UST ISA Chapter 25

◄ ISA 25 ► ║ ═ ©

25 Yahweh, you are my God.

I will praise and worship you for who you are.

You have done wonderful things.

You planned them long ago, and you have accomplished them with complete faithfulness.

2 You turn cities into piles of rubble.

You even destroy cities that have strong walls around them.

Even when foreigners build fortresses,

you destroy them so completely

that no one will ever rebuild them.

3 Therefore, people from powerful nations will declare that you are very great.

and people will be in awe of you

in the cities of nations that terrify others.

4 Yahweh, you protect poor people just as a strong fortress protects those inside it.

You protect needy people when they are suffering

just as a shelter protects people from rain

and a shade protects people from the heat of the sun.

Cruel people attack others the way a rainstorm batters a wall

5 and the way scorching heat makes a desert unbearable.

Foreign armies may cause trouble, but you defeat them

just as a cloud cools the land with its shade.

You keep cruel people from singing to celebrate their victories.

6 Here on Mount Zion, Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies,

will prepare a wonderful feast for all peoples.

It will be a banquet with rich food and fine wine.

7 The people of all nations are gloomy,

as if a thick shroud were covering them.

But here on Mount Zion, Yahweh will make them happy again,

as if he were taking away that shroud.

8 He will do that by making it so that no one dies anymore.

Yahweh, the Lord, will make it so that no one weeps anymore.

His people were in shameful situations in many places in the world,

but he will restore them to honorable situations.

This will surely happen because Yahweh has said that it will happen.

9 At that time, people will proclaim,

“Pay attention! Our God has done this!

We waited confidently for him to help us,

and he has rescued us!

Our God is Yahweh. We waited confidently for him to help us.

Now he has rescued us, so we should be happy and celebrate!”

10 Yahweh will use his power to protect Mount Zion,

but he will defeat the people of Moab in their own land

just as someone tramples straw into a pile of manure.

11 The people of Moab will try to escape

as if they were in a giant pool of manure

and trying to swim out of it.

But no matter how cleverly they try to escape,

Yahweh will defeat them and humble them.

12 Even though there are strong, high walls around Moab’s cities,

Yahweh will demolish them

so that they are only stones lying on the dust of the ground.