Isaiah 25
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.
2 You 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.
3 Therefore, strong nations will declare your glory;
ruthless nations will fear you.
4 But 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.
6 In 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.
7 There he will remove the cloud of gloom,
the shadow of death that hangs over the earth.
8 He 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!
9 In 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!”
10 For 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.
11 God 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.
12 The high walls of Moab will be demolished.
They will be brought down to the ground,
down into the dust.
Isaiah 25
New English Translation
25 O Lord, you are my God![a]
I will exalt you in praise, I will extol your fame.[b]
For you have done extraordinary things,
and executed plans made long ago exactly as you decreed.[c]
2 Indeed,[d] you have made the city[e] into a heap of rubble,
the fortified town into a heap of ruins;
the fortress of foreigners[f] is no longer a city,
it will never be rebuilt.
3 So a strong nation will extol you;
the towns of[g] powerful nations will fear you.
4 For you are a protector for the poor,
a protector for the needy in their distress,
a shelter from the rainstorm,
a shade from the heat.
Though the breath of tyrants[h] is like a winter rainstorm,[i]
5 like heat[j] in a dry land,
you humble the boasting foreigners.[k]
Just as the shadow of a cloud causes the heat to subside,[l]
so he causes the song of tyrants to cease.[m]
6 The Lord of Heaven’s Armies will hold a banquet for all the nations on this mountain.[n]
At this banquet there will be plenty of meat and aged wine—
tender meat and choicest wine.[o]
7 On this mountain he will swallow up
the shroud that is over all the peoples,[p]
the woven covering that is over all the nations;[q]
8 he will swallow up death permanently.[r]
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from every face,
and remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth.
Indeed, the Lord has announced it![s]
9 At that time they will say,[t]
“Look, here[u] is our God!
We waited for him, and he delivered us.
Here[v] is the Lord! We waited for him.
Let’s rejoice and celebrate his deliverance!”
10 For the Lord’s power will make this mountain secure.[w]
Moab will be trampled down where it stands,[x]
as a heap of straw is trampled down in[y] a manure pile.
11 Moab[z] will spread out its hands in the middle of it,[aa]
just as a swimmer spreads his hands to swim;
the Lord[ab] will bring down Moab’s[ac] pride as it spreads its hands.[ad]
12 The fortified city (along with the very tops of your[ae] walls)[af] he will knock down,
he will bring it down, he will throw it down to the dusty ground.[ag]
Footnotes
- Isaiah 25:1 sn The prophet speaks here as one who has observed the coming judgment of the proud.
- Isaiah 25:1 tn Heb “name.” See the note at 24:15.
- Isaiah 25:1 tn Heb “plans from long ago [in] faithfulness, trustworthiness.” The feminine noun אֱמוּנָה (ʾemunah, “faithfulness”) and masculine noun אֹמֶן (ʾomen, “trustworthiness”), both of which are derived from the root אָמַן (ʾaman), are juxtaposed to emphasize the basic idea conveyed by the synonyms. Here they describe the absolute reliability of the divine plans.
- Isaiah 25:2 tn Or “For” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV).
- Isaiah 25:2 tn The Hebrew text has “you have made from the city.” The prefixed mem (מ) on עִיר (ʿir, “city”) was probably originally an enclitic mem suffixed to the preceding verb. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:456, n. 3.
- Isaiah 25:2 tc Some with support from the LXX emend זָרִים (zarim, “foreigners”) to זֵדִים (zedim, “the insolent”).
- Isaiah 25:3 tn The Hebrew text has a singular form, but it should be emended to a plural or eliminated altogether. The noun may have been accidentally copied from the preceding verse.
- Isaiah 25:4 tn Or perhaps, “the violent”; NIV, NRSV “the ruthless.”
- Isaiah 25:4 tc The Hebrew text has, “like a rainstorm of a wall,” which might be interpreted to mean, “like a rainstorm battering against a wall.” The translation assumes an emendation of קִיר (qir, “wall”) to קֹר (qor, “cold, winter”; cf. Gen 8:22). See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:457, n. 6, for discussion.
- Isaiah 25:5 tn Or “drought” (TEV).
- Isaiah 25:5 tn Heb “the tumult of foreigners.”
- Isaiah 25:5 tn Heb “[like] heat in the shadow of a cloud.”
- Isaiah 25:5 tn The translation assumes that the verb יַעֲנֶה (yaʿaneh) is a Hiphil imperfect from עָנָה (ʿanah, “be afflicted, humiliated”). In this context with “song” as object it means to “quiet” (see HALOT 853-54 s.v. II ענה). Some prefer to emend the form to the second person singular, so that it will agree with the second person verb earlier in the verse. BDB 776 s.v. III עָנָה Qal.1 understands the form as Qal, with “song” as subject, in which case one might translate “the song of tyrants will be silent.” An emendation of the form to a Niphal (יֵעָנֶה, yeʿaneh) would yield the same translation.
- Isaiah 25:6 sn That is, Mount Zion (see 24:23); cf. TEV; NLT “In Jerusalem.”
- Isaiah 25:6 tn Heb “And the Lord of Heaven’s Armies [traditionally, “the Lord of hosts”] will make for all the nations on this mountain a banquet of meats, a banquet of wine dregs, meats filled with marrow, dregs that are filtered.”
- Isaiah 25:7 tn The Hebrew text reads, “the face of the shroud, the shroud over all the nations.” Some emend the second הַלּוֹט (hallot) to a passive participle הַלּוּט (hallut, “that is wrapped”).
- Isaiah 25:7 sn The point of the imagery is unclear. Perhaps the shroud/covering referred to was associated with death in some way (see v. 8).
- Isaiah 25:8 sn The image of the Lord “swallowing” death would be especially powerful, for death was viewed in Canaanite mythology and culture as a hungry enemy that swallows its victims. See the note at 5:14.
- Isaiah 25:8 tn Heb “has spoken” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
- Isaiah 25:9 tn Heb “and one will say in that day.”
- Isaiah 25:9 tn Heb “this [one].”
- Isaiah 25:9 tn Heb “this [one].”
- Isaiah 25:10 tn Heb “for the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain”; TEV “will protect Mount Zion”; NCV “will protect (rest on NLT) Jerusalem.”
- Isaiah 25:10 tn Heb “under him,” i.e., “in his place.”
- Isaiah 25:10 tc The marginal reading (Qere) is בְּמוֹ (bemo, “in”). The consonantal text (Kethib) has בְּמִי (bemi, “in the water of”).
- Isaiah 25:11 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Moab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
- Isaiah 25:11 tn The antecedent of the third masculine singular pronominal suffix is probably the masculine noun מַתְבֵּן (matben, “heap of straw”) in v. 10 rather than the feminine noun מַדְמֵנָה (madmenah, “manure pile”), also in v. 10.
- Isaiah 25:11 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
- Isaiah 25:11 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Moab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
- Isaiah 25:11 tn The Hebrew text has, “he will bring down his pride along with the [?] of his hands.” The meaning of אָרְבּוֹת (ʾarbot), which occurs only here in the OT, is unknown. Some (see BDB 70 s.v. אָרְבָּה) translate “artifice, cleverness,” relating the form to the verbal root אָרָב (ʾarav, “to lie in wait, ambush”), but this requires some convoluted semantic reasoning. HALOT 83 s.v. *אָרְבָּה suggests the meaning “[nimble] movements.” The translation above, which attempts to relate the form to the preceding context, is purely speculative.
- Isaiah 25:12 sn Moab is addressed.
- Isaiah 25:12 tn Heb “a fortification, the high point of your walls.”
- Isaiah 25:12 tn Heb “he will bring [it] down, he will make [it] touch the ground, even to the dust.”
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