Isaiah 23–25

¹The Burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish, For it hath been destroyed, Without house, without entrance, From the land of Chittim it was revealed to them. ²Be silent, ye inhabitants of the isle, Trader of Zidon, passing the sea, they filled thee. ³And in many waters is the seed of Sihor, The harvest of the brook is her increase, And she is a mart of nations. ⁴Be ashamed, O Zidon; for the sea spake, The strength of the sea, saying: ‘I have not been pained, nor have I brought forth, Nor have I nourished young men, nor brought up virgins.’ ⁵As at the report of Egypt they are pained, So at the report of Tyre. ⁶Pass over to Tarshish, howl, ye inhabitants of the isle, ⁷Is this your exulting one? From the days of old is her antiquity, Carry her do her own feet afar off to sojourn. ⁸Who hath counselled this against Tyre, The crowning one, whose traders are princes, Her merchants the honoured of earth?’ ⁹Jehovah of Hosts hath counselled it, To pollute the excellency of all beauty, To make light all the honoured of earth. ¹⁰Pass through thy land as a brook, Daughter of Tarshish, there is no more a girdle. ¹¹His hand He hath stretched out over the sea, He hath caused kingdoms to tremble, Jehovah hath charged concerning the merchant one, To destroy her strong places. ¹²And He saith, ‘Thou dost not add any more to exult, O oppressed one, virgin daughter of Zidon, To Chittim arise, pass over, Even there—there is no rest for thee.’ ¹³Lo, the land of the Chaldeans—this people was not, Asshur founded it for the Ziim, They raised its watch-towers, They lifted up her palaces,—He hath appointed her for a ruin! ¹⁴Howl, ye ships of Tarshish, For your strength hath been destroyed.

¹⁵And it hath come to pass, in that day, That forgotten is Tyre seventy years, According to the days of one king. At the end of seventy years there is to Tyre as the song of the harlot. ¹⁶Take a harp, go round the city, O forgotten harlot, play well, Multiply song that thou mayest be remembered. ¹⁷And it hath come to pass, At the end of seventy years Jehovah inspecteth Tyre, And she hath repented of her gift, That she committed fornication With all kingdoms of the earth on the face of the ground. ¹⁸And her merchandise and her gift have been holy to Jehovah, Not treasured up nor stored, For to those sitting before Jehovah is her merchandise, To eat to satiety, and for a lasting covering!

Chapter 24

¹Lo, Jehovah is emptying the land, And is making it waste, And hath overturned it on its face, And hath scattered its inhabitants. ²And it hath been—as a people so a priest, As the servant so his master, As the maid-servant so her mistress, As the buyer so the seller, As the lender so the borrower, As the usurer so he who is lifting it on himself. ³Utterly emptied is the land, and utterly spoiled, For Jehovah hath spoken this word: ⁴Mourned, faded hath the land, Languished, faded hath the world, Languished have they—the high place of the people of the land. ⁵And the land hath been defiled under its inhabitants, Because they have transgressed laws, They have changed a statute, They have made void a covenant age-during. ⁶Therefore a curse hath consumed the land, And the inhabitants in it are become desolate, Therefore consumed have been inhabitants of the land, And few men have been left. ⁷Mourned hath the new wine, languished the vine, Sighed have all the joyful of heart. ⁸Ceased hath the joy of tabrets, Ceased hath the noise of exulting ones, Ceased hath the joy of a harp. ⁹With a song they drink not wine, Bitter is strong drink to those drinking it. ¹⁰It was broken down—a city of emptiness, Shut hath been every house from entrance. ¹¹A cry over the wine is in out-places, Darkened hath been all joy, Removed hath been the joy of the land. ¹²Left in the city is desolation, And with wasting is the gate smitten.

¹³When thus it is in the heart of the land, In the midst of the peoples, As the compassing of the olive, As gleanings when harvest hath been finished, ¹⁴They—they lift up their voice, They sing of the excellency of Jehovah, They have cried aloud from the sea. ¹⁵Therefore in prosperity honour ye Jehovah, In isles of the sea, the name of Jehovah, God of Israel.

¹⁶From the skirt of the earth we heard songs, The desire of the righteous. And I say, ‘Leanness is to me, Leanness is to me, woe is to me.’ Treacherous dealers dealt treacherously, Yea, treachery, treacherous dealers dealt treacherously. ¹⁷Fear, and a snare, and a gin, Are on thee, O inhabitant of the land. ¹⁸And it hath come to pass, He who is fleeing from the noise of the fear Doth fall into the snare, And he who is coming up from the midst of the snare, Is captured by the gin, For windows on high have been opened, And shaken are foundations of the land. ¹⁹Utterly broken down hath been the land, Utterly broken hath been the land, Utterly moved hath been the land. ²⁰Stagger greatly doth the land as a drunkard, And it hath been moved as a lodge, And heavy on it hath been its transgression, And it hath fallen, and addeth not to rise. ²¹And it hath come to pass, in that day, Jehovah layeth a charge on the host of the high place in the high place, And on the kings of the land on the land. ²²And they have been gathered—A gathering of bound ones in a pit, And shut up they have been in a prison, And after a multitude of days are inspected. ²³And confounded hath been the moon, And ashamed hath been the sun, For reigned hath Jehovah of Hosts In mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, And over-against His elders—honour!

Chapter 25

¹O Jehovah, my God art Thou, I exalt Thee, I confess Thy name, For Thou hast done a wonderful thing, Counsels of old, stedfastness, O stedfast One. ²For Thou didst make of a city a heap, Of a fenced city a ruin, A high place of strangers from being a city, To the age it is not built. ³Therefore honour Thee do a strong people, A city of the terrible nations feareth Thee. ⁴For Thou hast been a stronghold for the poor, A stronghold for the needy in his distress, A refuge from storm, a shadow from heat, When the spirit of the terrible is as a storm—a wall. ⁵As heat in a dry place, The noise of strangers Thou humblest, Heat with the shadow of a thick cloud, The singing of the terrible is humbled.

⁶And made hath Jehovah of Hosts, For all the peoples in this mount, A banquet of fat things, a banquet of preserved things, Fat things full of marrow, preserved things refined. ⁷And swallowed up hath He in this mountain The face of the wrapping that is wrapped over all the peoples, And of the covering that is spread over all the nations. ⁸He hath swallowed up death in victory, And wiped hath the Lord Jehovah, The tear from off all faces, And the reproach of His people He turneth aside from off all the earth, For Jehovah hath spoken.

⁹And one hath said in that day, ‘Lo, this is our God, We waited for Him, and He saveth us, This is Jehovah, we have waited for Him, We joy and rejoice in His salvation.’ ¹⁰For rest doth the hand of Jehovah on this mountain, And trodden down is Moab under Him, As trodden down is straw on a dunghill. ¹¹And he spread out his hands in its midst, As spread out doth the swimmer to swim; And He hath humbled his excellency With the machinations of his hands. ¹²And the fortress of the high place of thy walls He hath bowed down—He hath made low, He hath caused it to come to the earth,—unto dust.

Chapter 26