Isaiah 24–27

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.

A Song of Praise to God

26At that time people will sing this song in Judah:

We have a strong city.

God protects us with its strong walls and defenses.

²Open the gates,

and the good people will enter,

those who follow God.

³You, Lord, give true peace

to those who depend on you,

because they trust you.

⁴So, trust the Lord always,

because he is our Rock forever.

⁵He will destroy the proud city,

and he will punish the people living there.

He will bring that high city down to the ground

and throw it down into the dust.

⁶Then those who were hurt by the city will walk on its ruins;

those who were made poor by the city will trample it under their feet.

⁷The path of life is level for those who are right with God;

Lord, you make the way of life smooth for those people.

⁸But, Lord, we are waiting

for your way of justice.

Our souls want to remember

you and your name.

⁹My soul wants to be with you at night,

and my spirit wants to be with you at the dawn of every day.

When your way of justice comes to the land,

people of the world will learn the right way of living.

¹⁰Evil people will not learn to do good

even if you show them kindness.

They will continue doing evil, even if they live in a good world;

they never see the Lord’s greatness.

¹¹Lord, you are ready to punish those people,

but they do not see that.

Show them your strong love for your people.

Then those who are evil will be ashamed.

Burn them in the fire

you have prepared for your enemies.

¹²Lord, all our success is because of what you have done,

so give us peace.

¹³Lord, our God, other masters besides you have ruled us,

but we honor only you.

¹⁴Those masters are now dead;

their ghosts will not rise from death.

You punished and destroyed them

and erased any memory of them.

¹⁵Lord, you multiplied the number of your people;

you multiplied them and brought honor to yourself.

You made the borders of the land wide.

¹⁶Lord, people remember you when they are in trouble;

they say quiet prayers to you when you punish them.

¹⁷Lord, when we are with you,

we are like a woman giving birth to a baby;

she cries and has pain from the birth.

¹⁸In the same way, we had pain.

We gave birth, but only to wind.

We don’t bring salvation to the land

or make new people for the world.

¹⁹Your people have died, but they will live again;

their bodies will rise from death.

You who lie in the ground,

wake up and be happy!

The dew covering you is like the dew of a new day;

the ground will give birth to the dead.

Judgment: Reward or Punishment

²⁰My people, go into your rooms

and shut your doors behind you.

Hide in your rooms for a short time

until God’s anger is finished.

²¹The Lord will leave his place

to punish the people of the world for their sins.

The earth will show the blood of the people who have been killed;

it will not cover the dead any longer.

27At that time the Lord will punish Leviathan, the gliding snake.

He will punish Leviathan, the coiled snake,

with his great and hard and powerful sword.

He will kill the monster in the sea.

²At that time

people will sing about the pleasant vineyard.

³“I, the Lord, will care for that vineyard;

I will water it at the right time.

No one will hurt it,

because I will guard it day and night.

⁴I am not angry.

If anyone builds a wall of thornbushes in war,

I will march to it and burn it.

⁵But if anyone comes to me for safety

and wants to make peace with me,

he should come and make peace with me.”

⁶In the days to come, the people of Jacob will be like a plant with good roots;

Israel will grow like a plant beginning to bloom.

Then the world will be filled with their children.

The Lord Will Send Israel Away

⁷The Lord has not hurt his people as he hurt their enemies;

his people have not been killed like those who tried to kill them.

⁸He will settle his argument with Israel by sending it far away.

Like a hot desert wind, he will drive it away.

⁹This is how Israel’s guilt will be forgiven;

this is how its sins will be taken away:

Israel will crush the rocks of the altar to dust,

and no statues or altars will be left standing for the Asherah idols.

¹⁰At that time the strong, walled city will be empty

like a desert.

Calves will eat grass there.

They will lie down there

and eat leaves from the branches.

¹¹The limbs will become dry and break off,

so women will use them for firewood.

The people refuse to understand,

so God will not comfort them;

their Maker will not be kind to them.

¹²At that time the Lord will begin gathering his people one by one from the Euphrates River to the brook of Egypt. He will separate them from others as grain is separated from chaff. ¹³Many of my people are now lost in Assyria. Some have run away to Egypt. But at that time a great trumpet will be blown, and all those people will come and worship the Lord on that holy mountain in Jerusalem.