Isaiah 24-27

Complete Jewish Bible

24 Look! Adonai is stripping
and destroying the land,
turning it upside down
and scattering its inhabitants —
² cohen and commoner, slave and master,
maid and mistress, buyer and seller,
lender and borrower, creditor and debtor.
³ The land will be completely stripped,
completely plundered,
for Adonai has spoken this word.
⁴ The land fades and withers,
the world wilts and withers,
the exalted of the land languish.
⁵ The land lies defiled under its inhabitants;
because they have transgressed the teachings,
changed the law
and broken the everlasting covenant.
⁶ Therefore a curse is devouring the land,
and its inhabitants are punished for their guilt.
It is why those living there waste away,
and the people left are few.
⁷ The new wine fails, the vines wilt,
all the revelers sigh,
⁸ the happy sound of tambourines ceases,
the shouts of merrymakers are stilled,
the joy of the lyre ends.
⁹ They no longer sing as they drink their wine,
strong liquor tastes bitter to those drinking it.
¹⁰ The city of chaos is shattered,
every house closed up; no one can enter.
¹¹ In the streets they are crying over the wine;
all joy has faded, cheer has left the land.
¹² In the city, only desolation,
its gates are battered beyond repair.

¹³ Around the earth, among the peoples,
it will be as when beating an olive tree,
as when gleaning the grapes at the end of the harvest.
¹⁴ They lift their voices, singing for joy,
shouting from the west to honor Adonai.
¹⁵ So in the east, honor Adonai ;
in the coastlands, honor the name of Adonai,
the God of Isra’el.
¹⁶ From the farthest part of the earth
we have heard them sing,
“Glory to the Righteous One!”

But, I say, I’m wasting away,
I am wasting away!
Woe to me! Traitors betray!
Oh, how the traitors betray and betray!
¹⁷ Terror, pit and trap are upon you,
you who are living on earth.
¹⁸ He who flees at the sound of terror
will fall into the pit.
He who climbs up out of the pit
will be caught in the trap.
For the windows above have been opened,
and the earth’s foundations shake.
¹⁹ The earth cracks and breaks open,
the earth crumbles to pieces,
the earth trembles and totters.
²⁰ The earth staggers to and fro like a drunk,
sways back and forth like a watchman’s shelter;
its transgression weighs heavy upon it;
it will fall and not rise again.
²¹ When that day comes, Adonai will punish
the armies of the high heaven on high,
and the kings of the earth here on earth.
²² They will be assembled like prisoners in a dungeon
and shut up in prison to be punished many years.
²³ Then the moon will be confused and the sun ashamed,
for Adonai-Tzva’ot will rule on Mount Tziyon
and in Yerushalayim,
with his glory manifest to the rulers of his people.

² For you have made a city a heap of stones,
turned a fortified city into rubble,
made the foreigners’ fortress
a city that will never be rebuilt.
³ Therefore mighty peoples glorify you,
the city of ruthless nations fears you.
⁴ For you have been a refuge for the poor,
a refuge for the needy in distress,
shelter from the storm,
shade from the heat —
for the blast from the ruthless
was like a storm that could destroy a wall.
⁵ Like desert heat, you subdue
the foreigners’ uproar;
like heat subdued by a cloud’s shadow,
the song of the ruthless dies away.

⁶ On this mountain Adonai-Tzva’ot
will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food and superb wines,
delicious, rich food and superb, elegant wines.
⁷ On this mountain he will destroy
the veil which covers the face of all peoples,
the veil enshrouding all the nations.
⁸ He will swallow up death forever.
Adonai Elohim will wipe away
the tears from every face,
and he will remove from all the earth
the disgrace his people suffer.
For Adonai has spoken.

⁹ On that day they will say,
“See! This is our God!
We waited for him to save us.
This is Adonai ; we put our hope in him.
We are full of joy, so glad he saved us!”
¹⁰ For on this mountain
the hand of Adonai will rest.

But Mo’av will be trampled down where they are,
like straw trampled into a pile of manure.
¹¹ They will spread out their hands in Mo’av,
like a swimmer using his hands to tread water;
but their pride will be humbled and sunk,
no matter how clever the strokes of their hands.
¹² Your high, fortified walls he will level,
strike to the ground, lay in the dust.

26 On that day this song will be sung
in the land of Y’hudah:
“We have a strong city!
He has built walls and ramparts for our safety.
² Open the gates! Let the righteous nation enter,
a nation that keeps faith!
³ “A person whose desire rests on you
you preserve in perfect peace,
because he trusts in you.
⁴ Trust in Adonai forever,
because in Yah Adonai,
is a Rock of Ages.”

⁵ For he has humbled those in high places,
levelling the lofty city,
levelling it to the ground,
laying it in the dust.
⁶ It is trampled underfoot by the feet of the poor,
by the footsteps of the needy.

⁷ The way of the righteous is level;
Righteous One, you smooth the path for the righteous.
⁸ Following the way of your judgments,
we put our hope in you.
The desire of all our soul
is to remember you and your name.
⁹ My soul desires you at night,
my spirit in me seeks you at dawn;
for when your judgments are here on earth,
the people in the world learn what righteousness is.
¹⁰ Even if pity is shown to the wicked,
he still doesn’t learn what righteousness is.
In a land of uprightness he will still act wrongly
and fail to see the majesty of Adonai.
¹¹ Adonai, you raised your hand,
but they still didn’t see.
Yet with shame they will see your zeal for the people.
Yes, fire will destroy your enemies.
¹² Adonai, you will grant us peace;
because all we have done, you have done for us.
¹³ Adonai our God, other lords
besides you have ruled us,
but only you do we invoke
by name.
¹⁴ The dead will not live again,
the ghosts will not rise again;
for you punished and destroyed them,
wiped out all memory of them.
¹⁵ You enlarged the nation, Adonai,
you enlarged the nation;
and thus you glorified yourself;
you extended all the frontiers of the country.
¹⁶ Adonai, when they were troubled,
they sought you.
When you chastened them,
they poured out a silent prayer.
¹⁷ As a pregnant woman about to give birth
cries out and writhes in her labor pains,
so we have been at your presence, Adonai —
¹⁸ we have been pregnant and been in pain.
But we, as it were, have given birth to wind;
we have not brought salvation to the land,
and those inhabiting the world have not come to life.
¹⁹ Your dead will live, my corpses will rise;
awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust;
for your dew is like the morning dew,
and the earth will bring the ghosts to life.

²⁰ Come, my people, enter your rooms,
and shut your doors behind you.
Hide yourselves for a little while
until the wrath is past.
²¹ For see! Adonai emerges from his place
to punish those on earth for their sin.
Then the earth will reveal the blood shed on it
and no longer conceal its slain.

27 On that day Adonai,
with his great, strong, relentless sword,
will punish Livyatan the fleeing serpent,
the twisting serpent Livyatan;
he will slay the sea monster.

² On that day, a pleasant vineyard —
sing about it!

³ “I, Adonai, guard it.
Moment to moment I water it.
So that no harm will come to it,
I guard it night and day.
⁴ I have no anger in me.
If it gives me briars and thorns,
then, as in war, I will trample it down
and burn it up at once;
⁵ unless it takes hold of my strength,
in order to make peace with me,
yes, to make peace with me.”

⁶ The time is coming when Ya‘akov will take root;
Isra’el will bud and flower,
and fill the whole world with a harvest.
⁷ [Adonai] will not strike Isra’el,
as he did others who struck Isra’el;
he will not kill them,
as he did the others.
⁸ Your controversy with her is fully resolved
by sending her [into exile].
He removes her with a rough gust of wind
on a day when it’s blowing from the east.
⁹ So the iniquity of Ya‘akov is atoned for by this,
and removing his sin produces this result:
he chops up all the altar stones like chalk —
sacred poles and sun-pillars stand no more.
¹⁰ For the fortified city is alone,
abandoned and deserted, like the desert.
Calves graze and lie down there,
stripping its branches bare.
¹¹ When its harvest dries up, it is broken off;
women come and set it on fire.
For this is a people without understanding.
Therefore he who made them will not pity them,
he who formed them will show them no mercy.

¹² On that day Adonai will beat out the grain
between the Euphrates River and the Vadi of Egypt;
and you will be gathered, one by one,
people of Isra’el!

¹³ On that day a great shofar will sound.
Those lost in the land of Ashur will come,
also those scattered through the land of Egypt;
and they will worship Adonai
on the holy mountain in Yerushalayim.