Isaiah 23-28
English Standard Version
An Oracle Concerning Tyre and Sidon
23 The (A)oracle concerning (B)Tyre.
Wail, O (C)ships of Tarshish,
for Tyre is laid waste, (D)without house or harbor!
From (E)the land of Cyprus[a]
it is revealed to them.
2 Be still, O inhabitants of the coast;
the merchants of (F)Sidon, who cross the sea, have filled you.
3 And on many waters
your revenue was the grain of Shihor,
the harvest of the Nile;
you were (G)the merchant of the nations.
4 Be ashamed, O (H)Sidon, for the sea has spoken,
the stronghold of the sea, saying:
“I have neither labored nor given birth,
I have neither reared young men
nor brought up young women.”
5 When the report comes to Egypt,
they will be in anguish[b] over the report about Tyre.
6 (I)Cross over to Tarshish;
wail, O inhabitants of the coast!
7 Is this your exultant city
(J)whose origin is from days of old,
whose feet carried her
to settle far away?
8 Who has purposed this
against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,
whose merchants were princes,
whose traders were the honored of the earth?
9 The Lord of hosts has purposed it,
(K)to defile the pompous pride of all glory,[c]
to dishonor all the honored of the earth.
10 Cross over your land like the Nile,
O daughter of Tarshish;
there is no restraint anymore.
11 (L)He has stretched out his hand over the sea;
he has shaken the kingdoms;
the Lord has given command concerning Canaan
to destroy its strongholds.
12 And he said:
“You will no more exult,
O oppressed virgin daughter of (M)Sidon;
arise, (N)cross over to (O)Cyprus,
even there you will have no rest.”
13 Behold the land of (P)the Chaldeans! This is the people that was not;[d] Assyria destined it for wild beasts. They erected (Q)their siege towers, they stripped her palaces bare, they made her a ruin.
14 (R)Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
for your stronghold is laid waste.
15 In that day Tyre will be forgotten for (S)seventy years, like the days[e] of one king. At the end of (T)seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute:
16 “Take a harp;
go about the city,
O forgotten prostitute!
Make sweet melody;
sing many songs,
that you may be remembered.”
17 At the end of (U)seventy years, the Lord will visit Tyre, and she will return to her wages and (V)will prostitute herself with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth. 18 Her merchandise and her wages will be holy to the Lord. It will not be stored or hoarded, but her merchandise will supply abundant food and fine clothing for those who dwell before the Lord.
Judgment on the Whole Earth
24 Behold, (W)the Lord will empty the earth[f] and make it desolate,
and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants.
2 (X)And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest;
as with the slave, so with his master;
as with the maid, so with her mistress;
(Y)as with the buyer, so with the seller;
as with the lender, so with the borrower;
(Z)as with the creditor, so with the debtor.
3 (AA)The earth shall be utterly empty and utterly plundered;
(AB)for the Lord has spoken this word.
4 (AC)The earth mourns and withers;
the world languishes and withers;
the highest people of the earth languish.
5 The earth lies (AD)defiled
under its inhabitants;
for (AE)they have transgressed the laws,
violated the statutes,
broken the everlasting covenant.
6 Therefore (AF)a curse devours the earth,
and its inhabitants (AG)suffer for their guilt;
therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched,
and few men are left.
7 (AH)The wine mourns,
the vine languishes,
all the merry-hearted sigh.
8 (AI)The mirth of the tambourines is stilled,
the noise of the jubilant has ceased,
the mirth of the lyre is stilled.
9 No more do they drink wine (AJ)with singing;
strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.
10 (AK)The wasted city is broken down;
(AL)every house is shut up so that none can enter.
11 (AM)There is an outcry in the streets for lack of wine;
(AN)all joy has grown dark;
the gladness of the earth is banished.
12 Desolation is left in the city;
the gates are battered into ruins.
13 For thus it shall be in the midst of the earth
among the nations,
(AO)as when an olive tree is beaten,
as at the gleaning when the grape harvest is done.
14 They lift up their voices, they sing for joy;
over the majesty of the Lord they shout from the west.[g]
15 (AP)Therefore in the east[h] give glory to the Lord;
in the coastlands of the sea, give glory to the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.
16 (AQ)From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise,
of glory to (AR)the Righteous One.
But I say, “I waste away,
I waste away. Woe is me!
For (AS)the traitors have betrayed,
with betrayal the traitors have betrayed.”
17 (AT)Terror and the pit and the snare[i]
are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth!
18 (AU)He who flees at the sound of the terror
shall fall into the pit,
and he who climbs out of the pit
shall be caught in the snare.
For (AV)the windows of heaven are opened,
and (AW)the foundations of the earth tremble.
19 The earth is utterly broken,
the earth is split apart,
the earth is violently shaken.
20 The earth (AX)staggers like a drunken man;
it sways like a hut;
(AY)its transgression lies heavy upon it,
and it falls, and will not rise again.
21 On that day the Lord will punish
the host of heaven, in heaven,
and (AZ)the kings of the earth, on the earth.
22 (BA)They will be gathered together
as prisoners in a pit;
they will be shut up in a prison,
and after many days (BB)they will be punished.
23 (BC)Then the moon will be confounded
and the sun ashamed,
for (BD)the Lord of hosts reigns
on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
and his glory will be before his elders.
God Will Swallow Up Death Forever
25 O Lord, (BE)you are my God;
(BF)I will exalt you; I will praise your name,
for you have done wonderful things,
(BG)plans formed of old, faithful and sure.
2 For you have made the city (BH)a heap,
the fortified city a ruin;
the foreigners' palace is a city no more;
it will never be rebuilt.
3 (BI)Therefore strong peoples will glorify you;
cities of ruthless nations will fear you.
4 (BJ)For you have been a stronghold to the poor,
a stronghold to the needy in his distress,
(BK)a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat;
(BL)for the breath of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall,
5 (BM)like heat in a dry place.
You subdue the noise of the foreigners;
as heat by the shade of a cloud,
so the song of the ruthless is put down.
6 (BN)On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,
(BO)of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
7 And he will swallow up (BP)on this mountain
the covering that is cast over all peoples,
(BQ)the veil that is spread over all nations.
8 (BR)He will swallow up death forever;
and (BS)the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
and (BT)the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
(BU)for the Lord has spoken.
9 It will be said on that day,
“Behold, this is our God; (BV)we have waited for him, that he might save us.
This is the Lord; we have waited for him;
(BW)let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
10 For the hand of the Lord will rest (BX)on this mountain,
and (BY)Moab shall be trampled down in his place,
as straw is trampled down in a dunghill.[j]
11 (BZ)And he will spread out his hands in the midst of it
as a swimmer spreads his hands out to swim,
but the Lord (CA)will lay low his pompous pride together with the skill[k] of his hands.
12 And the high fortifications of his walls he will bring down,
lay low, and cast to the ground, to the dust.
You Keep Him in Perfect Peace
26 In that day (CB)this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
“We have a strong city;
he sets up (CC)salvation
as walls and bulwarks.
2 (CD)Open the gates,
that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in.
3 (CE)You keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on you,
because he trusts in you.
4 Trust in the Lord forever,
for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.
5 (CF)For he has humbled
the inhabitants of the height,
the lofty city.
He lays it low, lays it low to the ground,
casts it to the dust.
6 The foot tramples it,
the feet of (CG)the poor,
the steps of (CH)the needy.”
7 The path of the righteous is level;
(CI)you make level the way of the righteous.
8 In the path of your judgments,
O Lord, we wait for you;
(CJ)your name and (CK)remembrance
are the desire of our soul.
9 My soul yearns for you in the night;
my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.
(CL)For when your judgments are in the earth,
the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
10 (CM)If favor is shown to the wicked,
he does not learn righteousness;
in the land of uprightness he deals corruptly
and does not see the majesty of the Lord.
11 O Lord, (CN)your hand is lifted up,
but (CO)they do not see it.
Let them see your zeal for your people, and be ashamed.
Let (CP)the fire for your adversaries consume them.
12 O Lord, you will ordain (CQ)peace for us,
for you have indeed done for us all our works.
13 O Lord our God,
(CR)other lords besides you have ruled over us,
(CS)but your name alone we bring to remembrance.
14 They are dead, they will not live;
they are shades, they will not arise;
to that end you have visited them with destruction
and wiped out all remembrance of them.
15 (CT)But you have increased the nation, O Lord,
you have increased the nation; you are glorified;
(CU)you have enlarged all the borders of the land.
16 O Lord, (CV)in distress they sought you;
they poured out a whispered prayer
when your discipline was upon them.
17 (CW)Like a pregnant woman
who writhes and cries out in her pangs
when she is near to giving birth,
so were we because of you, O Lord;
18 (CX)we were pregnant, we writhed,
but we have given birth to wind.
We have accomplished no deliverance in the earth,
and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.
19 (CY)Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise.
You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!
For (CZ)your dew is a dew of light,
and the earth will give birth to the dead.
20 Come, my people, enter your chambers,
and shut your doors behind you;
hide yourselves (DA)for a little while
until the fury has passed by.
21 (DB)For behold, the Lord is coming out from his place
to punish the inhabitants of (DC)the earth for their iniquity,
and the earth will disclose the blood shed on it,
and will no more cover its slain.
The Redemption of Israel
27 In that day the Lord with his hard and great and strong (DD)sword will punish (DE)Leviathan the fleeing serpent, (DF)Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay (DG)the dragon that is in the sea.
2 In that day,
(DH)“A pleasant vineyard,[l] (DI)sing of it!
3 I, the Lord, am its keeper;
every moment I water it.
Lest anyone punish it,
I keep it night and day;
4 I have no wrath.
(DJ)Would that I had thorns and briers to battle!
I would march against them,
I would burn them up together.
5 Or let them lay hold of my protection,
let them make peace with me,
let them make peace with me.”
6 (DK)In days to come[m] Jacob shall take root,
Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots
and fill the whole world with fruit.
7 (DL)Has he struck them (DM)as he struck those who struck them?
Or have they been slain (DN)as their slayers were slain?
8 (DO)Measure by measure,[n] by exile you contended with them;
(DP)he removed them with his fierce breath[o] in the day of the east wind.
9 Therefore by this (DQ)the guilt of Jacob will be atoned for,
and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin:[p]
(DR)when he makes all the stones of the altars
like chalkstones crushed to pieces,
no (DS)Asherim or incense altars will remain standing.
10 (DT)For the fortified city is solitary,
a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness;
there the calf grazes;
there it lies down and strips its branches.
11 When its boughs are dry, they are broken;
women come and make a fire of them.
(DU)For this is a people without discernment;
therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them;
he who formed them will show them no favor.
12 In that day (DV)from the river Euphrates[q] to the Brook of Egypt the Lord will thresh out the grain, and you will be gleaned one by one, O people of Israel. 13 And in that day (DW)a great trumpet will be blown, (DX)and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt (DY)will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.
Judgment on Ephraim and Jerusalem
28 Ah, the proud crown of (DZ)the drunkards of Ephraim,
and the fading flower of its glorious beauty,
which is on the head of the rich valley of those overcome with wine!
2 Behold, the Lord has (EA)one who is mighty and strong;
like a storm of hail, a destroying tempest,
like (EB)a storm of mighty, overflowing waters,
he casts down to the earth with his hand.
3 (EC)The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim
will be trodden underfoot;
4 (ED)and the fading flower of its glorious beauty,
which is on the head of the rich valley,
will be like (EE)a first-ripe fig[r] before the summer:
when someone sees it, he swallows it
as soon as it is in his hand.
5 (EF)In that day the Lord of hosts will be a crown of glory,[s]
and a diadem of beauty, to the remnant of his people,
6 and (EG)a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment,
and (EH)strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.
7 (EI)These also reel with wine
and (EJ)stagger with strong drink;
the priest and (EK)the prophet reel with strong drink,
they are swallowed by[t] wine,
they stagger with strong drink,
they reel in vision,
they stumble in giving judgment.
8 For all tables are full of filthy vomit,
with no space left.
9 (EL)“To whom will he teach knowledge,
and to whom will he explain the message?
Those who are weaned from the milk,
those taken from the breast?
10 For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
line upon line, line upon line,
here a little, there a little.”
11 (EM)For by people of strange lips
and with a foreign tongue
the Lord will speak to this people,
12 to whom he has said,
(EN)“This is rest;
give rest to the weary;
and this is repose”;
yet they would not hear.
13 And the word of the Lord will be to them
precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
line upon line, line upon line,
here a little, there a little,
(EO)that they may go, and fall backward,
and be broken, and snared, and taken.
A Cornerstone in Zion
14 Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you (EP)scoffers,
who rule this people in Jerusalem!
15 Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death,
and with Sheol we have an agreement,
when the (EQ)overwhelming whip passes through
it will not come to us,
for we have made (ER)lies our refuge,
and in falsehood we have taken shelter”;
16 therefore thus says the Lord God,
(ES)“Behold, I am the one who has laid[u] as a foundation (ET)in Zion,
a stone, a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation:
‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’
17 And I will make justice (EU)the line,
and righteousness (EV)the plumb line;
and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,
and waters will overwhelm the shelter.”
18 Then (EW)your covenant with death will be annulled,
and your agreement with Sheol will not stand;
when the overwhelming scourge passes through,
you will be beaten down by it.
19 As often as it passes through it will take you;
(EX)for morning by morning it will pass through,
by day and by night;
and it will be (EY)sheer terror to understand the message.
20 For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on,
and the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in.
21 For the Lord will rise up (EZ)as on Mount Perazim;
(FA)as in the Valley of (FB)Gibeon he will be roused;
to do his deed—strange is his deed!
and to work his work—alien is his work!
22 Now therefore do not (FC)scoff,
lest your bonds be made strong;
for I have heard (FD)a decree of destruction
from the Lord God of hosts against the whole land.
23 Give ear, and hear my voice;
give attention, and hear my speech.
24 Does he who plows for sowing plow continually?
Does he continually open and harrow his ground?
25 (FE)When he has leveled its surface,
does he not scatter dill, sow cumin,
and put in wheat in rows
and barley in its proper place,
and emmer[v] as the border?
26 (FF)For he is rightly instructed;
his God teaches him.
27 Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge,
nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin,
but dill is beaten out with a stick,
and cumin with a rod.
28 Does one crush grain for bread?
No, he does not thresh it forever;[w]
when he drives his cart wheel over it
with his horses, he does not crush it.
29 This also comes from the Lord of hosts;
he is (FG)wonderful in counsel
and excellent in wisdom.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 23:1 Hebrew Kittim; also verse 12
- Isaiah 23:5 Hebrew they will have labor pains
- Isaiah 23:9 The Hebrew words for glory and hosts sound alike
- Isaiah 23:13 Or that has become nothing
- Isaiah 23:15 Or lifetime
- Isaiah 24:1 Or land; also throughout this chapter
- Isaiah 24:14 Hebrew from the sea
- Isaiah 24:15 Hebrew in the realm of light, or with the fires
- Isaiah 24:17 The Hebrew words for terror, pit, and snare sound alike
- Isaiah 25:10 The Hebrew words for dunghill and for the Moabite town Madmen (Jeremiah 48:2) sound alike
- Isaiah 25:11 Or in spite of the skill
- Isaiah 27:2 Many Hebrew manuscripts A vineyard of wine
- Isaiah 27:6 Hebrew In those to come
- Isaiah 27:8 Or By driving her away; the meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain
- Isaiah 27:8 Or wind
- Isaiah 27:9 Septuagint and this is the blessing when I take away his sin
- Isaiah 27:12 Hebrew from the River
- Isaiah 28:4 Or fruit
- Isaiah 28:5 The Hebrew words for glory and hosts sound alike
- Isaiah 28:7 Or confused by
- Isaiah 28:16 Dead Sea Scroll I am laying
- Isaiah 28:25 A type of wheat
- Isaiah 28:28 Or Grain is crushed for bread; he will surely thresh it, but not forever
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
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