Through My Bible Yr 01 – December 24

Through My Bible – December 24

Isaiah 24 – 25 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

¹ Watch, the Lord is going to strip the earth bare and make it desolate.
He will wring it out and scatter its inhabitants.
² It will be the same for people and priest,
    for servant and master,
    for servant girl and lady,
    for buyer and seller,
    for lender and borrower,
    for creditor and debtor.
³ The earth will be stripped bare, totally plundered,
    for the Lord has spoken this word.
⁴ The earth mourns and withers.
The world fades and withers away.
The proud people of the earth fade away.
⁵ The earth is polluted by its inhabitants,
because they have bypassed the laws.
They have changed the statutes
and set aside the everlasting covenant.
⁶ Therefore a curse devours the earth,
and those who live there will be found guilty.
That is why the inhabitants of the earth will be burned up,
and so few will remain.
⁷ The new wine mourns.
The vine dries up.
Those who were feeling merry now sigh.
⁸ The happy sound of drums has ceased.
The noise of partying has ended.
The joyful lyre is silent.
⁹ They will drink no wine with their songs anymore.
Beer ^[1] is bitter to those who drink it.
¹⁰ The city is in chaos and ruins.
Every house is closed up,
and no one can get in.
¹¹ They cry for wine in the streets,
but all festive joy is gone.
Joyful celebration is banished from the land.
¹² The city is left desolate,
and the gate is smashed into pieces.
¹³ This is the way it will be among the peoples on earth:
It will be like an olive tree after it has been picked over,
like the gleanings left after the grape harvest.

¹⁴ They raise their voices and sing for joy.
From the west ^[2] they shout for the majesty of the Lord.
¹⁵ Therefore, in the east ^[3] glorify the Lord.
In the coastlands of the sea, glorify the name of the Lord,
    the God of Israel!
¹⁶ We hear songs from the ends of the earth:
Glory to the Righteous One!

But I said, “I am wasting away! I am wasting away! Woe is me!”
The treacherous deal treacherously.
Yes, the treacherous deal very treacherously.

¹⁷ Panic, pit, and peril ^[4] await all who live on the earth.
¹⁸ Whoever flees from the noise of terror will fall into the pit.
Whoever crawls out of the pit will be caught in the trap.
The windows ^[5] in the sky have opened,
and the foundations of the earth quake.
¹⁹ The earth is broken to pieces.
The earth is tearing itself apart.
The earth is shaking violently.
²⁰ The earth staggers like a drunken man.
It shakes like a shack in a windstorm.
The burden of its rebellion is so heavy
    that it will fall, unable to rise again.

²¹ On that day the Lord will deal with the army on high
and with the kings of the earth below.
²² They will be gathered together like prisoners in a pit.
They will be locked up in prison,
and after many days they will be dealt with.
²³ Then the bright moon will be ashamed,
and the hot sun will be embarrassed,
for the Lord of Armies will reign on Mount Zion in Jerusalem,
and his glory will shine in the presence of his elders.

¹ O Lord, you are my God.

I will exalt you! I will praise your name,
because you have done astounding things,
plans laid long ago that are firm and faithful. ^[6]
2 For you have reduced the city to a heap,
the fortified city to ruins.
The citadel of foreigners is no longer a city at all.
It will never be rebuilt.
³ That is why powerful peoples will honor you.
The cities of cruel nations will fear you,
⁴ for you have been a stronghold for the poor,
a stronghold for the needy in their distress.
You have been a shelter from the rainstorm
and shade from the heat.
When the breath of the ruthless is like a rainstorm battering a wall,
⁵ like a hot wind drying up the desert,
you put down the uproar of foreigners.
It is like heat cooled by the shade of a cloud.
The song of the ruthless is silenced.

⁶ On this mountain
the Lord of Armies will prepare for all peoples
    a banquet of rich food,
    a banquet of aged wines,
    with the best cuts of meat,
    and with the finest wines. ^[7]
7 On this mountain
he will destroy the shroud that covers all peoples,
the burial cloth stretched over all nations.
⁸ He has swallowed up death forever!
The Lord God will wipe away the tears from every face.
He will take away the shame of his people throughout the earth.
For the Lord has spoken.
⁹ On that day it will be said,
“Look, here is our God!
We waited for him, and he saved us!
This is the Lord!
We waited for him.
Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation!”

¹⁰ On this mountain
the Lord’s hand will rest.
Moab will be trampled underfoot,
like straw trampled into manure.
¹¹ Moab will spread out his hands in the middle of it,
    like someone trying to swim,
but the Lord will bring down Moab’s pride,
along with everything ^[8] Moab’s hands have done.
¹² The Lord will topple your high-walled fortress
and bring it to the ground,
all the way down to the dust.

Footnotes

1. Isaiah 24:9 Beer refers to any fermented drink not made from grapes. Distilled alcohol was not used in biblical times.
2. Isaiah 24:14 Literally sea
3. Isaiah 24:15 Literally among the lights
4. Isaiah 24:17 The Hebrew words pahad, pahat, and pah sound similar and are used for poetic effect. A bit of literalness is sacrificed to retain the effect; pah is more literally trap.
5. Isaiah 24:18 Or floodgates
6. Isaiah 25:1 The text has two forms of the Hebrew root amen, which are rendered firm and faithful.
7. Isaiah 25:6 More literally a banquet of fat food, a banquet of wine dregs, fat food filled with marrow, and dregs that are filtered
8. Isaiah 25:11 Or deceitful things. The meaning of this word is uncertain.