Isaiah 25

Praise to the Lord

1 Lord, you are my God;

I will exalt you and praise your name,

for in perfect faithfulness

you have done wonderful things,

things planned long ago.

2 You have made the city a heap of rubble,

the fortified town a ruin,

the foreigners’ stronghold a city no more;

it will never be rebuilt.

3 Therefore strong peoples will honor you;

cities of ruthless nations will revere you.

4 You have been a refuge for the poor,

a refuge for the needy in their distress,

a shelter from the storm

and a shade from the heat.

For the breath of the ruthless

is like a storm driving against a wall

5 and like the heat of the desert.

You silence the uproar of foreigners;

as heat is reduced by the shadow of a cloud,

so the song of the ruthless is stilled.

6 On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare

a feast of rich food for all peoples,

a banquet of aged wine—

the best of meats and the finest of wines.

7 On this mountain he will destroy

the shroud that enfolds all peoples,

the sheet that covers all nations;

8 he will swallow up death forever.

The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears

from all faces;

he will remove his people’s disgrace

from all the earth.

The Lord has spoken.

9 In that day they will say,

“Surely this is our God;

we trusted in him, and he saved us.

This is the Lord, we trusted in him;

let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”

10 The hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain;

but Moab will be trampled in their land

as straw is trampled down in the manure.

11 They will stretch out their hands in it,

as swimmers stretch out their hands to swim.

God will bring down their pride

despite the cleverness of their hands.

12 He will bring down your high fortified walls

and lay them low;

he will bring them down to the ground,

to the very dust.

Chapter 26

A Song of Praise

1 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

We have a strong city;

God makes salvation

its walls and ramparts.

2 Open the gates

that the righteous nation may enter,

the nation that keeps faith.

3 You will keep in perfect peace

those whose minds are steadfast,

because they trust in you.

4 Trust in the Lord forever,

for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal.

5 He humbles those who dwell on high,

he lays the lofty city low;

he levels it to the ground

and casts it down to the dust.

6 Feet trample it down—

the feet of the oppressed,

the footsteps of the poor.

7 The path of the righteous is level;

you, the Upright One, make the way of the righteous smooth.

8 Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws,

we wait for you;

your name and renown

are the desire of our hearts.

9 My soul yearns for you in the night;

in the morning my spirit longs for you.

When your judgments come upon the earth,

the people of the world learn righteousness.

10 But when grace is shown to the wicked,

they do not learn righteousness;

even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil

and do not regard the majesty of the Lord.

11 Lord, your hand is lifted high,

but they do not see it.

Let them see your zeal for your people and be put to shame;

let the fire reserved for your enemies consume them.

12 Lord, you establish peace for us;

all that we have accomplished you have done for us.

13 Lord our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us,

but your name alone do we honor.

14 They are now dead, they live no more;

their spirits do not rise.

You punished them and brought them to ruin;

you wiped out all memory of them.

15 You have enlarged the nation, Lord;

you have enlarged the nation.

You have gained glory for yourself;

you have extended all the borders of the land.

16 Lord, they came to you in their distress;

when you disciplined them,

they could barely whisper a prayer.

17 As a pregnant woman about to give birth

writhes and cries out in her pain,

so were we in your presence, Lord.

18 We were with child, we writhed in labor,

but we gave birth to wind.

We have not brought salvation to the earth,

and the people of the world have not come to life.

19 But your dead will live, Lord;

their bodies will rise—

let those who dwell in the dust

wake up and shout for joy—

your dew is like the dew of the morning;

the earth will give birth to her dead.

20 Go, my people, enter your rooms

and shut the doors behind you;

hide yourselves for a little while

until his wrath has passed by.

21 See, the Lord is coming out of his dwelling

to punish the people of the earth for their sins.

The earth will disclose the blood shed on it;

the earth will conceal its slain no longer. 

Chapter 27

Deliverance of Israel

1 In that day,

the Lord will punish with his sword—

his fierce, great and powerful sword—

Leviathan the gliding serpent,

Leviathan the coiling serpent;

he will slay the monster of the sea.

2 In that day—

“Sing about a fruitful vineyard:

3 I, the Lord, watch over it;

I water it continually.

I guard it day and night

so that no one may harm it.

4 I am not angry.

If only there were briers and thorns confronting me!

I would march against them in battle;

I would set them all on fire.

5 Or else let them come to me for refuge;

let them make peace with me,

yes, let them make peace with me.”

6 In days to come Jacob will take root,

Israel will bud and blossom

and fill all the world with fruit.

7 Has the Lord struck her

as he struck down those who struck her?

Has she been killed

as those were killed who killed her?

8 By warfare and exile you contend with her—

with his fierce blast he drives her out,

as on a day the east wind blows.

9 By this, then, will Jacob’s guilt be atoned for,

and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin:

When he makes all the altar stones

to be like limestone crushed to pieces,

no Asherah poles or incense altars

will be left standing.

10 The fortified city stands desolate,

an abandoned settlement, forsaken like the wilderness;

there the calves graze,

there they lie down;

they strip its branches bare.

11 When its twigs are dry, they are broken off

and women come and make fires with them.

For this is a people without understanding;

so their Maker has no compassion on them,

and their Creator shows them no favor.

12 In that day the Lord will thresh from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, Israel, will be gathered up one by one. 13 And in that day a great trumpet will sound. Those who were perishing in Assyria and those who were exiled in Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.

Isaiah 28

Woe to the Leaders of Ephraim and Judah

1 Woe to that wreath, the pride of Ephraim’s drunkards,

to the fading flower, his glorious beauty,

set on the head of a fertile valley—

to that city, the pride of those laid low by wine!

2 See, the Lord has one who is powerful and strong.

Like a hailstorm and a destructive wind,

like a driving rain and a flooding downpour,

he will throw it forcefully to the ground.

3 That wreath, the pride of Ephraim’s drunkards,

will be trampled underfoot.

4 That fading flower, his glorious beauty,

set on the head of a fertile valley,

will be like figs ripe before harvest—

as soon as people see them and take them in hand,

they swallow them.

5 In that day the Lord Almighty

will be a glorious crown,

a beautiful wreath

for the remnant of his people.

6 He will be a spirit of justice

to the one who sits in judgment,

a source of strength

to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

7 And these also stagger from wine

and reel from beer:

Priests and prophets stagger from beer

and are befuddled with wine;

they reel from beer,

they stagger when seeing visions,

they stumble when rendering decisions.

8 All the tables are covered with vomit

and there is not a spot without filth.

9 “Who is it he is trying to teach?

To whom is he explaining his message?

To children weaned from their milk,

to those just taken from the breast?

10 For it is:

Do this, do that,

a rule for this, a rule for that

a little here, a little there.”

11 Very well then, with foreign lips and strange tongues

God will speak to this people,

12 to whom he said,

“This is the resting place, let the weary rest”;

and, “This is the place of repose”—

but they would not listen.

13 So then, the word of the Lord to them will become:

Do this, do that,

a rule for this, a rule for that;

a little here, a little there—

so that as they go they will fall backward;

they will be injured and snared and captured.

14 Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers

who rule this people in Jerusalem.

15 You boast, “We have entered into a covenant with death,

with the realm of the dead we have made an agreement.

When an overwhelming scourge sweeps by,

it cannot touch us,

for we have made a lie our refuge

and falsehood our hiding place.”

16 So this is what the Sovereign Lord says:

“See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone,

a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation;

the one who relies on it

will never be stricken with panic.

17 I will make justice the measuring line

and righteousness the plumb line;

hail will sweep away your refuge, the lie,

and water will overflow your hiding place.

18 Your covenant with death will be annulled;

your agreement with the realm of the dead will not stand.

When the overwhelming scourge sweeps by,

you will be beaten down by it.

19 As often as it comes it will carry you away;

morning after morning, by day and by night,

it will sweep through.”

The understanding of this message

will bring sheer terror.

20 The bed is too short to stretch out on,

the blanket too narrow to wrap around you.

21 The Lord will rise up as he did at Mount Perazim,

he will rouse himself as in the Valley of Gibeon—

to do his work, his strange work,

and perform his task, his alien task.

22 Now stop your mocking,

or your chains will become heavier;

the Lord, the Lord Almighty, has told me

of the destruction decreed against the whole land.

23 Listen and hear my voice;

pay attention and hear what I say.

24 When a farmer plows for planting, does he plow continually?

Does he keep on breaking up and working the soil?

25 When he has leveled the surface,

does he not sow caraway and scatter cumin?

Does he not plant wheat in its place,

barley in its plot,

and spelt in its field?

26 His God instructs him

and teaches him the right way.

27 Caraway is not threshed with a sledge,

nor is the wheel of a cart rolled over cumin;

caraway is beaten out with a rod,

and cumin with a stick.

28 Grain must be ground to make bread;

so one does not go on threshing it forever.

The wheels of a threshing cart may be rolled over it,

but one does not use horses to grind grain.

29 All this also comes from the Lord Almighty,

whose plan is wonderful,

whose wisdom is magnificent.

Chapter 13

Concluding Exhortations

1 Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. 2 Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.

3 Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.

4 Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. 5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,

“Never will I leave you;

never will I forsake you.”

6 So we say with confidence,

“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.

What can mere mortals do to me?”

7 Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

9 Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by eating ceremonial foods, which is of no benefit to those who do so. 10 We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat.

11 The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. 12 And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. 13 Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. 14 For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.

15 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. 16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

17 Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.

18 Pray for us. We are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way. 19 I particularly urge you to pray so that I may be restored to you soon.

Benediction and Final Greetings

20 Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, 21 equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

22 Brothers and sisters, I urge you to bear with my word of exhortation, for in fact I have written to you quite briefly.

23 I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been released. If he arrives soon, I will come with him to see you.

24 Greet all your leaders and all the Lord’s people. Those from Italy send you their greetings.

25 Grace be with you all.