Isaiah 25:1-28:13

New International Version

Praise to the Lord

25 Lord, you are my God;^(A)
    I will exalt you and praise your name,^(B)
for in perfect faithfulness^(C)
    you have done wonderful things,^(D)
    things planned^(E) long ago.
²You have made the city a heap of rubble,^(F)
    the fortified^(G) town a ruin,^(H)
the foreigners’ stronghold^(I) a city no more;
    it will never be rebuilt.^(J)
³Therefore strong peoples will honor you;^(K)
    cities of ruthless^(L) nations will revere you.
⁴You have been a refuge^(M) for the poor,^(N)
    a refuge for the needy^(O) in their distress,
a shelter from the storm^(P)
    and a shade from the heat.
For the breath of the ruthless^(Q)
    is like a storm driving against a wall
⁵    and like the heat of the desert.
You silence^(R) the uproar of foreigners;^(S)
    as heat is reduced by the shadow of a cloud,
    so the song of the ruthless^(T) is stilled.

⁶On this mountain^(U) the Lord Almighty will prepare
    a feast^(V) of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine—
    the best of meats and the finest of wines.^(W)
⁷On this mountain he will destroy
    the shroud^(X) that enfolds all peoples,^(Y)
the sheet that covers all nations;
⁸    he will swallow up death^(Z) forever.
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears^(AA)
    from all faces;
he will remove his people’s disgrace^(AB)
    from all the earth.
The Lord has spoken.^(AC)

⁹In that day^(AD) they will say,

“Surely this is our God;^(AE)
we trusted^(AF) in him, and he saved^(AG) us.
This is the Lord, we trusted in him;
let us rejoice^(AH) and be glad in his salvation.”^(AI)

¹⁰The hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain;^(AJ)
    but Moab^(AK) will be trampled in their land
    as straw is trampled down in the manure.
¹¹They will stretch out their hands in it,
    as swimmers stretch out their hands to swim.
God will bring down^(AL) their pride^(AM)
    despite the cleverness^[a] of their hands.
¹²He will bring down your high fortified walls^(AN)
    and lay them low;^(AO)
he will bring them down to the ground,
    to the very dust.

A Song of Praise

26 In that day^(AP) this song will be sung^(AQ) in the land of Judah:

We have a strong city;^(AR)
    God makes salvation
    its walls^(AS) and ramparts.^(AT)
²Open the gates^(AU)
    that the righteous^(AV) nation may enter,
    the nation that keeps faith.
³You will keep in perfect peace^(AW)
    those whose minds are steadfast,
    because they trust^(AX) in you.
⁴Trust^(AY) in the Lord forever,^(AZ)
    for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock^(BA) eternal.
⁵He humbles those who dwell on high,
    he lays the lofty city low;
he levels it to the ground^(BB)
    and casts it down to the dust.^(BC)
⁶Feet trample^(BD) it down—
    the feet of the oppressed,^(BE)
    the footsteps of the poor.^(BF)

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

¹²Lord, you establish peace^(BY) for us;
    all that we have accomplished you have done^(BZ) for us.
¹³Lord our God, other lords^(CA) besides you have ruled over us,
    but your name^(CB) alone do we honor.^(CC)
¹⁴They are now dead,^(CD) they live no more;
    their spirits^(CE) do not rise.
You punished them and brought them to ruin;^(CF)
    you wiped out all memory of them.^(CG)
¹⁵You have enlarged the nation, Lord;
    you have enlarged the nation.^(CH)
You have gained glory for yourself;
    you have extended all the borders^(CI) of the land.

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

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

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

Deliverance of Israel

27 In that day,^(DC)

the Lord will punish with his sword^(DD)—
his fierce, great and powerful sword—
Leviathan^(DE) the gliding serpent,^(DF)
Leviathan the coiling serpent;
he will slay the monster^(DG) of the sea.

²In that day^(DH)—

“Sing^(DI) about a fruitful vineyard:^(DJ)
³    I, the Lord, watch over it;
    I water^(DK) it continually.
I guard^(DL) it day and night
    so that no one may harm^(DM) 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.^(DN)
⁵Or else let them come to me for refuge;^(DO)
    let them make peace^(DP) with me,
    yes, let them make peace with me.”

⁶In days to come Jacob will take root,^(DQ)
Israel will bud and blossom^(DR)
and fill all the world with fruit.^(DS)

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

¹²In that day the Lord will thresh^(EK) from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt,^(EL) and you, Israel, will be gathered^(EM) up one by one. ¹³And in that day^(EN) a great trumpet^(EO) will sound. Those who were perishing in Assyria and those who were exiled^(EP) in Egypt^(EQ) will come and worship^(ER) the Lord on the holy mountain^(ES) in Jerusalem.

Woe to the Leaders of Ephraim and Judah

28 Woe^(ET) to that wreath, the pride of Ephraim’s^(EU) drunkards,
    to the fading flower, his glorious beauty,
set on the head of a fertile valley^(EV)—
    to that city, the pride of those laid low by wine!^(EW)
²See, the Lord has one who is powerful^(EX) and strong.
    Like a hailstorm^(EY) and a destructive wind,^(EZ)
like a driving rain and a flooding^(FA) downpour,
    he will throw it forcefully to the ground.
³That wreath, the pride of Ephraim’s^(FB) drunkards,
    will be trampled^(FC) underfoot.
⁴That fading flower, his glorious beauty,
    set on the head of a fertile valley,^(FD)
will be like figs^(FE) ripe before harvest—
    as soon as people see them and take them in hand,
    they swallow them.

⁵In that day^(FF) the Lord Almighty
    will be a glorious^(FG) crown,^(FH)
a beautiful wreath
    for the remnant^(FI) of his people.
⁶He will be a spirit of justice^(FJ)
    to the one who sits in judgment,^(FK)
a source of strength
    to those who turn back the battle^(FL) at the gate.

⁷And these also stagger^(FM) from wine^(FN)
    and reel^(FO) from beer:
Priests^(FP) and prophets^(FQ) stagger from beer
    and are befuddled with wine;
they reel from beer,
    they stagger when seeing visions,^(FR)
    they stumble when rendering decisions.
⁸All the tables are covered with vomit^(FS)
    and there is not a spot without filth.

⁹“Who is it he is trying to teach?^(FT)
    To whom is he explaining his message?^(FU)
To children weaned^(FV) from their milk,^(FW)
    to those just taken from the breast?
¹⁰For it is:
    Do this, do that,
    a rule for this, a rule for that^[f];
    a little here, a little there.^(FX)”

¹¹Very well then, with foreign lips and strange tongues^(FY)
    God will speak to this people,^(FZ)
¹²to whom he said,
    “This is the resting place, let the weary rest”;^(GA)
and, “This is the place of repose”—
    but they would not listen.
¹³So then, the word of the Lord to them will become:
    Do this, do that,
    a rule for this, a rule for that;
    a little here, a little there^(GB)—
so that as they go they will fall backward;
    they will be injured^(GC) and snared and captured.^(GD)

Footnotes

Isaiah 25:11 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.
Isaiah 26:8 Or judgments
Isaiah 26:16 The meaning of the Hebrew for this clause is uncertain.
Isaiah 27:8 See Septuagint; the meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.
Isaiah 27:9 That is, wooden symbols of the goddess Asherah
Isaiah 28:10 Hebrew / sav lasav sav lasav / kav lakav kav lakav (probably meaningless sounds mimicking the prophet’s words); also in verse 13

Isaiah 25:1-28:13

New King James Version

Praise to God

25 O Lord, You are my God.
^(A)I will exalt You,
I will praise Your name,
^(B)For You have done wonderful things;
^(C)Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
²For You have made ^(D)a 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 ^(E)glorify You;
The city of the ^[a]terrible nations will fear You.
⁴For You have been a strength to the poor,
A strength to the needy in his distress,
^(F)A 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 ^[b]diminished.

⁶And in ^(G)this mountain
^(H)The Lord of hosts will make for ^(I)all people
A feast of ^[c]choice pieces,
A feast of ^[d]wines 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 ^(J)the veil that is spread over all nations.
⁸He will ^(K)swallow up death forever,
And the Lord God will ^(L)wipe 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;
^(M)We have waited for Him, and He will save us.
This is the Lord;
We have waited for Him;
^(N)We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.”

¹⁰For on this mountain the hand of the Lord will rest,
And ^(O)Moab 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 ^(P)pride
Together with the trickery of their hands.
¹²The ^(Q)fortress 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

26 In ^(R)that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

“We have a strong city;
^(S)God will appoint salvation for walls and bulwarks.
²^(T)Open the gates,
That the righteous nation which ^[e]keeps the truth may enter in.
³You will keep him in perfect ^(U)peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.
⁴Trust in the Lord forever,
^(V)For in Yah, the Lord, is ^[f]everlasting strength.
⁵For He brings ^[g]down those who dwell on high,
^(W)The lofty city;
He lays it low,
He lays it low to the ground,
He brings it down to the dust.
⁶The foot shall ^[h]tread it down—
The feet of the poor
And the steps of the needy.”

⁷The way of the just is uprightness;
^(X)O Most Upright,
You ^[i]weigh the path of the just.
⁸Yes, ^(Y)in the way of Your judgments,
O Lord, we have ^(Z)waited for You;
The desire of our soul is for Your name
And for the remembrance of You.
⁹^(AA)With 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.

¹⁰^(AB)Let grace be shown to the wicked,
Yet he will not learn righteousness;
In ^(AC)the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly,
And will not behold the majesty of the Lord.
¹¹Lord, when Your hand is lifted up, ^(AD)they will not see.
But they will see and be ashamed
For ^[j]their 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 ^[k]in us.
¹³O Lord our God, ^(AE)masters 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 ^(AF)perish.
¹⁵You have increased the nation, O Lord,
You have ^(AG)increased the nation;
You are glorified;
You have expanded all the ^[l]borders of the land.

¹⁶Lord, ^(AH)in trouble they have visited You,
They poured out a prayer when Your chastening was upon them.
¹⁷As ^(AI)a woman with child
Is in pain and cries out in her ^[m]pangs,
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, ^[n]brought forth wind;
We have not accomplished any deliverance in the earth,
Nor have ^(AJ)the inhabitants of the world fallen.

¹⁹^(AK)Your dead shall live;
Together with ^[o]my dead body they shall arise.
^(AL)Awake 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, ^(AM)enter your chambers,
And shut your doors behind you;
Hide yourself, as it were, ^(AN)for a little moment,
Until the indignation is past.
²¹For behold, the Lord ^(AO)comes out of His place
To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;
The earth will also disclose her ^[p]blood,
And will no more cover her slain.

Israel Will Be Restored

27 In that day the Lord with His severe sword, great and strong,
Will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent,
^(AP)Leviathan that twisted serpent;
And He will slay ^(AQ)the reptile that is in the sea.

The Restoration of Israel

²In that day ^(AR)sing to her,
^(AS)“A vineyard of ^[q]red wine!
³^(AT)I, 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 ^(AU)briers and thorns
Against Me in battle?
I would go through them,
I would burn them together.
⁵Or let him take hold ^(AV)of My strength,
That he may ^(AW)make peace with Me;
And he shall make peace with Me.”

⁶Those who come He shall cause ^(AX)to take root in Jacob;
Israel shall blossom and bud,
And fill the face of the world with fruit.

⁷^(AY)Has He struck ^[r]Israel as He struck those who struck him?
Or has He been slain according to the slaughter of those who were slain by Him?
⁸^(AZ)In measure, by sending it away,
You contended with it.
^(BA)He 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,
^[s]Wooden images and incense altars shall not stand.

¹⁰Yet the fortified city will be ^(BB)desolate,
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 ^(BC)it is a people of no understanding;
Therefore He who made them will ^(BD)not have mercy on them,
And ^(BE)He 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 ^[t]the River to the Brook of Egypt;
And you will be ^(BF)gathered one by one,
O you children of Israel.

¹³^(BG)So it shall be in that day:
^(BH)The 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 ^(BI)Egypt,
And shall ^(BJ)worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.

Woe to Ephraim and Jerusalem

28 Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim,
Whose glorious beauty is a fading flower
Which is at the head of the ^[u]verdant valleys,
To those who are overcome with wine!
²Behold, the Lord has a mighty and strong one,
^(BK)Like a tempest of hail and a destroying storm,
Like a flood of mighty waters overflowing,
Who will bring them down to the earth with His hand.
³The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim,
Will be trampled underfoot;
⁴And the glorious beauty is a fading flower
Which is at the head of the ^[v]verdant valley,
Like the first fruit before the summer,
Which an observer sees;
He eats it up while it is still in his hand.

⁵In that day the Lord of hosts will be
For a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty
To the remnant of His people,
⁶For a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment,
And for strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

⁷But they also ^(BL)have erred through wine,
And through intoxicating drink are out of the way;
^(BM)The priest and the prophet have erred through intoxicating drink,
They are swallowed up by wine,
They are out of the way through intoxicating drink;
They err in vision, they stumble in judgment.
⁸For all tables are full of vomit and filth;
No place is clean.

⁹“Whom^(BN) will he teach knowledge?
And whom will he make to understand the message?
Those just weaned from milk?
Those just drawn from the breasts?
¹⁰^(BO)For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept,
Line upon line, line upon line,
Here a little, there a little.”

¹¹For with ^(BP)stammering lips and another tongue
He will speak to this people,
¹²To whom He said, “This is the ^(BQ)rest with which
You may cause the weary to rest,”
And, “This is the refreshing”;
Yet they would not hear.
¹³But the word of the Lord was to them,
“Precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
Line upon line, line upon line,
Here a little, there a little,”
That they might go and fall backward, and be broken
And snared and caught.

Footnotes

Isaiah 25:3 terrifying
Isaiah 25:5 humbled
Isaiah 25:6 Lit. fat things
Isaiah 25:6 wines matured on the sediment
Isaiah 26:2 Or remains faithful
Isaiah 26:4 Or Rock of Ages
Isaiah 26:5 low
Isaiah 26:6 trample
Isaiah 26:7 Or make level
Isaiah 26:11 Or Your zeal for the people
Isaiah 26:12 Or for us
Isaiah 26:15 Or ends
Isaiah 26:17 sharp pains
Isaiah 26:18 given birth to
Isaiah 26:19 So with MT, Vg.; Syr., Tg. their dead bodies; LXX those in the tombs
Isaiah 26:21 Or bloodshed
Isaiah 27:2 So with MT (Kittel’s Biblia Hebraica), Bg., Vg.; MT (Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia), some Heb. mss., LXX delight; Tg. choice vineyard
Isaiah 27:7 Lit. him
Isaiah 27:9 Heb. Asherim, Canaanite deities
Isaiah 27:12 The Euphrates
Isaiah 28:1 Lit. valleys of fatness
Isaiah 28:4 Lit. valley of fatness

Isaiah 25:1-28:13

New American Standard Bible

Song of Praise for God’s Favor

25 Lord, You are ^(A)my God;
I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name;
For You have ^(B)worked wonders,
^(C)Plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.
²For You have turned a city into a ^(D)heap,
A ^(E)fortified city into a ruin;
A ^(F)palace of strangers is no longer a city,
It will never be rebuilt.
³Therefore a strong people will ^(G)glorify You;
^(H)Cities of ruthless nations will revere You.
⁴For You have been a ^(I)stronghold for the helpless,
A stronghold for the poor in his distress,
A ^(J)refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat;
For the breath of the ^(K)ruthless
Is like a rain storm against a wall.
⁵Like heat in a dry land, You subdue the ^(L)uproar of foreigners;
Like heat by the shadow of a cloud, the song of the ruthless is ^[a]silenced.

⁶^(M)Now the Lord of armies will prepare a ^[b]lavish banquet for ^(N)all peoples on this mountain;
A banquet of ^[c]aged wine, ^[d]choice pieces with marrow,
And ^[e]refined, aged wine.
⁷And on this mountain He will destroy the ^[f]^(O)covering which is over all peoples,
The veil which is ^[g]stretched over all nations.
⁸He will ^[h]^(P)swallow up death for all time,
And the Lord ^[i]God will ^(Q)wipe tears away from all faces,
And He will remove the ^(R)disgrace of His people from all the earth;
For the Lord has spoken.
⁹And it will be said on that day,
“Behold, ^(S)this is our God for whom we have ^(T)waited ^[j]that ^(U)He might save us.
This is the Lord for whom we have waited;
^(V)Let’s rejoice and be glad in His salvation.”
¹⁰For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain,
And ^(W)Moab will be trampled down in his place
As straw is trampled down in the water of a manure pile.
¹¹And he will ^(X)spread out his hands in the middle of it
As a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim,
But the Lord will ^(Y)lay low his pride together with the trickery of his hands.
¹²The ^(Z)unassailable fortifications of your walls He will bring down,
Lay low, and throw to the ground, to the dust.

Song of Trust in God’s Protection

26 ^(AA)On that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

“We have a ^(AB)strong city;
He sets up walls and ramparts for ^[k]^(AC)security.
²Open the ^(AD)gates, that the ^(AE)righteous nation may enter,
The one that ^[l]remains faithful.
³The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect ^(AF)peace,
Because he trusts in You.
⁴^(AG)Trust in the Lord forever,
For in ^[m]God the Lord, we have an everlasting ^(AH)Rock.
⁵For He has brought low those who dwell on high, the ^(AI)unassailable city;
^(AJ)He lays it low, He lays it low to the ground, He casts it to the dust.
⁶^(AK)The foot will trample it,
The feet of the ^(AL)poor, the steps of the helpless.”

⁷The ^(AM)way of the righteous is smooth;
O Upright One, ^(AN)make the path of the righteous level.
⁸Indeed, while following the way of ^(AO)Your judgments, Lord,
We have waited for You eagerly;
^(AP)Your name, and ^(AQ)remembering You, is the desire of our souls.
⁹^(AR)At night ^[n]my soul longs for You,
Indeed, ^[o]my spirit within me ^(AS)seeks You diligently;
For when the earth ^[p]experiences Your judgments,
The inhabitants of the world ^(AT)learn righteousness.
¹⁰Though the wicked person is shown compassion,
He does not ^(AU)learn righteousness;
He ^(AV)deals unjustly in the land of uprightness,
And does not perceive the majesty of the Lord.

¹¹Lord, Your hand is lifted up, yet they ^(AW)do not see it.
^[q]They see ^(AX)Your zeal for the people and are put to shame;
Indeed, ^[r]^(AY)fire will devour Your enemies.
¹²Lord, You will establish ^(AZ)peace for us,
Since You have also performed for us all our works.
¹³Lord, our God, ^(BA)other masters besides You have ruled us;
But through You alone we ^[s]^(BB)confess Your name.
¹⁴^(BC)The dead will not live, the ^[t]departed spirits will not rise;
Therefore You have ^(BD)punished and destroyed them,
And You have eliminated all remembrance of them.
¹⁵^(BE)You have increased the nation, Lord,
You have increased the nation, You are glorified;
You have ^(BF)extended all the borders of the land.
¹⁶Lord, they sought You ^(BG)in distress;
They ^[u]could only whisper a prayer,
Your discipline was upon them.
¹⁷^(BH)As the pregnant woman approaches the time to give birth,
She writhes and cries out in her labor pains;
This is how we were before You, Lord.
¹⁸We were pregnant, we writhed in labor,
We ^(BI)gave birth, as it seems, only to wind.
We could not accomplish deliverance for the earth,
Nor were ^(BJ)inhabitants of the world ^[v]born.
¹⁹Your ^(BK)dead will live;
^[w]Their corpses will rise.
You who lie in the dust, ^(BL)awake and shout for joy,
For your dew is as the dew of the ^[x]dawn,
And the earth will ^[y]give birth to the ^[z]departed spirits.

²⁰Come, my people, ^(BM)enter your rooms
And close your doors behind you;
Hide for a little ^[aa]^(BN)while
Until ^(BO)indignation ^[ab]runs its course.
²¹For behold, the Lord is about to ^(BP)come out from His place
To ^(BQ)punish the inhabitants of the earth for their wrongdoing;
And the earth will ^(BR)reveal her bloodshed
And will no longer cover her slain.

God’s Blessings for Israel

27 On that day ^(BS)the Lord will punish ^[ac]^(BT)Leviathan the fleeing serpent,
With His fierce and great and mighty sword,
Even ^[ad]Leviathan the twisted serpent;
And ^(BU)He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.

²On that day,
“A ^[ae]^(BV)vineyard of beauty, sing of it!
³I, the Lord, am its keeper;
^(BW)I water it every moment.
So that no one will ^[af]damage it,
I ^(BX)guard it night and day.
⁴I have no wrath.
Should ^[ag]someone give Me ^(BY)briars and thorns in battle,
Then I would step on them, ^(BZ)I would burn them ^[ah]completely.
⁵Or let him ^[ai]^(CA)rely on My protection,
Let him make peace with Me,
Let him ^(CB)make peace with Me.”
⁶^[aj]In the days to come Jacob ^(CC)will take root,
Israel will ^(CD)blossom and sprout,
And they will fill the ^[ak]whole world with ^(CE)fruit.

⁷Like the striking of Him who has struck them, has ^(CF)He struck them?
Or like the slaughter of His slain, ^[al]have they been slain?
⁸You contended with them ^[am]by banishing them, by ^(CG)driving them away.
With His fierce wind He has expelled them on the day of the ^(CH)east wind.
⁹Therefore through this Jacob’s wrongdoing will be ^(CI)forgiven;
And this will be ^[an]the full price of the ^[ao]^(CJ)pardoning of his sin:
When he makes all the ^(CK)altar stones like pulverized chalk stones;
When ^[ap]Asherim and incense altars will not stand.
¹⁰For the fortified city is ^(CL)isolated,
A ^[aq]homestead deserted and abandoned like the desert;
^(CM)There the calf will graze,
And there it will lie down and ^[ar]feed on its branches.
¹¹When its ^(CN)limbs are dry, they are broken off;
Women come and make a fire with them,
For they are not a people of ^(CO)discernment,
Therefore ^(CP)their Maker ^(CQ)will not have compassion on them.
And their Creator will not be gracious to them.

¹²On that day the Lord ^(CR)will thresh from the flowing stream of the ^(CS)Euphrates River to the brook of Egypt, and you will be ^(CT)gathered up one by one, you sons of Israel. ¹³It will come about also on that day that a great ^(CU)trumpet will be blown, and those who were perishing in the land of ^(CV)Assyria and who were scattered in the land of Egypt will come and ^(CW)worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.

Ephraim’s Captivity Predicted

28 Woe to the proud crown of the ^(CX)habitually drunk of ^(CY)Ephraim,
And to the fading flower of its glorious beauty,
Which is at the head of the ^[as]fertile valley
Of those who are ^[at]overcome with wine!
²Behold, the Lord has a strong and ^(CZ)mighty agent;
As a storm of ^(DA)hail, a tempest of destruction,
Like a storm of ^(DB)mighty overflowing waters,
He has thrown it down to the earth with His hand.
³The splendid crown of the habitually drunk of Ephraim is ^(DC)trampled underfoot.
⁴And the fading flower of its glorious beauty,
Which is at the head of the ^[au]fertile valley,
Will be like the ^(DD)first-ripe fig prior to the summer,
Which ^[av]one sees,
And ^[aw]as soon as it is in his ^[ax]hand,
He swallows it.
⁵On that day the ^(DE)Lord of armies will become a beautiful ^(DF)crown
And a glorious wreath to the remnant of His people;
⁶A ^(DG)spirit of justice for him who sits in judgment,
A ^(DH)strength to those who repel the ^[ay]onslaught at the gate.
⁷And these also ^(DI)reel with wine and stagger from intoxicating drink:
^(DJ)The priest and ^(DK)the prophet reel with intoxicating drink,
They are confused by wine, they stagger from ^(DL)intoxicating drink;
They reel while ^[az]having ^(DM)visions,
They stagger when rendering a verdict.
⁸For all the tables are full of filthy ^(DN)vomit, without a single clean place.

⁹“To ^(DO)whom would He teach knowledge,
And to whom would He interpret the message?
Those just ^(DP)weaned from milk?
Those just taken from the breast?
¹⁰For He says,
‘^[ba]^(DQ)Order on order, order on order,
Line on line, line on line,
A little here, a little there.’”
¹¹Indeed, He will speak to this people
Through ^(DR)stammering lips and a foreign tongue,
¹²He who said to them, “This is the ^(DS)place of quiet, give rest to the weary,”
And, “This is the resting place,” but they would not listen.
¹³So the word of the Lord to them will be,
“^[bb]Order on order, order on order,
Line on line, line on line,
A little here, a little there,”
That they may go and ^(DT)stumble backward, be broken, snared, and taken captive.

Footnotes

Isaiah 25:5 Lit humbled
Isaiah 25:6 Lit feast of fat things; i.e., abundance
Isaiah 25:6 Lit wine on the lees
Isaiah 25:6 Lit fat pieces
Isaiah 25:6 Lit wine refined on the lees
Isaiah 25:7 Lit face of the covering
Isaiah 25:7 Lit woven
Isaiah 25:8 I.e., destroy
Isaiah 25:8 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord
Isaiah 25:9 Or and He saved us
Isaiah 26:1 Or salvation
Isaiah 26:2 Lit keeps faithfulness
Isaiah 26:4 Heb Yah, usually rendered Lord
Isaiah 26:9 Lit with my soul I long
Isaiah 26:9 Lit with my spirit...I seek
Isaiah 26:9 Lit has
Isaiah 26:11 Or Let them see...and be
Isaiah 26:11 Or let the fire for Your adversaries devour them
Isaiah 26:13 Or make Your name known
Isaiah 26:14 Or shades
Isaiah 26:16 Lit sound forth a whisper
Isaiah 26:18 Lit fallen
Isaiah 26:19 As in some ancient versions; MT My
Isaiah 26:19 Lit lights
Isaiah 26:19 Lit cause to fall
Isaiah 26:19 Or shades
Isaiah 26:20 Lit moment
Isaiah 26:20 Lit passes over
Isaiah 27:1 Or sea monster
Isaiah 27:1 Or sea monster
Isaiah 27:2 Some mss a vineyard of wine
Isaiah 27:3 Lit punish
Isaiah 27:4 Lit who
Isaiah 27:4 Lit altogether
Isaiah 27:5 Lit take hold of
Isaiah 27:6 Lit Those coming
Isaiah 27:6 Lit face of the world
Isaiah 27:7 Lit he was slain
Isaiah 27:8 Some ancient versions by exact measure
Isaiah 27:9 Lit all the fruit
Isaiah 27:9 Lit removing
Isaiah 27:9 I.e., wooden symbols of a female deity (Asherah)
Isaiah 27:10 Lit pasture
Isaiah 27:10 Lit consume
Isaiah 28:1 Lit valley of fatness
Isaiah 28:1 Lit stricken
Isaiah 28:4 Lit valley of fatness
Isaiah 28:4 Lit the one seeing sees
Isaiah 28:4 Lit while it is yet
Isaiah 28:4 Lit palm
Isaiah 28:6 Lit battle
Isaiah 28:7 Lit seeing
Isaiah 28:10 Heb Sav lasav, sav lasav, Kav lakav, kav lakav, Zeer sham, zeer sham. These Hebrew fragments, imitating the babbling of a child, mock the prophet’s preaching.
Isaiah 28:13 See note v 10. The Lord responds to their scoffing by imitating their mockery, to represent the unintelligible language of a conqueror.

Isaiah 25:1-28:13

New Living Translation

Praise for Judgment and Salvation

25 O 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,
⁵    or 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,^[a] 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.

A Song of Praise to the Lord

26 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^[b] 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.

27 In that day the Lord will take his terrible, swift sword and punish Leviathan,^[c] 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.
⁴    My anger will be gone.
If I find briers and thorns growing,
    I will attack them;
I will burn them up—
⁵    unless 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^[d] 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^[e] 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.

A Message about Samaria

28 What sorrow awaits the proud city of Samaria—
    the glorious crown of the drunks of Israel.^[f]
It sits at the head of a fertile valley,
    but its glorious beauty will fade like a flower.
It is the pride of a people
    brought down by wine.
²For the Lord will send a mighty army against it.
    Like a mighty hailstorm and a torrential rain,
they will burst upon it like a surging flood
    and smash it to the ground.
³The proud city of Samaria—
    the glorious crown of the drunks of Israel^[g]—
    will be trampled beneath its enemies’ feet.
⁴It sits at the head of a fertile valley,
    but its glorious beauty will fade like a flower.
Whoever sees it will snatch it up,
    as an early fig is quickly picked and eaten.

⁵Then at last the Lord of Heaven’s Armies
    will himself be Israel’s glorious crown.
He will be the pride and joy
    of the remnant of his people.
⁶He will give a longing for justice
    to their judges.
He will give great courage
    to their warriors who stand at the gates.

⁷Now, however, Israel is led by drunks
    who reel with wine and stagger with alcohol.
The priests and prophets stagger with alcohol
    and lose themselves in wine.
They reel when they see visions
    and stagger as they render decisions.
⁸Their tables are covered with vomit;
    filth is everywhere.
⁹“Who does the Lord think we are?” they ask.
    “Why does he speak to us like this?
Are we little children,
    just recently weaned?
¹⁰He tells us everything over and over—
one line at a time,
    one line at a time,
a little here,
    and a little there!”

¹¹So now God will have to speak to his people
    through foreign oppressors who speak a strange language!
¹²God has told his people,
“Here is a place of rest;
    let the weary rest here.
This is a place of quiet rest.”
    But they would not listen.
¹³So the Lord will spell out his message for them again,
one line at a time,
    one line at a time,
a little here,
    and a little there,
so that they will stumble and fall.
    They will be injured, trapped, and captured.

Footnotes

25:6 Hebrew On this mountain; also in 25:10.
26:9 Hebrew within me.
27:1 The identification of Leviathan is disputed, ranging from an earthly creature to a mythical sea monster in ancient literature.
27:9 Hebrew Jacob’s. See note on 14:1.
27:12 Hebrew the river.
28:1 Hebrew What sorrow awaits the crowning glory of the drunks of Ephraim, referring to Samaria, capital of the northern kingdom of Israel.
28:3 Hebrew The crowning glory of the drunks of Ephraim; see note on 28:1.

Isaiah 25:1-28:13

The Message

God’s Hand Rests on This Mountain

25 ^1-5God, you are my God.
    I celebrate you. I praise you.
You’ve done your share of miracle-wonders,
    well-thought-out plans, solid and sure.
Here you’ve reduced the city to rubble,
    the strong city to a pile of stones.
The enemy Big City is a non-city,
    never to be a city again.
Superpowers will see it and honor you,
    brutal oppressors bow in worshipful reverence.
They’ll see that you take care of the poor,
    that you take care of poor people in trouble,
Provide a warm, dry place in bad weather,
    provide a cool place when it’s hot.
Brutal oppressors are like a winter blizzard
    and vicious foreigners like high noon in the desert.
But you, shelter from the storm and shade from the sun,
    shut the mouths of the big-mouthed bullies.

^6-8But here on this mountain, God-of-the-Angel-Armies
    will throw a feast for all the people of the world,
A feast of the finest foods, a feast with vintage wines,
    a feast of seven courses, a feast lavish with gourmet desserts.
And here on this mountain, God will banish
    the pall of doom hanging over all peoples,
The shadow of doom darkening all nations.
    Yes, he’ll banish death forever.
And God will wipe the tears from every face.
    He’ll remove every sign of disgrace
From his people, wherever they are.
    Yes! God says so!

^9-10Also at that time, people will say,
    “Look at what’s happened! This is our God!
We waited for him and he showed up and saved us!
    This God, the one we waited for!
Let’s celebrate, sing the joys of his salvation.
    God’s hand rests on this mountain!”

^10-12As for the Moabites, they’ll be treated like trash,
    waste shoveled into a cesspool.
Thrash away as they will,
    like swimmers trying to stay afloat,
They’ll sink in the sewage.
    Their pride will pull them under.
Their famous fortifications will crumble to nothing,
    those mighty walls reduced to dust.

Stretch the Borders of Life

26 ^1-6At that time, this song
    will be sung in the country of Judah:
We have a strong city, Salvation City,
    built and fortified with salvation.
Throw wide the gates
    so good and true people can enter.
People with their minds set on you,
    you keep completely whole,
Steady on their feet,
    because they keep at it and don’t quit.
Depend on God and keep at it
    because in the Lord God you have a sure thing.
Those who lived high and mighty
    he knocked off their high horse.
He used the city built on the hill
    as fill for the marshes.
All the exploited and outcast peoples
    build their lives on the reclaimed land.

^7-10The path of right-living people is level.
    The Leveler evens the road for the right-living.
We’re in no hurry, God. We’re content to linger
    in the path sign-posted with your decisions.
Who you are and what you’ve done
    are all we’ll ever want.
Through the night my soul longs for you.
    Deep from within me my spirit reaches out to you.
When your decisions are on public display,
    everyone learns how to live right.
If the wicked are shown grace,
    they don’t seem to get it.
In the land of right living, they persist in wrong living,
    blind to the splendor of God.

^11-15You hold your hand up high, God,
    but they don’t see it.
Open their eyes to what you do,
    to see your zealous love for your people.
Shame them. Light a fire under them.
    Get the attention of these enemies of yours.
God, order a peaceful and whole life for us
    because everything we’ve done, you’ve done for us.
O God, our God, we’ve had other masters rule us,
    but you’re the only Master we’ve ever known.
The dead don’t talk,
    ghosts don’t walk,
Because you’ve said, “Enough—that’s all for you,”
    and wiped them off the books.
But the living you make larger than life.
    The more life you give, the more glory you display,
    and stretch the borders to accommodate more living!

^16-18O God, they begged you for help when they were in trouble,
    when your discipline was so heavy
    they could barely whisper a prayer.
Like a woman having a baby,
    writhing in distress, screaming her pain
    as the baby is being born,
That’s how we were because of you, O God.
    We were pregnant full-term.
We writhed in labor but bore no baby.
    We gave birth to wind.
Nothing came of our labor.
    We produced nothing living.
    We couldn’t save the world.

¹⁹But friends, your dead will live,
    your corpses will get to their feet.
All you dead and buried,
    wake up! Sing!
Your dew is morning dew
    catching the first rays of sun,
The earth bursting with life,
    giving birth to the dead.

^20-21Come, my people, go home
    and shut yourselves in.
Go into seclusion for a while
    until the punishing wrath is past,
Because God is sure to come from his place
    to punish the wrong of the people on earth.
Earth itself will point out the bloodstains;
    it will show where the murdered have been hidden away.

Selected Grain by Grain

27 At that time God will unsheathe his sword,
    his merciless, massive, mighty sword.
He’ll punish the serpent Leviathan as it flees,
    the serpent Leviathan thrashing in flight.
He’ll kill that old dragon
    that lives in the sea.

^2-5“At that same time, a fine vineyard will appear.
    There’s something to sing about!
I, God, tend it.
    I keep it well-watered.
I keep careful watch over it
    so that no one can damage it.
I’m not angry. I care.
    Even if it gives me thistles and thornbushes,
I’ll just pull them out
    and burn them up.
Let that vine cling to me for safety,
    let it find a good and whole life with me,
    let it hold on for a good and whole life.”

⁶The days are coming when Jacob
shall put down roots,
Israel blossom and grow fresh branches,
and fill the world with its fruit.

^7-11Has God knocked them to the ground
    as he knocked down those who hit them? Oh, no.
Were they killed
    as their killers were killed? Again, no.
He was hard on them all right. The exile was a harsh sentence.
    He blew them away on a fierce blast of wind.
But the good news is that through this experience
    Jacob’s guilt was taken away.
    The evidence that his sin is removed will be this:
He will tear down the alien altars,
    take them apart stone by stone,
And then crush the stones into gravel
    and clean out all the sex-and-religion shrines.
For there’s nothing left of that pretentious grandeur.
    Nobody lives there anymore. It’s unlivable.
But animals do just fine,
    browsing and bedding down.
And it’s not a bad place to get firewood.
    Dry twigs and dead branches are plentiful.
It’s the remains of a people with no sense of God.
    So, the God who made them
Will have nothing to do with them.
    He who formed them will turn his back on them.

^12-13At that time God will thresh
    from the River Euphrates to the Brook of Egypt,
And you, people of Israel,
    will be selected grain by grain.
At that same time a great trumpet will be blown,
    calling home the exiles from Assyria,
Welcoming home the refugees from Egypt
    to come and worship God on the holy mountain, Jerusalem.

God Will Speak in Baby Talk

28 ^1-4Doom to the pretentious drunks of Ephraim,
    shabby and washed out and seedy—
Tipsy, sloppy-fat, beer-bellied parodies
    of a proud and handsome past.
Watch closely: God has someone picked out,
    someone tough and strong to flatten them.
Like a hailstorm, like a hurricane, like a flash flood,
    one-handed he’ll throw them to the ground.
Samaria, the party hat on Israel’s head,
    will be knocked off with one blow.
It will disappear quicker than
    a piece of meat tossed to a dog.

^5-6At that time, God-of-the-Angel-Armies will be
the beautiful crown on the head of what’s left of his people:
Energy and insights of justice to those who guide and decide,
strength and prowess to those who guard and protect.

^7-8These also, the priest and prophet, stagger from drink,
    weaving, falling-down drunks,
Besotted with wine and whiskey,
    can’t see straight, can’t talk sense.
Every table is covered with vomit.
    They live in vomit.

^9-10“Is that so? And who do you think you are to teach us?
    Who are you to lord it over us?
We’re not babies in diapers
    to be talked down to by such as you—
‘Da, da, da, da,
    blah, blah, blah, blah.
That’s a good little girl,
    that’s a good little boy.’”

^11-12But that’s exactly how you will be addressed.
    God will speak to this people
In baby talk, one syllable at a time—
    and he’ll do it through foreign oppressors.
He said before, “This is the time and place to rest,
    to give rest to the weary.
This is the place to lay down your burden.”
    But they won’t listen.

¹³So God will start over with the simple basics
    and address them in baby talk, one syllable at a time—
“Da, da, da, da,
    blah, blah, blah, blah.
That’s a good little girl,
    that’s a good little boy.”
And like toddlers, they will get up and fall down,
    get bruised and confused and lost.

New International Version (NIV)

Isaiah 25:1-28:13

New International Version

Praise to the Lord

A Song of Praise

Deliverance of Israel

Woe to the Leaders of Ephraim and Judah

Footnotes

Cross references

Isaiah 25:1-28:13

New King James Version

Praise to God

A Song of Salvation

Take Refuge from the Coming Judgment

Israel Will Be Restored

The Restoration of Israel

Woe to Ephraim and Jerusalem

Footnotes

Cross references

Isaiah 25:1-28:13

New American Standard Bible

Song of Praise for God’s Favor

Song of Trust in God’s Protection

God’s Blessings for Israel

Ephraim’s Captivity Predicted

Footnotes

Cross references

Isaiah 25:1-28:13

New Living Translation

Praise for Judgment and Salvation

A Song of Praise to the Lord

Restoration for Israel

A Message about Samaria

Footnotes

Isaiah 25:1-28:13

The Message

God’s Hand Rests on This Mountain

Stretch the Borders of Life

Selected Grain by Grain

God Will Speak in Baby Talk

More on the NIV

Isaiah 25:1-28:13 New International Version

Praise to the Lord

A Song of Praise

Deliverance of Israel

Woe to the Leaders of Ephraim and Judah

Footnotes

Cross references

Isaiah 25:1-28:13 New King James Version

Praise to God

A Song of Salvation

Take Refuge from the Coming Judgment

Israel Will Be Restored

The Restoration of Israel

Woe to Ephraim and Jerusalem

Footnotes

Cross references

Isaiah 25:1-28:13 New American Standard Bible

Song of Praise for God’s Favor

Song of Trust in God’s Protection

God’s Blessings for Israel

Ephraim’s Captivity Predicted

Footnotes

Cross references

Isaiah 25:1-28:13 New Living Translation

Praise for Judgment and Salvation

A Song of Praise to the Lord

Restoration for Israel

A Message about Samaria

Footnotes

Isaiah 25:1-28:13 The Message

God’s Hand Rests on This Mountain

Stretch the Borders of Life

Selected Grain by Grain

God Will Speak in Baby Talk

More on the NIV

Isaiah 25:1-28:13

New International Version

Isaiah 25:1-28:13

New King James Version

Isaiah 25:1-28:13

New American Standard Bible

Isaiah 25:1-28:13

New Living Translation

Isaiah 25:1-28:13

The Message