Isaiah 23:1–25:12
Wail, you ships of Tarshish!
For it is laid waste,
So that there is no house, no harbor;
From the land of 2Cyprus it is revealed to them.
2 Be still, you inhabitants of the coastland,
You merchants of Sidon,
3Whom those who cross the sea have filled.
3 And on great waters the grain of Shihor,
The harvest of 4the River, is her revenue;
And bshe is a marketplace for the nations.
For the sea has spoken,
The strength of the sea, saying,
“I do not labor, nor bring forth children;
Neither do I rear young men,
Nor bring up virgins.”
5 cWhen the report reaches Egypt,
They also will be in agony at the report of Tyre.
Wail, you inhabitants of the coastland!
7 Is this your djoyous city,
Whose antiquity is from ancient days,
Whose feet carried her far off to dwell?
8 Who has taken this counsel against Tyre, ethe crowning city,
Whose merchants are princes,
Whose traders are the honorable of the earth?
9 The Lord of hosts has fpurposed it,
To 5bring to dishonor the gpride of all glory,
To bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.
10 Overflow through your land like 6the River,
O daughter of Tarshish;
There is no more 7strength.
11 He stretched out His hand over the sea,
He shook the kingdoms;
The Lord has given a commandment hagainst Canaan
To destroy its strongholds.
12 And He said, “You will rejoice no more,
O you oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon.
Arise, icross over to Cyprus;
There also you will have no rest.”
13 Behold, the land of the jChaldeans,
This people which was not;
Assyria founded it for kwild beasts of the desert.
They set up its towers,
They raised up its palaces,
And brought it to ruin.
14 lWail, you ships of Tarshish!
For your strength is laid waste.
15 Now it shall come to pass in that day that Tyre will be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king. At the end of seventy years it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the harlot:
16 “Take a harp, go about the city,
You forgotten harlot;
Make sweet melody, sing many songs,
That you may be remembered.”
17 And it shall be, at the end of seventy years, that the Lord will deal with Tyre. She will return to her hire, and mcommit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth. 18 Her gain and her pay nwill be set apart for the Lord; it will not be treasured nor laid up, for her gain will be for those who dwell before the Lord, to eat sufficiently, and for 8fine clothing.
Impending Judgment on the Earth
24 Behold, the Lord makes the earth empty and makes it waste,
Distorts its surface
And scatters abroad its inhabitants.
As with the people, so with the apriest;
As with the servant, so with his master;
As with the maid, so with her mistress;
bAs with the buyer, so with the seller;
As with the lender, so with the borrower;
As with the creditor, so with the debtor.
3 The land shall be entirely emptied and utterly plundered,
For the Lord has spoken this word.
4 The earth mourns and fades away,
The world languishes and fades away;
The chaughty 1people of the earth languish.
5 dThe earth is also defiled under its inhabitants,
Because they have etransgressed the laws,
Changed the ordinance,
Broken the feverlasting covenant.
6 Therefore gthe curse has devoured the earth,
And those who dwell in it are 2desolate.
Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are hburned,
And few men are left.
7 iThe new wine fails, the vine languishes,
All the merry-hearted sigh.
8 The mirth jof the tambourine ceases,
The noise of the jubilant ends,
The joy of the harp ceases.
9 They shall not drink wine with a song;
Strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.
10 The city of confusion is broken down;
Every house is shut up, so that none may go in.
11 There is a cry for wine in the streets,
All joy is darkened,
The mirth of the land is gone.
12 In the city desolation is left,
And the gate is stricken with destruction.
13 When it shall be thus in the midst of the land among the people,
kIt shall be like the shaking of an olive tree,
Like the gleaning of grapes when the vintage is done.
14 They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing;
For the majesty of the Lord
They shall cry aloud from the sea.
15 Therefore lglorify the Lord in the dawning light,
mThe name of the Lord God of Israel in the coastlands of the sea.
16 From the ends of the earth we have heard songs:
“Glory to the righteous!”
But I said, 3“I am ruined, ruined!
Woe to me!
nThe treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously,
Indeed, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously.”
17 oFear and the pit and the snare
Are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth.
That he who flees from the noise of the fear
Shall fall into the pit,
And he who comes up from the midst of the pit
Shall be 4caught in the snare;
For pthe windows from on high are open,
And qthe foundations of the earth are shaken.
19 rThe earth is violently broken,
The earth is split open,
The earth is shaken exceedingly.
20 The earth shall sreel 5to and fro like a drunkard,
And shall totter like a hut;
Its transgression shall be heavy upon it,
And it will fall, and not rise again.
21 It shall come to pass in that day
That the Lord will punish on high the host of exalted ones,
And on the earth tthe kings of the earth.
22 They will be gathered together,
As prisoners are gathered in the 6pit,
And will be shut up in the prison;
After many days they will be punished.
23 Then the umoon will be disgraced
And the sun ashamed;
For the Lord of hosts will vreign
On wMount Zion and in Jerusalem
And before His elders, gloriously.
25 O Lord, You are my God.
aI will exalt You,
I will praise Your name,
bFor You have done wonderful things;
cYour counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
2 For You have made da city a ruin,
A fortified city a ruin,
A palace of foreigners to be a city no more;
It will never be rebuilt.
3 Therefore the strong people will eglorify You;
The city of the 1terrible nations will fear You.
4 For You have been a strength to the poor,
A strength to the needy in his distress,
fA refuge from the storm,
A shade from the heat;
For the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
5 You will reduce the noise of aliens,
As heat in a dry place;
As heat in the shadow of a cloud,
The song of the terrible ones will be 2diminished.
6 And in gthis mountain
hThe Lord of hosts will make for iall people
A feast of 3choice pieces,
A feast of 4wines on the lees,
Of fat things full of marrow,
Of well-refined wines on the lees.
7 And He will destroy on this mountain
The surface of the covering cast over all people,
And jthe veil that is spread over all nations.
8 He will kswallow up death forever,
And the Lord God will lwipe away tears from all faces;
The rebuke of His people
He will take away from all the earth;
For the Lord has spoken.
9 And it will be said in that day:
“Behold, this is our God;
mWe have waited for Him, and He will save us.
This is the Lord;
We have waited for Him;
nWe will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.”
10 For on this mountain the hand of the Lord will rest,
And oMoab shall be trampled down under Him,
As straw is trampled down for the refuse heap.
11 And He will spread out His hands in their midst
As a swimmer reaches out to swim,
And He will bring down their ppride
Together with the trickery of their hands.
12 The qfortress of the high fort of your walls
He will bring down, lay low,
And bring to the ground, down to the dust.