Isaiah 24-27

New International Version - UK

⁴ The earth dries up and withers,
    the world languishes and withers,
    the heavens languish with the earth.
⁵ The earth is defiled by its people;
    they have disobeyed the laws,
violated the statutes
    and broken the everlasting covenant.
⁶ Therefore a curse consumes the earth;
    its people must bear their guilt.
Therefore earth’s inhabitants are burned up,
    and very few are left.
⁷ The new wine dries up and the vine withers;
    all the merrymakers groan.
⁸ The joyful tambourines are stilled,
    the noise of the revellers has stopped,
    the joyful harp is silent.
⁹ No longer do they drink wine with a song;
    the beer is bitter to its drinkers.
¹⁰ The ruined city lies desolate;
    the entrance to every house is barred.
¹¹ In the streets they cry out for wine;
    all joy turns to gloom,
    all joyful sounds are banished from the earth.
¹² The city is left in ruins,
    its gate is battered to pieces.
¹³ So will it be on the earth
    and among the nations,
as when an olive tree is beaten,
    or as when gleanings are left after the grape harvest.

¹⁴ They raise their voices, they shout for joy;
    from the west they acclaim the Lord’s majesty.
¹⁵ Therefore in the east give glory to the Lord;
    exalt the name of the Lord, the God of Israel,
    in the islands of the sea.
¹⁶ From the ends of the earth we hear singing:
    ‘Glory to the Righteous One.’

But I said, ‘I waste away, I waste away!
    Woe to me!
The treacherous betray!
    With treachery the treacherous betray!’
¹⁷ Terror and pit and snare await you,
    people of the earth.
¹⁸ Whoever flees at the sound of terror
    will fall into a pit;
whoever climbs out of the pit
    will be caught in a snare.

The floodgates of the heavens are opened,
    the foundations of the earth shake.
¹⁹ The earth is broken up,
    the earth is split asunder,
    the earth is violently shaken.
²⁰ The earth reels like a drunkard,
    it sways like a hut in the wind;
so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion
    that it falls – never to rise again.

²¹ In that day the Lord will punish
    the powers in the heavens above
    and the kings on the earth below.
²² They will be herded together
    like prisoners bound in a dungeon;
they will be shut up in prison
    and be punished^[a] after many days.
²³ The moon will be dismayed,
    the sun ashamed;
for the Lord Almighty will reign
    on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
    and before its elders – with great glory.

⁶ On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare
    a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine –
    the best of meats and the finest of wines.
⁷ On this mountain he will destroy
    the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
⁸     he will swallow up death for ever.
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears
    from all faces;
he will remove his people’s disgrace
    from all the earth.
The Lord has spoken.

‘Surely this is our God;
    we trusted in him, and he saved us.
This is the Lord, we trusted in him;
    let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.’

¹⁰ The hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain;
    but Moab 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 down their pride
    despite the cleverness^[b] of their hands.
¹² He will bring down your high fortified walls
    and lay them low;
he will bring them down to the ground,
    to the very dust.

We have a strong city;
    God makes salvation
    its walls and ramparts.
² Open the gates
    that the righteous nation may enter,
    the nation that keeps faith.
³ You will keep in perfect peace
    those whose minds are steadfast,
    because they trust in you.
⁴ Trust in the Lord for ever,
    for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal.
⁵ He humbles those who dwell on high,
    he lays the lofty city low;
he levels it to the ground
    and casts it down to the dust.
⁶ Feet trample it down –
    the feet of the oppressed,
    the footsteps of the poor.

⁷ The path of the righteous is level;
    you, the Upright One, make the way of the righteous smooth.
⁸ Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws,^[c]
    we wait for you;
your name and renown
    are the desire of our hearts.
⁹ My soul yearns for you in the night;
    in the morning my spirit longs for you.
When your judgments come upon the earth,
    the people of the world learn righteousness.
¹⁰ But when grace is shown to the wicked,
    they do not learn righteousness;
even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil
    and do not regard the majesty of the Lord.
¹¹ Lord, your hand is lifted high,
    but they do not see it.
Let them see your zeal for your people and be put to shame;
    let the fire reserved for your enemies consume them.

¹² Lord, you establish peace for us;
    all that we have accomplished you have done for us.
¹³ Lord our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us,
    but your name alone do we honour.
¹⁴ They are now dead, they live no more;
    their spirits do not rise.
You punished them and brought them to ruin;
    you wiped out all memory of them.
¹⁵ You have enlarged the nation, Lord;
    you have enlarged the nation.
You have gained glory for yourself;
    you have extended all the borders of the land.

¹⁶ Lord, they came to you in their distress;
    when you disciplined them,
    they could barely whisper a prayer.^[d]
17 As a pregnant woman about to give birth
    writhes and cries out in her pain,
    so were we in your presence, Lord.
¹⁸ We were with child, we writhed in labour,
    but we gave birth to wind.
We have not brought salvation to the earth,
    and the people of the world have not come to life.

¹⁹ But your dead will live, Lord;
    their bodies will rise –
let those who dwell in the dust
    wake up and shout for joy –
your dew is like the dew of the morning;
    the earth will give birth to her dead.

²⁰ Go, my people, enter your rooms
    and shut the doors behind you;
hide yourselves for a little while
    until his wrath has passed by.
²¹ See, the Lord is coming out of his dwelling
    to punish the people of the earth for their sins.
The earth will disclose the blood shed on it;
    the earth will conceal its slain no longer.

the Lord will punish with his sword –
    his fierce, great and powerful sword –
Leviathan the gliding serpent,
    Leviathan the coiling serpent;
he will slay the monster of the sea.

‘Sing about a fruitful vineyard:
³     I, the Lord, watch over it;
    I water it continually.
I guard it day and night
    so that no one may harm 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.
⁵ Or else let them come to me for refuge;
    let them make peace with me,
    yes, let them make peace with me.’

⁶ In days to come Jacob will take root,
    Israel will bud and blossom
    and fill all the world with fruit.

⁷ Has the Lord struck her
    as he struck down those who struck her?
Has she been killed
    as those were killed who killed her?
⁸ By warfare^[e] and exile you contend with her –
    with his fierce blast he drives her out,
    as on a day the east wind blows.
⁹ By this, then, will Jacob’s guilt be atoned for,
    and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin:
when he makes all the altar stones
    to be like limestone crushed to pieces,
no Asherah poles^[f] or incense altars
    will be left standing.
¹⁰ The fortified city stands desolate,
    an abandoned settlement, forsaken like the wilderness;
there the calves graze,
    there they lie down;
    they strip its branches bare.
¹¹ When its twigs are dry, they are broken off
    and women come and make fires with them.
For this is a people without understanding;
    so their Maker has no compassion on them,
    and their Creator shows them no favour.