A Song of Praise
25
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.[a]
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.
A Banquet for All Peoples
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.[b]
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!”
God Will Punish Moab
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[c] 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
- Isaiah 25:1 The text has two forms of the Hebrew root amen, which are rendered firm and faithful.
- 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
- Isaiah 25:11 Or deceitful things. The meaning of this word is uncertain.