Isaiah 23–25

A Message About Tyre

23Here is a message the Lord gave me about Tyre.

Men in the ships of Tarshish, cry out!

The city of Tyre is destroyed.

Its houses and harbor are gone.

That’s the message you have received

from the island of Cyprus.

²People on the island of Tyre, be silent.

Traders from the city of Sidon, be quiet.

Those who sail on the Mediterranean Sea have made you rich.

³Grain from Egypt

came across the mighty waters.

The harvest of the Nile River brought wealth to Tyre.

It became the market place of the nations.

⁴Sidon, be ashamed. Mighty Tyre out in the sea, be ashamed.

The sea has spoken. It has said,

“It’s as if I had never felt labor pains or had children.

It’s as if I had never brought up sons or daughters.

It’s as if the city of Tyre had never existed.”

⁵The Egyptians will hear about what has happened to Tyre.

They’ll be very sad and troubled.

⁶People of the island of Tyre, cry out!

Go across the sea to Tarshish.

⁷Just look at Tyre.

It’s no longer the old, old city that was known for its wild parties.

It no longer sends its people out

to settle in lands far away.

⁸Tyre was a city that produced kings.

Its traders were princes.

They were honored all over the earth.

So who planned to destroy such a city?

⁹The Lord who rules over all planned to do it.

He wanted to bring down all of its pride and glory.

He wanted to put to shame those who were honored all over the earth.

¹⁰People of Tarshish, spread out over your land

like the waters of the Nile.

There isn’t anything to hold you back anymore.

¹¹The Lord has reached his powerful hand out over the sea.

He has made its kingdoms tremble with fear.

He has given a command concerning Phoenicia.

He has ordered that its forts be destroyed.

¹²He said, “No more wild parties for you!

People of Sidon, you are now destroyed!

“Leave your city. Go across the sea to Cyprus.

Even there you will not find any rest.”

¹³Look at the land of the Babylonians.

No one lives there anymore.

The Assyrians have turned it

into a place for desert creatures.

They built their towers in order to attack it.

They took everything out of its forts.

They knocked all of its buildings down.

¹⁴Men in the ships of Tarshish, cry out!

Mighty Tyre is destroyed!

¹⁵A time is coming when people will forget about Tyre for 70 years. That’s the length of a king’s life. But at the end of those 70 years, Tyre will be like the prostitute that people sing about. They say,

¹⁶“Forgotten prostitute, pick up a harp.

Walk through the city.

Play the harp well. Sing many songs.

Then you will be remembered.”

¹⁷At the end of the 70 years, the Lord will punish Tyre. He will let it return to its way of life as a prostitute. It will earn its living with all of the kingdoms on the face of the earth. ¹⁸But the money it earns will be set apart for the Lord. The money won’t be stored up or kept for Tyre. Instead, it will go to those who live the way the Lord wants them to. It will pay for plenty of food and fine clothes for them.

The Lord Will Destroy the Earth

24The Lord is going to completely destroy everything on earth.

He will twist its surface.

He’ll scatter those who live on it.

²Priests and people alike will suffer.

So will masters and their servants.

And so will women and their female servants.

Sellers and buyers alike will suffer.

So will those who borrow and those who lend.

And so will those who owe money and those who lend it.

³The earth will be completely destroyed.

Everything of value will be taken out of it.

That’s what the Lord has said.

⁴The earth will dry up completely.

The world will dry up and waste away.

The most important people on earth will fade away.

⁵The earth is polluted by its people.

They haven’t obeyed the laws of the Lord.

They haven’t done what he told them to do.

They’ve broken the covenant that will last forever.

⁶So the Lord will send a curse on the earth.

Its people will pay for what they’ve done.

They will be burned up.

Very few of them will be left.

⁷The vines and fresh wine will dry up completely.

Those who used to have a good time will groan.

⁸The happy sounds of tambourines will be gone.

The noise of those who enjoy wild parties will stop.

The joyful music of harps will become silent.

⁹People will no longer sing as they drink wine.

Beer will taste bitter to those who drink it.

¹⁰Destroyed cities will lie empty.

People will lock themselves inside their houses.

¹¹In the streets people will cry out for wine.

All joy will turn into sadness.

All happiness will be driven out of the earth.

¹²All of the buildings will be knocked down.

Every city gate will be smashed to pieces.

¹³That’s how it will be on the earth.

And that’s how it will be among the nations.

It will be as when workers knock all but a few olives off the trees.

It will be like a vine that has only a few grapes left after the harvest.

¹⁴Those who are left alive will shout with joy.

People from the west will praise the Lord because he is the King.

¹⁵So give glory to him, you who live in the east.

Honor the name of the Lord, you who are in the islands of the sea.

He is the God of Israel.

¹⁶From one end of the earth to the other we hear singing.

People are saying,

“Give glory to the One who always does what is right.”

But I said, “I feel very bad.

I’m getting weaker and weaker.

How terrible it is for me!

People turn against one another.

They can’t be trusted.

So they turn against each other.”

¹⁷People of the earth,

terror, a pit and a trap are waiting for you.

¹⁸Anyone who runs away from the terror

will fall into the pit.

Anyone who climbs out of the pit

will be caught in the trap.

The Lord will open the windows of the skies.

He will flood the land.

The foundations of the earth will shake.

¹⁹The earth will be broken up.

It will split open.

It will be shaken to pieces.

²⁰The earth will be unsteady like someone who is drunk.

It will sway like a tent in the wind.

Its sin will weigh so heavily on it that it will fall.

It will never get up again.

²¹At that time the Lord will punish

the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens above.

He will also punish the kings on the earth below.

²²They will be brought together

like prisoners in chains.

They’ll be locked up in prison.

After many days the Lord will punish them.

²³The Lord who rules over all will rule

on Mount Zion in Jerusalem.

The elders of the city will be there.

They will see his glory.

His rule will be so glorious that the sun and moon

will be too ashamed to shine.

A Song of Praise

25Lord, you are my God.

I will honor you.

I will praise your name.

You have been perfectly faithful.

You have done wonderful things.

You had planned them long ago.

²You have turned cities into piles of trash.

You have pulled down the high walls that were around them.

You have destroyed our enemies’ forts.

They will never be rebuilt.

³Powerful nations will honor you.

Even sinful people from their cities will have respect for you.

⁴Poor people have come to you for safety.

You have kept needy people safe when they were in trouble.

You have been a place to hide when storms came.

You have been a shade from the heat of the sun.

Evil people attack us.

They are like a storm beating against a wall.

⁵They are like the heat of the desert.

You stopped the noisy shouts of our enemies.

You kept them from winning the battle over us and singing about it.

You are like the shadow of a cloud that cools the earth.

⁶On Mount Zion the Lord who rules over all will prepare

a feast for all of the nations.

The best and richest foods

and the finest aged wines will be served.

⁷On that mountain the Lord will destroy

the veil of sadness that covers all of the nations.

He will destroy the gloom that is spread over everyone.

⁸He will swallow up death forever.

The Lord and King will wipe away the tears

from everyone’s face.

He will remove the shame of his people

from the whole earth.

The Lord has spoken.

⁹At that time they will say,

“He is our God.

We trusted in him, and he saved us.

He is the Lord. We trusted in him.

Let us be filled with joy because he saved us.”

¹⁰The Lord’s powerful hand will keep Mount Zion safe.

But he will walk all over Moab.

Its people will be crushed,

just as straw is crushed in animal waste.

¹¹They will try to swim their way out of it.

They will spread their hands out in it,

just as a swimmer spreads his hands out to swim.

But God will bring down Moab’s pride.

None of their skill will help them.

¹²He will pull down their high, strong walls.

He will bring them down to the ground.

He’ll bring them right down to the dust.