Isaiah 24–27

Impending Judgment on the Earth

24Behold, the Lord makes the earth empty and makes it waste,

Distorts its surface

And scatters abroad its inhabitants.

²And it shall be:

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.

³The land shall be entirely emptied and utterly plundered,

For the Lord has spoken this word.

⁴The earth mourns and fades away,

The world languishes and fades away;

The ^chaughty ¹people of the earth languish.

^5dThe earth is also defiled under its inhabitants,

Because they have ^etransgressed the laws,

Changed the ordinance,

Broken the ^feverlasting covenant.

⁶Therefore ^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.

⁷ⁱThe new wine fails, the vine languishes,

All the merry-hearted sigh.

⁸The mirth ^jof the tambourine ceases,

The noise of the jubilant ends,

The joy of the harp ceases.

⁹They shall not drink wine with a song;

Strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.

¹⁰The city of confusion is broken down;

Every house is shut up, so that none may go in.

¹¹There is a cry for wine in the streets,

All joy is darkened,

The mirth of the land is gone.

¹²In the city desolation is left,

And the gate is stricken with destruction.

¹³When 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.

¹⁴They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing;

For the majesty of the Lord

They shall cry aloud from the sea.

¹⁵Therefore ^lglorify the Lord in the dawning light,

^mThe name of the Lord God of Israel in the coastlands of the sea.

¹⁶From 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.”

^17oFear and the pit and the snare

Are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth.

¹⁸And it shall be

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.

^19rThe earth is violently broken,

The earth is split open,

The earth is shaken exceedingly.

²⁰The 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.

²¹It 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.

²²They 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.

²³Then 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.

Praise to God

25O 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.

²For 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.

³Therefore the strong people will ^eglorify You;

The city of the ¹terrible nations will fear You.

⁴For 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.

⁵You 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.

⁶And 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.

⁷And He will destroy on this mountain

The surface of the covering cast over all people,

And ^jthe veil that is spread over all nations.

⁸He 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.

⁹And 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.”

¹⁰For 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.

¹¹And 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.

¹²The ^qfortress of the high fort of your walls

He will bring down, lay low,

And bring to the ground, down to the dust.

A Song of Salvation

26In ^athat day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

“We have a strong city;

^bGod will appoint salvation for walls and bulwarks.

^2cOpen the gates,

That the righteous nation which ¹keeps the truth may enter in.

³You will keep him in perfect ^dpeace,

Whose mind is stayed on You,

Because he trusts in You.

⁴Trust in the Lord forever,

^eFor in Yah, the Lord, is ²everlasting strength.

⁵For He brings ³down those who dwell on high,

^fThe lofty city;

He lays it low,

He lays it low to the ground,

He brings it down to the dust.

⁶The foot shall ⁴tread it down—

The feet of the poor

And the steps of the needy.”

⁷The way of the just is uprightness;

^gO Most Upright,

You ⁵weigh the path of the just.

⁸Yes, ^hin the way of Your judgments,

O Lord, we have ⁱwaited for You;

The desire of our soul is for Your name

And for the remembrance of You.

^9jWith my soul I have desired You in the night,

Yes, by my spirit within me I will seek You early;

For when Your judgments are in the earth,

The inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

^10kLet grace be shown to the wicked,

Yet he will not learn righteousness;

In ^lthe land of uprightness he will deal unjustly,

And will not behold the majesty of the Lord.

¹¹Lord, when Your hand is lifted up, ^mthey will not see.

But they will see and be ashamed

For ⁶their envy of people;

Yes, the fire of Your enemies shall devour them.

¹²Lord, You will establish peace for us,

For You have also done all our works ⁷in us.

¹³O Lord our God, ⁿmasters besides You

Have had dominion over us;

But by You only we make mention of Your name.

¹⁴They are dead, they will not live;

They are deceased, they will not rise.

Therefore You have punished and destroyed them,

And made all their memory to ^operish.

¹⁵You have increased the nation, O Lord,

You have ^pincreased the nation;

You are glorified;

You have expanded all the ⁸borders of the land.

¹⁶Lord, ^qin trouble they have visited You,

They poured out a prayer when Your chastening was upon them.

¹⁷As ^ra woman with child

Is in pain and cries out in her ⁹pangs,

When she draws near the time of her delivery,

So have we been in Your sight, O Lord.

¹⁸We have been with child, we have been in pain;

We have, as it were, ¹brought forth wind;

We have not accomplished any deliverance in the earth,

Nor have ^sthe inhabitants of the world fallen.

^19tYour dead shall live;

Together with ²my dead body they shall arise.

^uAwake and sing, you who dwell in dust;

For your dew is like the dew of herbs,

And the earth shall cast out the dead.

Take Refuge from the Coming Judgment

²⁰Come, my people, ^venter your chambers,

And shut your doors behind you;

Hide yourself, as it were, ^wfor a little moment,

Until the indignation is past.

²¹For behold, the Lord ^xcomes out of His place

To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;

The earth will also disclose her ³blood,

And will no more cover her slain.

27In that day the Lord with His severe sword, great and strong,

Will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent,

^aLeviathan that twisted serpent;

And He will slay ^bthe reptile that is in the sea.

The Restoration of Israel

²In that day ^csing to her,

^d“A vineyard of ¹red wine!

^3eI, the Lord, keep it,

I water it every moment;

Lest any hurt it,

I keep it night and day.

⁴Fury is not in Me.

Who would set ^fbriers and thorns

Against Me in battle?

I would go through them,

I would burn them together.

⁵Or let him take hold ^gof My strength,

That he may ^hmake peace with Me;

And he shall make peace with Me.”

⁶Those who come He shall cause ⁱto take root in Jacob;

Israel shall blossom and bud,

And fill the face of the world with fruit.

^7jHas He struck ²Israel as He struck those who struck him?

Or has He been slain according to the slaughter of those who were slain by Him?

^8kIn measure, by sending it away,

You contended with it.

^lHe removes it by His rough wind

In the day of the east wind.

⁹Therefore by this the iniquity of Jacob will be covered;

And this is all the fruit of taking away his sin:

When he makes all the stones of the altar

Like chalkstones that are beaten to dust,

³Wooden images and incense altars shall not stand.

¹⁰Yet the fortified city will be ^mdesolate,

The habitation forsaken and left like a wilderness;

There the calf will feed, and there it will lie down

And consume its branches.

¹¹When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off;

The women come and set them on fire.

For ⁿit is a people of no understanding;

Therefore He who made them will ^onot have mercy on them,

And ^pHe who formed them will show them no favor.

¹²And it shall come to pass in that day

That the Lord will thresh,

From the channel of ⁴the River to the Brook of Egypt;

And you will be ^qgathered one by one,

O you children of Israel.

^13rSo it shall be in that day:

^sThe great trumpet will be blown;

They will come, who are about to perish in the land of Assyria,

And they who are outcasts in the land of ^tEgypt,

And shall ^uworship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.