Isaiah 22-26
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
A Warning of Destruction of Jerusalem
22 The oracle concerning the valley of vision.
What has happened that you have gone up,
all of you, to the housetops,(A)
2 city full of shouting,
tumultuous city, panic-stricken town?
Your slain are not slain by the sword,
nor are they dead in battle.(B)
3 Your rulers have all fled together;
they were captured without the use of a bow.[a]
All of your people who were found were captured,
though they had fled far away.[b](C)
4 Therefore I said:
“Look away from me;
let me weep bitter tears;
do not try to comfort me
for the destruction of my beloved people.”(D)
5 For the Lord God of hosts has a day
of tumult and trampling and confusion
in the valley of vision,
a battering down of walls
and a cry for help to the mountains.(E)
6 Elam bore the quiver
with chariots and cavalry,[c]
and Kir uncovered the shield.(F)
7 Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,
and the cavalry took their stand at the gates.(G)
8 He has taken away the covering of Judah.
On that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest,(H) 9 and you saw that there were many breaches in the city of David, and you collected the waters of the lower pool.(I) 10 You counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. 11 You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it or have regard for him who planned it long ago.(J)
12 On that day the Lord God of hosts
called for weeping and mourning,
for baldness and putting on sackcloth,(K)
13 but instead there was joy and festivity,
killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,
eating meat and drinking wine.
“Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die.”(L)
14 The Lord of hosts has revealed himself in my ears:
“Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die,”
says the Lord God of hosts.(M)
Denunciation of Self-Seeking Officials
15 Thus says the Lord God of hosts: “Go to the steward Shebna, who is master of the household, and say to him:(N) 16 What right do you have here? Who are your relatives here, that you have cut out a tomb here for yourself, cutting a tomb[d] on the height and carving a habitation for yourself[e] in the rock?(O) 17 The Lord is about to hurl you away violently, my fellow. He will seize firm hold on you, 18 whirl you round and round, and throw you like a ball into a wide land; there you shall die, and there your splendid chariots shall lie, O you disgrace to your master’s house!(P) 19 I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your post.
20 “On that day I will call my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah(Q) 21 and will clothe him with your robe and bind your sash on him. I will commit your authority to his hand, and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22 I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and no one shall shut; he shall shut, and no one shall open.(R) 23 I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his ancestral house.(S) 24 And they will hang on him the whole weight of his ancestral house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. 25 On that day, says the Lord of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way; it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will perish, for the Lord has spoken.”(T)
An Oracle concerning Tyre
23 The oracle concerning Tyre.
Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
for your fortress is destroyed.[f]
When they came in from Cyprus
they learned of it.(U)
2 Be still, O inhabitants of the coast,
O merchants of Sidon;
your messengers crossed over the sea[g](V)
3 and were on the mighty waters;
your revenue[h] was the grain of Shihor,
the harvest of the Nile;
you were the merchant of the nations.(W)
4 Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken,
the fortress of the sea, saying:
“I have neither labored nor given birth;
I have neither reared young men
nor brought up young women.”(X)
5 When the report comes to Egypt,
they will be in anguish over the report about Tyre.
6 Cross over to Tarshish—
wail, O inhabitants of the coast!
7 Is this your exultant city
whose origin is from days of old,
whose feet carried her
to settle far away?(Y)
8 Who has planned 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 planned it—
to defile the pride of all glory,
to shame all the honored of the earth.(Z)
10 Cross over to your own land,
O ships of[i] Tarshish;
this is a harbor[j] no more.
11 He has stretched out his hand over the sea;
he has shaken the kingdoms;
the Lord has given command concerning Canaan,
to destroy its fortresses.(AA)
12 He said:
“You will exult no longer,
O oppressed virgin daughter Sidon;
rise, cross over to Cyprus—
even there you will have no rest.”(AB)
13 Look at the land of the Chaldeans! This is the people; it was not Assyria. They destined it for wild animals.[k] They erected their siege towers; they tore down her palaces; they made her a ruin.(AC)
14 Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
for your fortress is destroyed.(AD)
15 From that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the lifetime of one king. At the end of seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song about the prostitute:(AE)
16 Take a harp;
go about the city,
you forgotten prostitute!
Make sweet melody;
sing many songs,
that you may be remembered.
17 At the end of seventy years, the Lord will visit Tyre, and she will return to her trade and will prostitute herself with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth.(AF) 18 Her merchandise and her wages will be dedicated to the Lord; her profits[l] will not be stored or hoarded, but her merchandise will supply abundant food and fine clothing for those who live in the presence of the Lord.(AG)
Impending Judgment on the Earth
24 Now the Lord is about to lay waste the earth and make it desolate,
and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants.(AH)
2 And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest;
as with the male slave, so with his master;
as with the female slave, so with her mistress;
as with the buyer, so with the seller;
as with the lender, so with the borrower;
as with the creditor, so with the debtor.(AI)
3 The earth shall be utterly laid waste and utterly despoiled,
for the Lord has spoken this word.(AJ)
4 The earth dries up and withers;
the world languishes and withers;
the heavens languish together with the earth.
5 The earth lies polluted
under its inhabitants,
for they have transgressed laws,
violated the statutes,
broken the everlasting covenant.(AK)
6 Therefore a curse devours the earth,
and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt;
therefore the inhabitants of the earth dwindled,
and few people are left.(AL)
7 The wine dries up;
the vine languishes;
all the merry-hearted sigh.(AM)
8 The mirth of the timbrels is stilled;
the noise of the jubilant has ceased;
the mirth of the lyre is stilled.(AN)
9 No longer do they drink wine with singing;
strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.
10 The city of chaos is broken down;
every house is shut up so that no one can enter.(AO)
11 There is an outcry in the streets for lack of wine;
all joy has reached its eventide;
the gladness of the earth is banished.(AP)
12 Desolation is left in the city;
the gates are battered into ruins.
13 For thus it shall be on the earth
and among the nations,
as when an olive tree is beaten,
as at the gleaning when the grape harvest is ended.(AQ)
14 They lift up their voices; they sing for joy;
they shout from the west over the majesty of the Lord.(AR)
15 Therefore in the east give glory to the Lord;
in the coastlands of the sea glorify the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.(AS)
16 From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise,
of glory to the Righteous One.
But I say, “I pine away;
I pine away. Woe is me!
For the treacherous deal treacherously;
the treacherous deal very treacherously.”(AT)
17 Terror, the pit, and the snare
are upon you, O inhabitants of the earth!(AU)
18 Whoever flees at the sound of the terror
shall fall into the pit,
and whoever climbs out of the pit
shall be caught in the snare.
For the windows of heaven are opened,
and the foundations of the earth tremble.(AV)
19 The earth is utterly broken;
the earth is torn apart;
the earth is violently shaken.(AW)
20 The earth staggers like a drunkard;
it sways like a hut;
its transgression lies heavy upon it,
and it falls and will not rise again.(AX)
21 On that day the Lord will punish
the host of heaven in heaven
and on earth the kings of the earth.(AY)
22 They will be gathered together
like prisoners in a pit;
they will be shut up in a prison,
and after many days they will be punished.(AZ)
23 Then the moon will be abashed
and the sun ashamed,
for the Lord of hosts will reign
on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
and before his elders he will be glorified.(BA)
Praise for Deliverance from Oppression
25 O Lord, you are my God;
I will exalt you; I will praise your name,
for you have done wonderful things,
plans formed of old, faithful and sure.(BB)
2 For you have made the city a heap,
the fortified city a ruin;
the palace of foreigners is a city no more;
it will never be rebuilt.(BC)
3 Therefore strong peoples will glorify you;
cities of ruthless nations will fear you.
4 For you have been a refuge to the poor,
a refuge to the needy in their distress,
a shelter from the rainstorm and a shade from the heat.
When the blast of the ruthless was like a winter rainstorm,(BD)
5 the noise of foreigners like heat in a dry place,
you subdued the heat with the shade of clouds;
the song of the ruthless was stilled.(BE)
6 On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines,
of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.(BF)
7 And he will destroy on this mountain
the shroud that is cast over all peoples,
the covering that is spread over all nations;
8 he will swallow up death forever.
Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces,
and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.(BG)
9 It will be said on that day,
“See, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us.
This is the Lord for whom we have waited;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”(BH)
10 For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain.
The Moabites shall be trodden down in their place
as straw is trodden down in the manure.(BI)
11 Though they spread out their hands in the midst of it,
as swimmers spread out their hands to swim,
their pride will be laid low despite the struggle[m] of their hands.
12 The high fortifications of his walls will be brought down,
laid low, cast to the ground, even to the dust.
Judah’s Song of Victory
26 On that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
We have a strong city;
he sets up walls and bulwarks as a safeguard.(BJ)
2 Open the gates,
so that the righteous nation that maintains faithfulness
may enter in.(BK)
3 Those of steadfast mind you keep in peace,
in peace because they trust in you.
4 Trust in the Lord forever,
for in the Lord God[n]
you have an everlasting rock.(BL)
5 For he has brought low
the inhabitants of the height;
the lofty city he lays low.
He lays it low to the ground,
casts it to the dust.(BM)
6 The foot tramples it,
the feet of the poor,
the steps of the needy.(BN)
7 The way of the righteous is level;
straight is the path of the righteous that you clear.(BO)
8 In the path of your judgments,
O Lord, we have placed hope;
your name and your renown
are the soul’s desire.(BP)
9 My soul yearns for you in the night;
my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.
For when your judgments are in the earth,
the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.(BQ)
10 If favor is shown to the wicked,
they do not learn righteousness;
they corrupt what is upright on the earth
and do not see the majesty of the Lord.(BR)
11 O Lord, your hand is lifted up,
but they do not see it.
Let them see your zeal for your people and be ashamed.
Let the fire for your adversaries consume them.(BS)
12 O Lord, may you ordain peace for us,
for indeed, all that we have done, you have done for us.(BT)
13 O Lord our God,
other lords besides you have ruled over us,
but we acknowledge your name alone.(BU)
14 The dead do not live;
shades do not rise
because you have punished and destroyed them
and wiped out all memory of them.(BV)
15 But you have increased the nation, O Lord;
you have increased the nation; you are glorified;
you have enlarged all the borders of the land.(BW)
16 O Lord, in distress they sought you;
they poured out a prayer[o]
when your chastening was on them.(BX)
17 Like a woman with child
about to give birth
writhes and cries out in her pain,
so were we because of you, O Lord;(BY)
18 we were with child; we writhed,
but we gave birth only to wind.
We have won no victories on earth,
and no one is born to inhabit the world.(BZ)
19 Your dead shall live; their corpses[p] shall rise.
Those who dwell in the dust will awake and shout for joy![q]
For your dew is a radiant dew,
and the earth will give birth to those long dead.[r](CA)
20 Come, my people, enter your chambers,
and shut your doors behind you;
hide yourselves for a little while
until the wrath is past.(CB)
21 For the Lord comes out from his place
to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;
the earth will disclose the blood shed on it
and will no longer cover its slain.(CC)
Footnotes
- 22.3 Or without their bows
- 22.3 Gk Syr Vg: Heb fled from far away
- 22.6 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 22.16 Gk Vg: Heb his tomb
- 22.16 Gk Vg: Heb himself
- 23.1 Cn: Heb for it is destroyed, without houses
- 23.2 Q ms: MT crossing over the sea, they replenished you
- 23.3 Heb its
- 23.10 Cn Compare Gk: Heb like the Nile, daughter
- 23.10 Cn: Heb restraint
- 23.13 Or This is the people that was not. Assyria founded it for its fleet.
- 23.18 Heb it
- 25.11 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 26.4 Heb in Yah, the Lord
- 26.16 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 26.19 Cn Compare Syr Tg: Heb my corpse
- 26.19 Q ms Compare Gk Syr: MT dust, awake and shout for joy!
- 26.19 Heb to the shades
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.