Isaiah 23:1–28:29

A Prophecy Against Tyre

23 A prophecy against Tyre:s

Wail,t you shipsu of Tarshish!v

For Tyre is destroyedw

and left without house or harbor.

From the land of Cyprus

word has come to them.

2 Be silent,x you people of the island

and you merchantsy of Sidon,z

whom the seafarers have enriched.

3 On the great waters

came the grain of the Shihor;a

the harvest of the Nilea b was the revenue of Tyre,c

and she became the marketplace of the nations.

4 Be ashamed, Sidon,d and you fortress of the sea,

for the sea has spoken:

“I have neither been in labor nor given birth;e

I have neither reared sons nor brought up daughters.”

5 When word comes to Egypt,

they will be in anguishf at the report from Tyre.g

6 Cross over to Tarshish;h

wail, you people of the island.

7 Is this your city of revelry,i

the old, old city,

whose feet have taken her

to settle in far-off lands?

8 Who planned this against Tyre,

the bestower of crowns,

whose merchantsj are princes,

whose tradersk are renowned in the earth?

9 The Lord Almighty plannedl it,

to bring downm her pride in all her splendor

and to humblen all who are renownedo on the earth.

10 Tillb your land as they do along the Nile,

Daughter Tarshish,

for you no longer have a harbor.

11 The Lord has stretched out his handp over the sea

and made its kingdoms tremble.q

He has given an order concerning Phoenicia

that her fortresses be destroyed.r

12 He said, “No more of your reveling,s

Virgin Daughtert Sidon, now crushed!

“Up, cross over to Cyprus;u

even there you will find no rest.”

13 Look at the land of the Babylonians,c v

this people that is now of no account!

The Assyriansw have made it

a place for desert creatures;x

they raised up their siege towers,y

they stripped its fortresses bare

and turned it into a ruin.z

14 Wail, you shipsa of Tarshish;b

your fortress is destroyed!c

15 At that time Tyred will be forgotten for seventy years,e the span of a king’s life. But at the end of these seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute:

16 “Take up a harp, walk through the city,

you forgotten prostitute;f

play the harp well, sing many a song,

so that you will be remembered.”

17 At the end of seventy years,g the Lord will deal with Tyre. She will return to her lucrative prostitutionh and will ply her trade with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth.i 18 Yet her profit and her earnings will be set apart for the Lord;j they will not be stored up or hoarded. Her profits will go to those who live before the Lord,k for abundant food and fine clothes.l

The Lord’s Devastation of the Earth

24 See, the Lord is going to lay waste the earthm

and devastaten it;

he will ruin its face

and scattero its inhabitants—

2 it will be the same

for priest as for people,p

for the master as for his servant,

for the mistress as for her servant,

for seller as for buyer,q

for borrower as for lender,

for debtor as for creditor.r

3 The earth will be completely laid wastes

and totally plundered.t

The Lord has spokenu this word.

4 The earth dries upv and withers,w

the world languishes and withers,

the heavensx languish with the earth.y

5 The earth is defiledz by its people;

they have disobeyeda the laws,

violated the statutes

and broken the everlasting covenant.b

6 Therefore a cursec consumes the earth;

its people must bear their guilt.

Therefore earth’s inhabitants are burned up,d

and very few are left.

7 The new wine dries upe and the vine withers;f

all the merrymakers groan.g

8 The joyful timbrelsh are stilled,

the noisei of the revelersj has stopped,

the joyful harpk is silent.l

9 No longer do they drink winem with a song;

the beer is bittern to its drinkers.

10 The ruined cityo lies desolate;p

the entrance to every house is barred.

11 In the streets they cry outq for wine;r

all joy turns to gloom,s

all joyful sounds are banished from the earth.

12 The city is left in ruins,t

its gateu is battered to pieces.

13 So will it be on the earth

and among the nations,

as when an olive tree is beaten,v

or as when gleanings are left after the grape harvest.w

14 They raise their voices, they shout for joy;x

from the westy they acclaim the Lord’s majesty.

15 Therefore in the eastz give glorya to the Lord;

exaltb the namec of the Lord, the God of Israel,

in the islandsd of the sea.

16 From the ends of the earthe we hear singing:f

“Gloryg to the Righteous One.”h

But I said, “I waste away, I waste away!i

Woej to me!

The treacherousk betray!

With treachery the treacherous betray!l”

17 Terrorm and pit and snaren await you,

people of the earth.o

18 Whoever fleesp at the sound of terror

will fall into a pit;q

whoever climbs out of the pit

will be caught in a snare.r

The floodgates of the heavenss are opened,

the foundations of the earth shake.t

19 The earth is broken up,u

the earth is split asunder,v

the earth is violently shaken.

20 The earth reels like a drunkard,w

it sways like a hutx in the wind;

so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebelliony

that it fallsz—never to rise again.a

21 In that dayb the Lord will punishc

the powersd in the heavens above

and the kingse on the earth below.

22 They will be herded together

like prisonersf bound in a dungeon;g

they will be shut up in prison

and be punisheda after many days.h

23 The moon will be dismayed,

the suni ashamed;

for the Lord Almighty will reignj

on Mount Zionk and in Jerusalem,

and before its elders—with great glory.l

Praise to the Lord

25 Lord, you are my God;m

I will exalt you and praise your name,n

for in perfect faithfulnesso

you have done wonderful things,p

things plannedq long ago.

2 You have made the city a heap of rubble,r

the fortifieds town a ruin,t

the foreigners’ strongholdu a city no more;

it will never be rebuilt.v

3 Therefore strong peoples will honor you;w

cities of ruthlessx nations will revere you.

4 You have been a refugey for the poor,z

a refuge for the needya in their distress,

a shelter from the stormb

and a shade from the heat.

For the breath of the ruthlessc

is like a storm driving against a wall

5 and like the heat of the desert.

You silenced the uproar of foreigners;e

as heat is reduced by the shadow of a cloud,

so the song of the ruthlessf is stilled.

6 On this mountaing the Lord Almighty will prepare

a feasth of rich food for all peoples,

a banquet of aged wine—

the best of meats and the finest of wines.i

7 On this mountain he will destroy

the shroudj that enfolds all peoples,k

the sheet that covers all nations;

8 he will swallow up deathl forever.

The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tearsm

from all faces;

he will remove his people’s disgracen

from all the earth.

The Lord has spoken.o

9 In that dayp they will say,

“Surely this is our God;q

we trustedr in him, and he saveds us.

This is the Lord, we trusted in him;

let us rejoicet and be glad in his salvation.”u

10 The hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain;v

but Moabw will be trampled in their land

as straw is trampled down in the manure.

11 They will stretch out their hands in it,

as swimmers stretch out their hands to swim.

God will bring downx their pridey

despite the clevernessa of their hands.

12 He will bring down your high fortified wallsz

and lay them low;a

he will bring them down to the ground,

to the very dust.

A Song of Praise

26 In that dayb this song will be sungc in the land of Judah:

We have a strong city;d

God makes salvation

its wallse and ramparts.f

2 Open the gatesg

that the righteoush nation may enter,

the nation that keeps faith.

3 You will keep in perfect peacei

those whose minds are steadfast,

because they trustj in you.

4 Trustk in the Lord forever,l

for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rockm eternal.

5 He humbles those who dwell on high,

he lays the lofty city low;

he levels it to the groundn

and casts it down to the dust.o

6 Feet tramplep it down—

the feet of the oppressed,q

the footsteps of the poor.r

7 The path of the righteous is level;s

you, the Upright One,t make the way of the righteous smooth.u

8 Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws,a v

we waitw for you;

your namex and renown

are the desire of our hearts.

9 My soul yearns for you in the night;y

in the morning my spirit longsz for you.

When your judgmentsa come upon the earth,

the people of the world learn righteousness.b

10 But when grace is shown to the wicked,c

they do not learn righteousness;

even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evild

and do not regarde the majesty of the Lord.

11 Lord, your hand is lifted high,f

but they do not seeg it.

Let them see your zealh for your people and be put to shame;i

let the firej reserved for your enemies consume them.

12 Lord, you establish peacek for us;

all that we have accomplished you have donel for us.

13 Lord our God, other lordsm besides you have ruled over us,

but your namen alone do we honor.o

14 They are now dead,p they live no more;

their spiritsq do not rise.

You punished them and brought them to ruin;r

you wiped out all memory of them.s

15 You have enlarged the nation, Lord;

you have enlarged the nation.t

You have gained glory for yourself;

you have extended all the bordersu of the land.

16 Lord, they came to you in their distress;v

when you disciplinedw them,

they could barely whisperx a prayer.b

17 As a pregnant woman about to give birthy

writhes and cries out in her pain,

so were we in your presence, Lord.

18 We were with child, we writhed in labor,

but we gave birthz to wind.

We have not brought salvationa to the earth,

and the people of the world have not come to life.b

19 But your deadc will live, Lord;

their bodies will rise—

let those who dwell in the dustd

wake up and shout for joy—

your dewe is like the dew of the morning;

the earth will give birth to her dead.f

20 Go, my people, enter your rooms

and shut the doorsg behind you;

hideh yourselves for a little while

until his wrathi has passed by.j

21 See, the Lord is comingk out of his dwellingl

to punishm the people of the earth for their sins.

The earth will disclose the bloodn shed on it;

the earth will conceal its slain no longer.

Deliverance of Israel

27 In that day,o

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