThe dead will not live; the ¹departed spirits will not rise;

Therefore You have ^bvisited and destroyed them,

And You have made all remembrance of them perish.

^15aYou have increased the nation, O Yahweh;

You have increased the nation, You are glorified;

You have ^bextended all the borders of the land.

¹⁶O Yahweh, they visited You ^ain distress;

They ¹could only whisper a prayer;

Your chastening was upon them.

^17aAs the ¹woman with child draws near to the time to give birth,

She writhes and cries out in her pangs of labor,

Thus were we before You, O Yahweh.

¹⁸We were ¹with child, we writhed in labor;

We ^agave birth, as it seems, only to wind.

We could not accomplish salvation for the earth,

And the ^binhabitants of the world ²were not born.

¹⁹Your ^adead will live;

¹Their corpses will rise.

You who dwell in the dust, ^bawake and shout for joy,

For your dew is as the dew of the ²dawn,

And the earth will ³give birth to the ⁴departed spirits.

²⁰Come, my people, ^aenter into your rooms

And close your doors behind you;

Hide for a little ^1bwhile

Until ^cindignation passes by.

²¹For behold, Yahweh is about to ^acome out from His place

To ^bvisit the iniquity of the inhabitants of the earth;

And the earth will ^creveal her bloodshed

And will no longer cover those of hers who were killed.

CHAPTER 27

Yahweh Will Deliver Israel

¹In that day ^aYahweh will ¹punish ^2bLeviathan the fleeing serpent,

With His fierce and great and ³mighty sword,

Even ⁴Leviathan the twisted serpent;

And ^cHe will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.

²In that day,

“A ^1avineyard of delight, sing of it!

³“I, Yahweh, am its keeper;

^aI water it every moment.

Lest anyone ¹damage it,

I ^bkeep it night and day.

⁴“I have no wrath.

Who would ever give Me ^abriars and thorns in the battle?

I would step on them, ^bI would burn them ¹completely.

⁵“Or let him ^1arely on My strong defense,

Let him make peace with Me,

Let him ^bmake peace with Me.”

⁶¹In the days to come Jacob ^awill take root,

Israel will ^bblossom and bud,

And they will fill the ²whole world with ^cproduce.

⁷Like the striking of Him who has struck them, has ^aHe struck them?

Or like the slaughter of those of His who were killed, ¹have they been killed?

⁸You contended with them ¹by driving them away, by ^amaking them forlorn.

With His fierce wind He has expelled them on the day of the ^beast wind.

⁹Therefore through this, Jacob’s iniquity will be ^aatoned for;

And this will be the whole fruit of the ^bturning away of his sin:

When he makes all the ^caltar stones like pulverized chalk stones,

When ¹Asherim and incense altars will not stand.

¹⁰For the fortified city is ^aisolated,

A ¹haunt ²forlorn and forsaken like the desert;

^bThere the calf will graze,

And there it will lie down and ³feed on its twigs.

¹¹When its ^alimbs are dry, they are broken off;

Women come and light a fire with them,

For they are not a people of ^bdiscernment,

Therefore ^ctheir Maker ^dwill not have compassion on them.

And their Creator will not be gracious to them.

¹²And it will be in that day, that Yahweh ^awill start His threshing from the flowing stream of the ^1bRiver to the brook of Egypt, and you will be ^cgathered up one by one, O sons of Israel.

¹³And it will be in that day, that a great ^atrumpet will be blown, and those who were perishing in the land of ^bAssyria and who were banished in the land of Egypt will come and ^cworship Yahweh in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.