Isaiah 23–25

God’s Message to Lebanon

23This is a message about Tyre:

You trading ships, cry!

The houses and harbor of Tyre are destroyed.

This news came to the ships

from the land of Cyprus.

²Be silent, you who live on the island of Tyre;

you merchants of Sidon, be silent.

Sailors have made you rich.

³They traveled the sea to bring grain from Egypt;

the sailors of Tyre brought grain from the Nile Valley

and sold it to other nations.

⁴Sidon, be ashamed.

Strong city of the sea, be ashamed, because the sea says:

“I have not felt the pain of giving birth;

I have not reared young men or women.”

⁵Egypt will hear the news about Tyre,

and it will make Egypt hurt with sorrow.

⁶You ships should return to Tarshish.

You people living near the sea should be sad.

⁷Look at your once happy city!

Look at your old, old city!

People from that city have traveled

far away to live.

⁸Who planned Tyre’s destruction?

Tyre made others rich.

Its merchants were treated like princes,

and its traders were greatly respected.

⁹It was the Lord All-Powerful who planned this.

He decided to make these proud people unimportant;

he decided to disgrace those who were greatly respected.

¹⁰Go through your land, people of Tarshish,

like the Nile goes through Egypt.

There is no harbor for you now!

¹¹The Lord has stretched his hand over the sea

and made its kingdoms tremble.

He commands that Canaan’s

strong, walled cities be destroyed.

¹²He said, “Sidon, you will not rejoice any longer,

because you are destroyed.

Even if you cross the sea to Cyprus,

you will not find a place to rest.”

¹³Look at the land of the Babylonians;

it is not a country now.

Assyria has made it a place for wild animals.

Assyria built towers to attack it;

the soldiers took all the treasures from its cities,

and they turned it into ruins.

¹⁴So be sad, you trading ships,

because your strong city is destroyed.

¹⁵At that time people will forget about Tyre for seventy years, which is the length of a king’s life. After seventy years, Tyre will be like the prostitute in this song:

¹⁶“Oh woman, you are forgotten.

Take your harp and walk through the city.

Play your harp well. Sing your song often.

Then people will remember you.”

¹⁷After seventy years the Lord will deal with Tyre, and it will again have trade. It will be like a prostitute for all the nations of the earth. ¹⁸The profits will be saved for the Lord. Tyre will not keep the money she earns but will give them to the people who serve the Lord, so they will have plenty of food and nice clothes.

The Lord Will Punish the World

24Look! The Lord will destroy the earth and leave it empty;

he will ruin the surface of the land and scatter its people.

²At that time the same thing will happen to everyone:

to common people and priests,

to slaves and masters,

to women slaves and their women masters,

to buyers and sellers,

to those who borrow and those who lend,

to bankers and those who owe the bank.

³The earth will be completely empty.

The wealth will all be taken,

because the Lord has commanded it.

⁴The earth will dry up and die;

the world will grow weak and die;

the great leaders in this land will become weak.

⁵The people of the earth have ruined it,

because they do not follow God’s teachings

or obey God’s laws

or keep their agreement with God that was to last forever.

⁶So a curse will destroy the earth.

The people of the world are guilty,

so they will be burned up;

only a few will be left.

⁷The new wine will be bad, and the grapevines will die.

People who were happy will be sad.

⁸The happy music of the tambourines will end.

The happy sounds of wild parties will stop.

The joyful music from the harps will end.

⁹People will no longer sing while they drink their wine.

The beer will taste bitter to those who drink it.

¹⁰The ruined city will be empty,

and people will hide behind closed doors.

¹¹People in the streets will ask for wine,

but joy will have turned to sadness;

all the happiness will have left.

¹²The city will be left in ruins,

and its gates will be smashed to pieces.

¹³This is what will happen all over the earth

and to all the nations.

The earth will be like an olive tree after the harvest

or like the few grapes left on a vine after harvest.

¹⁴The people shout for joy.

From the west they praise the greatness of the Lord.

¹⁵People in the east, praise the Lord.

People in the islands of the sea,

praise the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

¹⁶We hear songs from every part of the earth

praising God, the Righteous One.

But I said, “I am dying! I am dying!

How terrible it will be for me!

Traitors turn against people;

with their dishonesty, they turn against people.”

¹⁷There are terrors, holes, and traps

for the people of the earth.

¹⁸Anyone who tries to escape from the sound of terror

will fall into a hole.

Anyone who climbs out of the hole

will be caught in a trap.

The clouds in the sky will pour out rain,

and the foundations of the earth will shake.

¹⁹The earth will be broken up;

the earth will split open;

the earth will shake violently.

²⁰The earth will stumble around like someone who is drunk;

it will shake like a hut in a storm.

Its sin is like a heavy weight on its back;

it will fall and never rise again.

²¹At that time the Lord will punish

the powers in the sky above

and the rulers on earth below.

²²They will be gathered together

like prisoners thrown into a dungeon;

they will be shut up in prison.

After much time they will be punished.

²³The moon will be embarrassed,

and the sun will be ashamed,

because the Lord All-Powerful will rule as king

on Mount Zion in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem’s leaders will see his greatness.

A Song of Praise to God

25Lord, you are my God.

I honor you and praise you,

because you have done amazing things.

You have always done what you said you would do;

you have done what you planned long ago.

²You have made the city a pile of rocks

and have destroyed her walls.

The city our enemies built with strong walls is gone;

it will never be built again.

³People from powerful nations will honor you;

cruel people from strong cities will fear you.

⁴You protect the poor;

you protect the helpless when they are in danger.

You are like a shelter from storms,

like shade that protects them from the heat.

The cruel people attack

like a rainstorm beating against the wall,

⁵like the heat in the desert.

But you, God, stop their violent attack.

As a cloud cools a hot day,

you silence the songs of those who have no mercy.

God’s Banquet for His Servants

⁶The Lord All-Powerful will prepare a feast

on this mountain for all people.

It will be a feast with all the best food and wine,

the finest meat and wine.

⁷On this mountain God will destroy

the veil that covers all nations,

the veil that stretches over all peoples;

⁸he will destroy death forever.

The Lord God will wipe away every tear from every face.

He will take away the shame of his people from the earth.

The Lord has spoken.

⁹At that time people will say,

“Our God is doing this!

We have waited for him, and he has come to save us.

This is the Lord. We waited for him,

so we will rejoice and be happy when he saves us.”

¹⁰The Lord will protect Jerusalem,

but he will crush our enemy Moab

like straw that is trampled down in the manure.

¹¹They will spread their arms in it

like a person who is swimming.

But God will bring down their pride,

and all the clever things they have made will mean nothing.

¹²Moab’s high walls protect them,

but God will destroy these walls.

He will throw them down to the ground,

even to the dust.