Isaiah 23 - 28 - Legacy Standard Bible

Isaiah 23 - 28

An Oracle Concerning Tyre

The oracle concerning Tyre.

Wail, O ships of Tarshish,

For Tyre is destroyed, without house or harbor;

It is revealed to them from the land of Cyprus.

Be silent, you inhabitants of the coastland,

You merchants of Sidon;

Your messengers crossed the sea

And were on many waters.

The grain of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile was her revenue;

And she was the nations’ gain.

Be ashamed, O Sidon;

For the sea speaks, the strong defense of the sea, saying,

“I have neither travailed nor given birth;

I have neither brought up choice men nor reared virgins.”

When the report reaches Egypt,

They will be in travail at the report of Tyre.

Pass over to Tarshish;

Wail, O inhabitants of the coastland.

Is this your exultant city,

Whose origin is from days of old,

Whose feet used to lead her to sojourn in distant places?

Who has counseled this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,

Whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth?

Yahweh of hosts has counseled it, to defile the pride of all beauty,

To make contemptuous all the honored of the earth.

Overflow your land like the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish;

There is no more restraint.

He has stretched His hand out over the sea;

He has made the kingdoms tremble;

Yahweh has given a command concerning Canaan to demolish its strong defenses.

So He said, “You shall exult no more, O crushed virgin daughter of Sidon.

Arise, pass over to Cyprus; even there you will find no rest.”

13 Behold, the land of the Chaldeans—this is the people which was not; Assyria established it for desert creatures—they erected their siege towers, they stripped its palaces, they made it a ruin. 14

Wail, O ships of Tarshish,

For your strong defense is destroyed.

15 Now it will be in that day, that Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years like the days of one king. At the end of seventy years it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the harlot: 16

Take your harp, walk about the city,

O forgotten harlot;

Pluck the strings skillfully, sing many songs,

That you may be remembered.

17 And it will be at the end of seventy years that Yahweh will visit Tyre. Then she will go back to her harlot’s wages and will play the harlot with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. 18 And her gain and her harlot’s wages will be set apart to Yahweh; it will not be treasured up or hoarded, but her gain will become sufficient food and choice attire for those who inhabit the presence of Yahweh.

Yahweh Will Empty the Earth

Behold, Yahweh empties the earth to destruction, eviscerates it, distorts its surface, and scatters its inhabitants. 2 And the people will be like the priest, the male slave like his master, the female slave like her mistress, the buyer like the seller, the lender like the borrower, the creditor like the debtor. 3 The earth will be completely emptied to destruction and completely plundered, for Yahweh has spoken this word. 4 The earth mourns and withers; the world languishes and withers; the exalted of the people of the earth languish. 5 The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants, for they trespassed laws, violated statutes, broke the everlasting covenant. 6 Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who inhabit it are held guilty. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men remain. 7

The new wine mourns;

The vine languishes;

All the glad of heart sigh.

The joy of tambourines ceases;

The rumbling of those exulting stops;

The joy of the harp ceases.

They do not drink wine with song;

Strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.

The city of chaos is broken down;

Every house is shut up so that none may enter.

There is an outcry in the streets concerning the wine;

All gladness turns to gloom.

The joy of the earth is taken away into exile.

Desolation remains in the city,

And the gate is struck down to ruins.

For thus it will be in the midst of the earth among the peoples,

As the shaking of an olive tree,

As the gleanings when the grape harvest is over.

They lift up their voices, they shout for joy;

They cry out from the west concerning the majesty of Yahweh.

Therefore glorify Yahweh in the east,

The name of Yahweh, the God of Israel,

In the coastlands of the sea.

From the ends of the earth we hear songs, “Glory to the Righteous One,”

But I say, “I waste away! I waste away! Woe is me!

The treacherous deal treacherously,

And the treacherous deal very treacherously.”

Panic and pit and pitfall

Are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth.

Then it will be that he who flees the sound of panic will fall into the pit,

And he who climbs out of the pit will be caught in the pitfall;

For the windows above are opened, and the foundations of the earth quake.

The earth is broken asunder;

The earth is split through;

The earth is shaken violently.

The earth reels to and fro like a drunkard

And it totters like a shack,

For its transgression is heavy upon it,

And it will fall, never to rise again.

So it will be in that day,

That Yahweh will punish the host of heights on high,

And the kings of the earth on earth.

They will be gathered together

Like prisoners in the pit,

And will be confined in prison;

And after many days they will be punished.

Then the moon will be humiliated and the sun ashamed,

For Yahweh of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,

And His glory will be before His elders.

Yahweh Will Swallow Up Death

O Yahweh, You are my God;

I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name;

For You have worked wonders,

Counsels formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.

For You have made a city into a heap,

A fortified town into a ruin;

A palace of strangers is a city no more,

It will never be rebuilt.

Therefore a strong people will glorify You;

Towns of ruthless nations will fear You.

For You have been a strong defense for the poor,

A strong defense for the needy in his distress,

A refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat;

For the breath of the ruthless

Is like a rain storm against a wall.

Like heat in a dry land, You subdue the rumbling of strangers;

Like heat by the shadow of a cloud, the song of the ruthless is silenced.

And Yahweh of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain;

A banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow,

And refined, aged wine.

And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples,

Even the veil which is stretched over all nations.

He will swallow up death for all time,

And Lord Yahweh will wipe tears away from all faces,

And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth;

For Yahweh has spoken.

And it will be said in that day,

“Behold, this is our God in whom we have hoped that He would save us.

This is Yahweh in whom we have hoped;

Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.”

For the hand of Yahweh will rest on this mountain,

And Moab will be trodden down in his place

As straw is trodden down in the water of a manure pile.

And he will spread out his hands in the middle of it

As a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim,

But Yahweh will lay low his lofty pride together with the trickery of his hands.

The unassailable fortifications of your walls He will bring down,

Lay low, and cast to the ground, even to the dust.

Yahweh Will Establish Peace

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

“We have a strong city;

He sets up walls and ramparts for salvation.

Open the gates, that the righteous nation may enter,

The one that keeps faithfulness.

The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace

Because he trusts in You.

Trust in Yahweh forever,

For in Yah—Yahweh Himself—we have an everlasting Rock.

For He has laid low those who settle on high, the exalted city;

He brings it low, He brings it low to the ground, He casts it to the dust.

The foot will trample it,

The feet of the afflicted, the steps of the poor.”

The way of the righteous is upright;

O Upright One, make the path of the righteous level.

Indeed, while following the way of Your judgments, O Yahweh,

We have hoped for You eagerly;

Your name—the memory of You—is the desire of our souls.

At night my soul longs for You,

Indeed, my spirit within me seeks You earnestly;

For when the earth experiences Your judgments,

The inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

Though the wicked is shown favor,

He does not learn righteousness;

He deals unjustly in the land of uprightness,

And does not perceive the majesty of Yahweh.

O Yahweh, Your hand is raised up high, yet they do not behold it.

They behold Your zeal for the people and are put to shame;

Indeed, fire will devour Your adversaries.

Yahweh, You will establish peace for us,

Since You have also performed for us all our works.

O Yahweh our God, other masters besides You have ruled us;

But through You alone we bring Your name to remembrance.

The dead will not live; the departed spirits will not rise;

Therefore You have visited and destroyed them,

And You have made all remembrance of them perish.

You have increased the nation, O Yahweh;

You have increased the nation, You are glorified;

You have extended all the borders of the land.

O Yahweh, they visited You in distress;

They could only whisper a prayer;

Your chastening was upon them.

As the woman with child draws near to the time to give birth,

She writhes and cries out in her pangs of labor,

Thus were we before You, O Yahweh.

We were with child, we writhed in labor;

We gave birth, as it seems, only to wind.

We could not accomplish salvation for the earth,

And the inhabitants of the world were not born.

Your dead will live;

Their corpses will rise.

You who dwell in the dust, awake and shout for joy,

For your dew is as the dew of the dawn,

And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.

Come, my people, enter into your rooms

And close your doors behind you;

Hide for a little while

Until indignation passes by.

For behold, Yahweh is about to come out from His place

To visit the iniquity of the inhabitants of the earth;

And the earth will reveal her bloodshed

And will no longer cover those of hers who were killed.

Yahweh Will Deliver Israel

In that day Yahweh will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent,

With His fierce and great and mighty sword,

Even Leviathan the twisted serpent;

And He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.

In that day,

“A vineyard of delight, sing of it!

I, Yahweh, am its keeper;

I water it every moment.

Lest anyone damage it,

I keep it night and day.

I have no wrath.

Who would ever give Me briars and thorns in the battle?

I would step on them, I would burn them completely.

Or let him rely on My strong defense,

Let him make peace with Me,

Let him make peace with Me.”

In the days to come Jacob will take root,

Israel will blossom and bud,

And they will fill the whole world with produce.

Like the striking of Him who has struck them, has He struck them?

Or like the slaughter of those of His who were killed, have they been killed?

You contended with them by driving them away, by making them forlorn.

With His fierce wind He has expelled them on the day of the east wind.

Therefore through this, Jacob’s iniquity will be atoned for;

And this will be the whole fruit of the turning away of his sin:

When he makes all the altar stones like pulverized chalk stones,

When Asherim and incense altars will not stand.

For the fortified city is isolated,

A haunt forlorn and forsaken like the desert;

There the calf will graze,

And there it will lie down and feed on its twigs.

When its limbs are dry, they are broken off;

Women come and light a fire with them,

For they are not a people of discernment,

Therefore their Maker will not have compassion on them.

And their Creator will not be gracious to them.

12 And it will be in that day, that Yahweh will start His threshing from the flowing stream of the River to the brook of Egypt, and you will be gathered up one by one, O sons of Israel. 13 And it will be in that day, that a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were perishing in the land of Assyria and who were banished in the land of Egypt will come and worship Yahweh in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

Woe to Ephraim

Woe to the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim,

And to the fading flower of its glorious beauty,

Which is at the head of the fertile valley

Of those who are overcome with wine!

Behold, the Lord has a strong and courageous agent;

As a storm of hail, a tempest of destruction,

Like a storm of mighty overflowing waters,

He has set it down to the earth with His hand.

The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim is trodden under foot.

And the fading flower of its glorious beauty,

Which is at the head of the fertile valley,

Will be like the first‑ripe fig prior to summer,

Which one sees,

And as soon as it is in his hand,

He swallows it.

In that day Yahweh of hosts will become a beautiful crown

And a glorious diadem to the remnant of His people;

A spirit of just judgment for him who sits in judgment,

A might to those who turn back the onslaught at the gate.

And these also reel with wine and stagger from strong drink:

The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink;

They are swallowed up by wine, they stagger from strong drink;

They reel while having visions;

They totter when rendering a verdict.

For all the tables are full of filthy vomit, without a single clean place.

“Whom would He instruct in knowledge,

And whom would He provide understanding about the report?

Those just weaned from milk?

Those just taken from the breast?

For He says,

‘Order on order, order on order,

Line on line, line on line,

A little here, a little there.’”

Indeed, He will speak to this people

Through stammering lips and a foreign tongue,

He who said to them, “Here is rest, give rest to the weary,”

And, “Here is repose,” but they would not listen.

So the word of Yahweh to them will be,

“Order on order, order on order,

Line on line, line on line,

A little here, a little there,”

That they may go and stumble backward, be broken, snared, and taken captive.

A Cornerstone in Zion

Therefore, hear the word of Yahweh, O scoffers,

Who rule this people who are in Jerusalem,

Because you have said, “We have cut a covenant with death,

And with Sheol we have made a pact.

The overflowing scourge will not reach us when it passes by,

For we have made falsehood our refuge and we have hidden ourselves with lying.”

16 Therefore thus says Lord Yahweh,

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone,

A costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed.

He who believes in it will not be disturbed.

I will make justice the measuring line

And righteousness the level;

Then hail will sweep away the refuge of falsehood,

And the waters will overflow the secret place.

Your covenant with death will be canceled,

And your pact with Sheol will not stand;

When the overflowing scourge passes through,

Then you will become its trampling place.

As often as it passes through, it will take you;

For morning after morning it will pass through, anytime during the day or night,

And it will be sheer terror to understand the report.”

The bed is too short on which to stretch out,

And the blanket is too narrow to wrap oneself in.

For Yahweh will rise up as at Mount Perazim;

He will be stirred up as in the valley of Gibeon,

To work His work, His unusual work,

And to labor in His labor, His exceptional labor.

So now do not carry on as scoffers,

Lest your fetters be made stronger;

For I have heard from Lord Yahweh of hosts

Of complete destruction, one that is decreed, on all the earth.

Give ear and hear my voice,

Pay attention and hear my words.

Does the farmer plow continually to plant seed?

Does he continually turn and harrow his ground?

Does he not level its surface

And sow dill and scatter cumin

And plant wheat in rows,

Barley in its place and rye within its area?

For his God disciplines and teaches him proper judgment.

For dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge,

Nor is the wheel of a cart driven over cumin;

But dill is beaten out with a staff, and cumin with a rod.

Grain for bread is crushed,

But he does not continue to thresh it forever.

Because the wheel of his cart and his horses eventually disturb it,

He does not crush it longer.

This also comes from Yahweh of hosts,

Who has made His counsel wonderful and His wisdom great.