Isaiah 24:7–28:22

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

the Lord will punish with his swordp—

his fierce, great and powerful sword—

Leviathanq the gliding serpent,r

Leviathan the coiling serpent;

he will slay the monsters of the sea.

2 In that dayt—

“Singu about a fruitful vineyard:v

3 I, the Lord, watch over it;

I waterw it continually.

I guardx it day and night

so that no one may harmy it.

4 I am not angry.

If only there were briers and thorns confronting me!

I would march against them in battle;

I would set them all on fire.z

5 Or else let them come to me for refuge;a

let them make peaceb with me,

yes, let them make peace with me.”

6 In days to come Jacob will take root,c

Israel will bud and blossomd

and fill all the world with fruit.e

7 Has the Lord struck her

as he struckf down those who struck her?

Has she been killed

as those were killed who killed her?

8 By warfarea and exileg you contend with her—

with his fierce blast he drives her out,

as on a day the east windh blows.

9 By this, then, will Jacob’s guilt be atonedi for,

and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin:j

When he makes all the altar stonesk

to be like limestone crushed to pieces,

no Asherah polesb l or incense altarsm

will be left standing.

10 The fortified city stands desolate,n

an abandoned settlement, forsakeno like the wilderness;

there the calves graze,p

there they lie down;q

they strip its branches bare.

11 When its twigs are dry, they are broken offr

and women come and make firess with them.

For this is a people without understanding;t

so their Maker has no compassion on them,

and their Creatoru shows them no favor.v

12 In that day the Lord will threshw from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt,x and you, Israel, will be gatheredy up one by one. 13 And in that dayz a great trumpeta will sound. Those who were perishing in Assyria and those who were exiledb in Egyptc will come and worshipd the Lord on the holy mountaine in Jerusalem.

Woe to the Leaders of Ephraim and Judah

28 Woef to that wreath, the pride of Ephraim’sg drunkards,

to the fading flower, his glorious beauty,

set on the head of a fertile valleyh—

to that city, the pride of those laid low by wine!i

2 See, the Lord has one who is powerfulj and strong.

Like a hailstormk and a destructive wind,l

like a driving rain and a floodingm downpour,

he will throw it forcefully to the ground.

3 That wreath, the pride of Ephraim’sn drunkards,

will be trampledo underfoot.

4 That fading flower, his glorious beauty,

set on the head of a fertile valley,p

will be like figsq ripe before harvest—

as soon as people see them and take them in hand,

they swallow them.

5 In that dayr the Lord Almighty

will be a gloriouss crown,t

a beautiful wreath

for the remnantu of his people.

6 He will be a spirit of justicev

to the one who sits in judgment,w

a source of strength

to those who turn back the battlex at the gate.

7 And these also staggery from winez

and reela from beer:

Priestsb and prophetsc stagger from beer

and are befuddled with wine;

they reel from beer,

they stagger when seeing visions,d

they stumble when rendering decisions.

8 All the tables are covered with vomite

and there is not a spot without filth.

9 “Who is it he is trying to teach?f

To whom is he explaining his message?g

To children weanedh from their milk,i

to those just taken from the breast?

10 For it is:

Do this, do that,

a rule for this, a rule for thata;

a little here, a…