Chapter 25
Praise for God’s Deliverance and the Celebration in Zion[a]
1 O Lord, you are my God,
I extol you, I praise your name;
For you have carried out your wonderful plans of old,
faithful and true.(A)
2 For you have made the city a heap,
the fortified city a ruin,
The castle of the insolent, a city no more,
not ever to be rebuilt.(B)
3 Therefore a strong people will honor you,
ruthless nations will fear you.
4 For you have been a refuge to the poor,
a refuge to the needy in their distress;
Shelter from the rain,
shade from the heat.(C)
When the blast of the ruthless was like a winter rain,
5 the roar of strangers like heat in the desert,
You subdued the heat with the shade of a cloud,
the rain of the tyrants was vanquished.
6 On this mountain[b] the Lord of hosts
will provide for all peoples
A feast of rich food and choice wines,
juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.
7 On this mountain he will destroy
the veil that veils all peoples,
The web that is woven over all nations.
8 He will destroy death forever.
The Lord God will wipe away
the tears from all faces;
The reproach of his people he will remove
from the whole earth; for the Lord has spoken.(D)
9 On that day it will be said:
“Indeed, this is our God; we looked to him, and he saved us!
This is the Lord to whom we looked;
let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us!”(E)
Judgment on Moab[c]
10 For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain,
but Moab will be trodden down
as straw is trodden down in the mire.(F)
11 He will spread out his hands in its midst,
as a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim;
His pride will be brought low
despite his strokes.(G)
12 The high-walled fortress he will raze,
bringing it low, leveling it to the ground, to the very dust.(H)
Footnotes
- 25:1–9 These verses praise God for carrying out his plan to destroy the enemy and to save the poor of his people in Zion (14:32), and they announce the victory banquet to be celebrated in the Lord’s city.
- 25:6 This mountain: i.e., Jerusalem’s mountain, Zion.
- 25:10–12 Moab: one of Israel’s bitterest enemies.