Isaiah 23-27

Common English Bible

¹⁰ Go through your own land, Daughter Tarshish,
    for the harbor^[c] is gone.
¹¹ God’s hand is extended over the sea, shaking nations.
The Lord gave the command to destroy Phoenicia’s fortresses,
¹²     saying, You will no longer celebrate,
    violated virgin Daughter Sidon.
Get up and head to Cyprus;
    even there you will find no rest.
¹³ Look at the land of the Chaldeans,
    the people who are no more.
Assyria destined it for wild animals:
    they raised up their siege towers,
    stripped its palaces,
    and made it a ruin.
¹⁴ Wail, ships of Tarshish,
    for your fortress is destroyed!

⁴ The earth dries up and wilts;
    the world withers and wilts;
    the heavens wither away with the earth.
⁵ The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants,
    for they have disobeyed instruction,
    swept aside law,
    and broken the ancient covenant.
⁶ Therefore, a curse devours the earth; its inhabitants suffer for their guilt.
Therefore, the earth’s inhabitants dwindle; very few are left.

⁷ The wine dries up;
    the vine withers;
    all the merry-hearted groan.
⁸ The joyous tambourines have ceased;
    the roar of partiers has stopped;
    the joyous harp has ceased.
⁹ No one drinks wine or sings;
    beer is bitter to its drinkers.
¹⁰ The town is in chaos, broken;
    every house is shut, without entrance.
¹¹ There is a cry for wine in the streets.
    All joy has reached its dusk;
    happiness is exiled from the earth.
¹² Ruin remains in the city,
    and the gate is battered to wreckage.
¹³ It will be like this in the central part of the land and among the peoples,
    like an olive tree that has been shaken,
    like remains from the grape harvest.

¹⁴ They raise their voice;
    they sing with joy;
    from the west they will shout about the Lord’s majesty.
¹⁵ Therefore, in the east honor the Lord;
    in the islands of the sea,
    the name of the Lord God of Israel!
¹⁶ From the ends of the earth we have heard songs:
    “Glory to the righteous one!”
But I say, “I waste away; I waste away;
    I’m doomed!
    Betrayers betray; treacherously betrayers betray.”

¹⁷ Terror, trench, and trap are upon you,
    ruler of the earth!
¹⁸ Whoever flees from the sound of terror will fall into the trench;
    whoever climbs from the trench will be caught in the trap.

Heaven’s windows will open, and the earth’s foundations will quake.
¹⁹ The earth is shattering, shattering;
    the earth is shaking, shaking;
    the earth is teetering, tottering.
²⁰ The earth trembles like a drunk
    and shudders like a hut;
    its rebellion weighs heavy upon it;
    it will fall, no more to rise.

⁶ On this mountain,
    the Lord of heavenly forces will prepare for all peoples
        a rich feast, a feast of choice wines,
        of select foods rich in flavor,
        of choice wines well refined.
⁷ He will swallow up on this mountain the veil that is veiling all peoples,
    the shroud enshrouding all nations.
⁸ He will swallow up death^[e] forever.
The Lord God will wipe tears from every face;
    he will remove his people’s disgrace from off the whole earth,
        for the Lord has spoken.
⁹ They will say on that day,
“Look! This is our God,
    for whom we have waited—
    and he has saved us!
This is the Lord, for whom we have waited;
    let’s be glad and rejoice in his salvation!”
¹⁰     The Lord’s hand will indeed rest on this mountain.

Moab will be trampled down
    as straw is trampled into manure.
¹¹ When in it they spread out their hands
    as swimmers spread out their hands to swim,
    God will lay low their pride, even by the efforts of their hands.
¹² The fortified towers of their^[f] walls
    will be thrown down, will be leveled,
    will be brought down to the earth, to the dust.

⁷ The way of the righteous is level;
    you clear a path for the righteous.
⁸ In the path of your justice, Lord, we wait for you;
with all our being, we long for your name and your acclaim.
⁹     At night I long for you with my whole being;
    my spirit within me watches for you.
When your judgments are at work in the earth,
    those living in the world learn righteousness.
¹⁰ When the wicked are favored, they don’t learn righteousness;
    even among those who do right they do wrong,
    and they fail to see the Lord’s majesty.
¹¹ Lord, your hand is lifted up,
    but they don’t see.
    Let them see and shrink back because of your zeal for your people;
    your burning anger that consumes your enemies.

¹² Lord, grant us peace,
    because all that we have done has been your doing.
¹³ Lord our God, other masters besides you have ruled us,
    but we will profess your name alone.
¹⁴ The dead don’t live; ghosts don’t rise.
    Indeed, you have punished and destroyed them,
    and abolished all memory of them.
¹⁵ You’ve enlarged the nation, Lord.
    You’ve enlarged the nation; you are glorified.
    You’ve expanded all the land’s boundaries.
¹⁶ Lord, in distress they sought you out;
    they poured out prayers to you when you disciplined them.
¹⁷ As a pregnant woman close to childbirth is in labor pains,
    crying out in her pangs,
    so were we because of you, Lord.
¹⁸ We were pregnant, we writhed,
but we gave birth to wind.
We have achieved no victories on earth;
    the inhabitants of the earth never fall.

¹⁹ Your dead will live, their^[g] corpses will rise,
    and those who dwell in the dust will shout for joy.
Your shadow is a shadow of light,
    but you will bring down the ghosts into the underworld.
²⁰ Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut your doors behind you.
    Take cover, for in a little while the fury will be over.
²¹ Look! The Lord is going out from his place
    to bring the iniquity of the ruler of the earth down upon him.
The earth will uncover its blood
    and will conceal its slain no longer.

⁷ Did God strike Israel as he struck those who struck him?
    Was Israel killed as his killers were killed?^[j]
8 By frightening Jerusalem, by sending her away,^[k]
    you contended with her,
    expelling with a fierce blast
    on the day of the east wind.
⁹ By this Jacob’s guilt is reconciled,
    and this was how his sins were finally removed:
    he made all the altar stones like shattered chalk,
    sacred poles^[l] and incense altars that couldn’t stand.

¹⁰ The fortified city lies alone,
    a hut forsaken,
    abandoned like the desert.
Calves graze there;
    they lie down there and feed on its boughs.
¹¹ When its branches are dry, they are broken.
    Women come and set fire to it.
These people have no understanding;
    therefore, their maker won’t have compassion;
    the one who formed them won’t be gracious.