Isaiah 24–27

Chapter 24

Destruction of the Earth

¹Look! The Lord is about to destroy the earth

and make it a vast wasteland.

He devastates the surface of the earth

and scatters the people.

²Priests and laypeople,

servants and masters,

maids and mistresses,

buyers and sellers,

lenders and borrowers,

bankers and debtors—none will be spared.

³The earth will be completely emptied and looted.

The Lord has spoken!

⁴The earth mourns and dries up,

and the land wastes away and withers.

Even the greatest people on earth waste away.

⁵The earth suffers for the sins of its people,

for they have twisted God’s instructions,

violated his laws,

and broken his everlasting covenant.

⁶Therefore, a curse consumes the earth.

Its people must pay the price for their sin.

They are destroyed by fire,

and only a few are left alive.

⁷The grapevines waste away,

and there is no new wine.

All the merrymakers sigh and mourn.

⁸The cheerful sound of tambourines is stilled;

the happy cries of celebration are heard no more.

The melodious chords of the harp are silent.

⁹Gone are the joys of wine and song;

alcoholic drink turns bitter in the mouth.

¹⁰The city writhes in chaos;

every home is locked to keep out intruders.

¹¹Mobs gather in the streets, crying out for wine.

Joy has turned to gloom.

Gladness has been banished from the land.

¹²The city is left in ruins,

its gates battered down.

¹³Throughout the earth the story is the same—

only a remnant is left,

like the stray olives left on the tree

or the few grapes left on the vine after harvest.

¹⁴But all who are left shout and sing for joy.

Those in the west praise the Lord’s majesty.

¹⁵In eastern lands, give glory to the Lord.

In the lands beyond the sea, praise the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

¹⁶We hear songs of praise from the ends of the earth,

songs that give glory to the Righteous One!

But my heart is heavy with grief.

Weep for me, for I wither away.

Deceit still prevails,

and treachery is everywhere.

¹⁷Terror and traps and snares will be your lot,

you people of the earth.

¹⁸Those who flee in terror will fall into a trap,

and those who escape the trap will be caught in a snare.

Destruction falls like rain from the heavens;

the foundations of the earth shake.

¹⁹The earth has broken up.

It has utterly collapsed;

it is violently shaken.

²⁰The earth staggers like a drunk.

It trembles like a tent in a storm.

It falls and will not rise again,

for the guilt of its rebellion is very heavy.

²¹In that day the Lord will punish the gods in the heavens

and the proud rulers of the nations on earth.

²²They will be rounded up and put in prison.

They will be shut up in prison

and will finally be punished.

²³Then the glory of the moon will wane,

and the brightness of the sun will fade,

for the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will rule on Mount Zion.

He will rule in great glory in Jerusalem,

in the sight of all the leaders of his people.

Chapter 25

Praise for Judgment and Salvation

¹O Lord, I will honor and praise your name,

for you are my God.

You do such wonderful things!

You planned them long ago,

and now you have accomplished them.

²You turn mighty cities into heaps of ruins.

Cities with strong walls are turned to rubble.

Beautiful palaces in distant lands disappear

and will never be rebuilt.

³Therefore, strong nations will declare your glory;

ruthless nations will fear you.

⁴But you are a tower of refuge to the poor, O Lord,

a tower of refuge to the needy in distress.

You are a refuge from the storm

and a shelter from the heat.

For the oppressive acts of ruthless people

are like a storm beating against a wall,

⁵or like the relentless heat of the desert.

But you silence the roar of foreign nations.

As the shade of a cloud cools relentless heat,

so the boastful songs of ruthless people are stilled.

⁶In Jerusalem, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies

will spread a wonderful feast

for all the people of the world.

It will be a delicious banquet

with clear, well-aged wine and choice meat.

⁷There he will remove the cloud of gloom,

the shadow of death that hangs over the earth.

⁸He will swallow up death forever!

The Sovereign Lord will wipe away all tears.

He will remove forever all insults and mockery

against his land and people.

The Lord has spoken!

⁹In that day the people will proclaim,

“This is our God!

We trusted in him, and he saved us!

This is the Lord, in whom we trusted.

Let us rejoice in the salvation he brings!”

¹⁰For the Lord’s hand of blessing will rest on Jerusalem.

But Moab will be crushed.

It will be like straw trampled down and left to rot.

¹¹God will push down Moab’s people

as a swimmer pushes down water with his hands.

He will end their pride

and all their evil works.

¹²The high walls of Moab will be demolished.

They will be brought down to the ground,

down into the dust.

Chapter 26

A Song of Praise to the Lord

In that day, everyone in the land of Judah will sing this song:

Our city is strong!

We are surrounded by the walls of God’s salvation.

²Open the gates to all who are righteous;

allow the faithful to enter.

³You will keep in perfect peace

all who trust in you,

all whose thoughts are fixed on you!

⁴Trust in the Lord always,

for the Lord God is the eternal Rock.

⁵He humbles the proud

and brings down the arrogant city.

He brings it down to the dust.

⁶The poor and oppressed trample it underfoot,

and the needy walk all over it.

⁷But for those who are righteous,

the way is not steep and rough.

You are a God who does what is right,

and you smooth out the path ahead of them.

⁸Lord, we show our trust in you by obeying your laws;

our heart’s desire is to glorify your name.

⁹In the night I search for you;

in the morning I earnestly seek you.

For only when you come to judge the earth

will people learn what is right.

¹⁰Your kindness to the wicked

does not make them do good.

Although others do right, the wicked keep doing wrong

and take no notice of the Lord’s majesty.

¹¹O Lord, they pay no attention to your upraised fist.

Show them your eagerness to defend your people.

Then they will be ashamed.

Let your fire consume your enemies.

¹²Lord, you will grant us peace;

all we have accomplished is really from you.

¹³O Lord our God, others have ruled us,

but you alone are the one we worship.

¹⁴Those we served before are dead and gone.

Their departed spirits will never return!

You attacked them and destroyed them,

and they are long forgotten.

¹⁵O Lord, you have made our nation great;

yes, you have made us great.

You have extended our borders,

and we give you the glory!

¹⁶Lord, in distress we searched for you.

We prayed beneath the burden of your discipline.

¹⁷Just as a pregnant woman

writhes and cries out in pain as she gives birth,

so were we in your presence, Lord.

¹⁸We, too, writhe in agony,

but nothing comes of our suffering.

We have not given salvation to the earth,

nor brought life into the world.

¹⁹But those who die in the Lord will live;

their bodies will rise again!

Those who sleep in the earth

will rise up and sing for joy!

For your life-giving light will fall like dew

on your people in the place of the dead!

Restoration for Israel

²⁰Go home, my people,

and lock your doors!

Hide yourselves for a little while

until the Lord’s anger has passed.

²¹Look! The Lord is coming from heaven

to punish the people of the earth for their sins.

The earth will no longer hide those who have been killed.

They will be brought out for all to see.

Chapter 27

In that day the Lord will take his terrible, swift sword and punish Leviathan, the swiftly moving serpent, the coiling, writhing serpent. He will kill the dragon of the sea.

²“In that day,

sing about the fruitful vineyard.

³I, the Lord, will watch over it,

watering it carefully.

Day and night I will watch so no one can harm it.

⁴My anger will be gone.

If I find briers and thorns growing,

I will attack them;

I will burn them up—

⁵unless they turn to me for help.

Let them make peace with me;

yes, let them make peace with me.”

⁶The time is coming when Jacob’s descendants will take root.

Israel will bud and blossom

and fill the whole earth with fruit!

⁷Has the Lord struck Israel

as he struck her enemies?

Has he punished her

as he punished them?

⁸No, but he exiled Israel to call her to account.

She was exiled from her land

as though blown away in a storm from the east.

⁹The Lord did this to purge Israel’s wickedness,

to take away all her sin.

As a result, all the pagan altars will be crushed to dust.

No Asherah pole or pagan shrine will be left standing.

¹⁰The fortified towns will be silent and empty,

the houses abandoned, the streets overgrown with weeds.

Calves will graze there,

chewing on twigs and branches.

¹¹The people are like the dead branches of a tree,

broken off and used for kindling beneath the cooking pots.

Israel is a foolish and stupid nation,

for its people have turned away from God.

Therefore, the one who made them

will show them no pity or mercy.

¹²Yet the time will come when the Lord will gather them together like handpicked grain. One by one he will gather them—from the Euphrates River in the east to the Brook of Egypt in the west. ¹³In that day the great trumpet will sound. Many who were dying in exile in Assyria and Egypt will return to Jerusalem to worship the Lord on his holy mountain.