Isaiah 24-27
I wasted away—
and yet still I listened.
NARRATOR:
Look! Jehovah is emptying the land and making it desolate.
He turns it upside down and scatters its inhabitants.
It will be the same for everyone:
The people as well as the priest,
The servant and his master,
The servant and her mistress,
The buyer and the seller,
The lender and the borrower,
The creditor and the debtor.
The land will be completely emptied;
It will be completely plundered,
For Jehovah has spoken this word.
The land mourns; it is wasting away.
The productive land withers; it is fading away.
The prominent people of the land wither.
The land has been polluted by its inhabitants,
For they have bypassed the laws,
Changed the regulation,
And broken the lasting covenant.
That is why the curse devours the land,
And those inhabiting it are held guilty.
That is why the inhabitants of the land have dwindled,
And very few men are left.
The new wine mourns, the vine withers,
And all those cheerful at heart are sighing.
The joy of the tambourines has ceased;
The noise of the revelers has ended;
The happy sound of the harp has ceased.
They drink wine without song,
And alcohol tastes bitter to those drinking it.
The deserted town is broken down;
Every house is shut up so that no one can enter.
They cry out for wine in the streets.
All rejoicing has disappeared;
The joy of the land has gone.
The city is left in ruins;
The gate has been crushed to a heap of rubble.
For this is how it will be in the land, among the peoples:
As when an olive tree is beaten,
Like the gleaning when the grape harvest comes to an end.
VOICES OF THE RIGHTEOUS:
They will raise their voice,
They will shout joyfully.
From the sea they will proclaim the majesty of Jehovah.
That is why they will glorify Jehovah in the region of light;
In the islands of the sea they will glorify the name of Jehovah the God of Israel.
From the ends of the earth we hear songs:
“Glory to the Righteous One!”
ISAIAH:
But I say: “I am wasting away, I am wasting away!
Woe to me! The treacherous have acted treacherously;
With treachery the treacherous have acted treacherously.”
Terror and pits and traps await you, inhabitant of the land.
Anyone fleeing from the sound of terror will fall into the pit,
And anyone coming up from the pit will be caught in the trap.
For the floodgates above will be opened,
And the foundations of the land will quake.
The land has burst apart;
The land has been shaken up;
The land convulses violently.
The land staggers like a drunken man,
And it sways back and forth like a hut in the wind.
Its transgression weighs heavily on it,
And it will fall, so that it will not rise up again.
In that day Jehovah will turn his attention to the army of the heights above
And to the kings of the earth upon the earth.
And they will be gathered together
Like prisoners gathered into a pit,
And they will be shut up in the dungeon;
After many days they will be given attention.
The full moon will be abashed,
And the shining sun will be ashamed,
For Jehovah of armies has become King in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
Glorious before the elders of his people.
ISAIAH (PRAYER):
O Jehovah, you are my God.
I exalt you, I praise your name,
For you have done wonderful things,
Things purposed from ancient times,
In faithfulness, in trustworthiness.
For you have turned a city into a pile of stones,
A fortified town into a crumbling ruin.
The foreigner’s tower is a city no more;
It will never be rebuilt.
That is why a strong people will glorify you;
The city of tyrannical nations will fear you.
For you have become a stronghold to the lowly,
A stronghold to the poor in his distress,
A refuge from the rainstorm,
And a shade from the heat.
When the blast of the tyrants is like a rainstorm against a wall,
As the heat in a parched land,
You subdue the uproar of strangers.
Like heat that is subdued by the shadow of a cloud,
So the song of the tyrants is silenced.
In this mountain Jehovah of armies will make for all the peoples
A banquet of rich dishes,
A banquet of fine wine,
Of rich dishes filled with marrow,
Of fine, filtered wine.
In this mountain he will do away with the shroud that is enveloping all the peoples
And the covering that is woven over all the nations.
He will swallow up death forever,
And the Sovereign Lord Jehovah will wipe away the tears from all faces.
The reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
For Jehovah himself has spoken it.
THE REDEEMED:
In that day they will say:
“Look! This is our God!
We have hoped in him,
And he will save us.
This is Jehovah!
We have hoped in him.
Let us be joyful and rejoice in the salvation by him.”
NARRATOR:
For the hand of Jehovah will rest on this mountain,
And Moab will be trampled on in its place
Like straw trampled into a pile of manure.
He will slap out his hands into it
Like a swimmer slapping out his hands to swim,
And he will bring down its haughtiness
With the skillful movements of his hands.
And the fortified city, with your high walls of security,
He will bring down;
He will knock it down to the ground, to the very dust.
SONG OF JUDAH:
In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
“We have a strong city.
He makes salvation its walls and its ramparts.
Open up the gates so that the righteous nation may enter,
A nation that is keeping faithful conduct.
You will safeguard those who fully lean on you;
You will give them continuous peace,
Because it is in you that they trust.
Trust in Jehovah forever,
For Jah Jehovah is the eternal Rock.
For he has brought low those inhabiting the height, the lofty city.
He brings it down,
He brings it down to the earth;
He casts it down to the dust.
The foot will trample it,
The feet of the afflicted, the steps of the lowly.”
ISAIAH:
The path of the righteous one is upright.
Because you are upright,
You will smooth out the course of the righteous.
As we follow the path of your judgments, O Jehovah,
Our hope is in you.
We long for your name and your memorial.
In the night I long for you with my whole being,
Yes, my spirit keeps looking for you;
For when there are judgments from you for the earth,
The inhabitants of the land learn about righteousness.
Even if the wicked is shown favor,
He will not learn righteousness.
Even in the land of uprightness he will act wickedly,
And he will not see the majesty of Jehovah.
O Jehovah, your hand is raised, but they do not see it.
They will see your zeal for your people and be put to shame.
Yes, the fire for your adversaries will consume them.
O Jehovah, you will grant us peace,
Because everything we have done
You have accomplished for us.
O Jehovah our God, other masters besides you have ruled over us,
But we make mention of your name alone.
They are dead; they will not live.
Powerless in death, they will not rise up.
For you have turned your attention to them
To annihilate them and destroy all mention of them.
You have enlarged the nation, O Jehovah,
You have enlarged the nation;
You have glorified yourself.
You have greatly extended all the borders of the land.
O Jehovah, during distress they turned to you;
They poured out their prayer in a whisper when you disciplined them.
Just as a pregnant woman about to give birth
Has labor pains and cries out in pain,
So we have been because of you, O Jehovah.
We became pregnant, we had labor pains,
But it is as if we had given birth to wind.
We have not brought salvation to the land,
And no one is born to inhabit the land.
JEHOVAH (PROMISE):
“Your dead will live.
My corpses will rise up.
Awake and shout joyfully,
You residents in the dust!
For your dew is as the dew of the morning,
And the earth will let those powerless in death come to life.
Go, my people, enter your inner rooms,
And shut your doors behind you.
Hide yourself for a brief moment
Until the wrath has passed by.
For look! Jehovah is coming from his place
To call the inhabitants of the land to account for their error,
And the land will expose her bloodshed
And will no longer cover over her slain.”
NARRATOR:
In that day Jehovah, with his harsh and great and strong sword,
Will turn his attention to Leviathan, the gliding serpent,
To Leviathan, the twisting serpent,
And he will kill the monster that is in the sea.
SONG OF THE VINEYARD:
In that day sing to her:
“A vineyard of foaming wine!
I, Jehovah, am safeguarding her.
Every moment I water her.
I safeguard her night and day,
So that no one may harm her.
There is no wrath in me.
Who will confront me with thornbushes and weeds in the battle?
I will trample them and set them on fire all together.
Otherwise, let him hold fast to my stronghold.
Let him make peace with me;
Peace let him make with me.”
NARRATOR:
In the coming days Jacob will take root,
Israel will blossom and sprout,
And they will fill the land with produce.
Must he be struck with the stroke of the one striking him?
Or must he be killed as with the slaughter of his slain?
With a startling cry you will contend with her when sending her away.
He will expel her with his fierce blast in the day of the east wind.
So in this way the error of Jacob will be atoned for,
And this will be the full fruitage when his sin is taken away:
He will make all the stones of the altar
Like chalkstones that have been pulverized,
And no sacred poles or incense stands will be left.
For the fortified city will be deserted;
The pastures will be forsaken and abandoned like a wilderness.
There the calf will graze and lie down
And will consume her branches.
When her twigs have dried up,
Women will come and break them off,
Making fires with them.
For this people is without understanding.
That is why their Maker will show them no mercy,
And the One who formed them will show them no favor.
In that day Jehovah will beat out the fruit from the flowing stream of the River to the Wadi of Egypt,
And you will be gathered up one after the other, O people of Israel.
In that day a great horn will be blown,
And those who are perishing in the land of Assyria
And those dispersed in the land of Egypt
Will come and bow down to Jehovah in the holy mountain in Jerusalem.
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