Isa 24-27 | ESV | STEP | Behold , the Lord will empty the earth and make it desolate , and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants .

1 Behold, ^athe Lord will empty the earth ^{▼▼Or land; also throughout this chapter} and make it desolate,
and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants.
2 ^cAnd it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest;
as with the slave, so with his master;
as with the maid, so with her mistress;
^das with the buyer, so with the seller;
as with the lender, so with the borrower;
^eas with the creditor, so with the debtor.
3 ^fThe earth shall be utterly empty and utterly plundered;
^gfor the Lord has spoken this word.
4 ^hThe earth mourns and withers;
the world languishes and withers;
the highest people of the earth languish.
5 The earth lies ⁱdefiled
under its inhabitants;
for ^jthey have transgressed the laws,
violated the statutes,
broken the everlasting covenant.
6 Therefore ^ka curse devours the earth,
and its inhabitants ^lsuffer for their guilt;
therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched,
and few men are left.
7 ^mThe wine mourns,
the vine languishes,
all the merry-hearted sigh.
8 ⁿThe mirth of the tambourines is stilled,
the noise of the jubilant has ceased,
the mirth of the lyre is stilled.
9 No more do they drink wine ^owith singing;
strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.
10 ^pThe wasted city is broken down;
^qevery house is shut up so that none can enter.
11 ^rThere is an outcry in the streets for lack of wine;
^sall joy has grown dark;
the gladness of the earth is banished.
12 Desolation is left in the city;
the gates are battered into ruins.
13 For thus it shall be in the midst of the earth
among the nations,
^tas when an olive tree is beaten,
as at the gleaning when the grape harvest is done.
14 They lift up their voices, they sing for joy;
over the majesty of the Lord they shout from the west. ^{▼▼Hebrew from the sea}
15 ^vTherefore in the east ^{▼▼Hebrew in the realm of light} give glory to the Lord;
in the coastlands of the sea, give glory to the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.
16 ^xFrom the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise,
of glory to ^ythe Righteous One.
But I say, “I waste away,
I waste away. Woe is me!
For ^zthe traitors have betrayed,
with betrayal the traitors have betrayed.”
17 ^aaTerror and the pit and the snare ^{▼▼The Hebrew words for terror, pit, and snare sound alike}
are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth!
18 ^acHe who flees at the sound of the terror
shall fall into the pit,
and he who climbs out of the pit
shall be caught in the snare.
For ^adthe windows of heaven are opened,
and ^aethe foundations of the earth tremble.
19 The earth is utterly broken,
the earth is split apart,
the earth is violently shaken.
20 The earth ^afstaggers like a drunken man;
it sways like a hut;
^agits transgression lies heavy upon it,
and it falls, and will not rise again.
21 On that day the Lord will punish
the host of heaven, in heaven,
and ^ahthe kings of the earth, on the earth.
22 ^aiThey will be gathered together
as prisoners in a pit;
they will be shut up in a prison,
and after many days ^ajthey will be punished.
23 ^akThen the moon will be confounded
and the sun ashamed,
for ^althe Lord of hosts reigns
on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
and his glory will be before his elders.

Isaiah 25

God Will Swallow Up Death Forever

1 O Lord, ^amyou are my God;
^anI will exalt you; I will praise your name,
for you have done wonderful things,
^aoplans formed of old, faithful and sure.
2 For you have made the city ^apa heap,
the fortified city a ruin;
the foreigners’ palace is a city no more;
it will never be rebuilt.
3 ^aqTherefore strong peoples will glorify you;
cities of ruthless nations will fear you.
4 ^arFor you have been a stronghold to the poor,
a stronghold to the needy in his distress,
^asa shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat;
^atfor the breath of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall,
5 ^aulike heat in a dry place.
You subdue the noise of the foreigners;
as heat by the shade of a cloud,
so the song of the ruthless is put down.
6 ^avOn this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,
^awof rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
7 And he will swallow up ^axon this mountain
the covering that is cast over all peoples,
^aythe veil that is spread over all nations.
8 ^azHe will swallow up death forever;
and ^bathe Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
and ^bbthe reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
^bcfor the Lord has spoken.
9 It will be said on that day,
“Behold, this is our God; ^bdwe have waited for him, that he might save us.
This is the Lord; we have waited for him;
^belet us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
10 For the hand of the Lord will rest ^bfon this mountain,
and ^bgMoab shall be trampled down in his place,
as straw is trampled down in a dunghill. ^{▼▼The Hebrew words for dunghill and for the Moabite town Madmen (Jeremiah 48:2) sound alike}
11 ^biAnd he will spread out his hands in the midst of it
as a swimmer spreads his hands out to swim,
but the Lord ^bjwill lay low his pompous pride together with the skill ^{▼▼Or in spite of the skill} of his hands.
12 And the high fortifications of his walls he will bring down,
lay low, and cast to the ground, to the dust.

Isaiah 26

You Keep Him in Perfect Peace

1 In that day ^blthis song will be sung in the land of Judah:

“We have a strong city;
he sets up ^bmsalvation
as walls and bulwarks.
2 ^bnOpen the gates,
that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in.
3 ^boYou keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on you,
because he trusts in you.
4 Trust in the Lord forever,
for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.
5 ^bpFor he has humbled
the inhabitants of the height,
the lofty city.
He lays it low, lays it low to the ground,
casts it to the dust.
6 The foot tramples it,
the feet of ^bqthe poor,
the steps of ^brthe needy.”
7 The path of the righteous is level;
^bsyou make level the way of the righteous.
8 In the path of your judgments,
O Lord, we wait for you;
^btyour name and ^buremembrance
are the desire of our soul.
9 My soul yearns for you in the night;
my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.
^bvFor when your judgments are in the earth,
the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
10 ^bwIf favor is shown to the wicked,
he does not learn righteousness;
in the land of uprightness he deals corruptly
and does not see the majesty of the Lord.
11 O Lord, ^bxyour hand is lifted up,
but ^bythey do not see it.
Let them see your zeal for your people, and be ashamed.
Let ^bzthe fire for your adversaries consume them.
12 O Lord, you will ordain ^capeace for us,
for you have indeed done for us all our works.
13 O Lord our God,
^cbother lords besides you have ruled over us,
^ccbut your name alone we bring to remembrance.
14 They are dead, they will not live;
they are shades, they will not arise;
to that end you have visited them with destruction
and wiped out all remembrance of them.
15 ^cdBut you have increased the nation, O Lord,
you have increased the nation; you are glorified;
^ceyou have enlarged all the borders of the land.
16 O Lord, ^cfin distress they sought you;
they poured out a whispered prayer
when your discipline was upon them.
17 ^cgLike a pregnant woman
who writhes and cries out in her pangs
when she is near to giving birth,
so were we because of you, O Lord;
18 ^chwe were pregnant, we writhed,
but we have given birth to wind.
We have accomplished no deliverance in the earth,
and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.
19 ^ciYour dead shall live; their bodies shall rise.
You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!
For ^cjyour dew is a dew of light,
and the earth will give birth to the dead.
20 Come, my people, enter your chambers,
and shut your doors behind you;
hide yourselves ^ckfor a little while
until the fury has passed by.
21 ^clFor behold, the Lord is coming out from his place
to punish the inhabitants of ^cmthe earth for their iniquity,
and the earth will disclose the blood shed on it,
and will no more cover its slain.

Isaiah 27

The Redemption of Israel

1 In that day the Lord with his hard and great and strong ^cnsword will punish ^coLeviathan the fleeing serpent, ^cpLeviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay ^cqthe dragon that is in the sea.

2 In that day,
^cr“A pleasant vineyard, ^{▼▼Many Hebrew manuscripts A vineyard of wine} ^ctsing of it!
3 I, the Lord, am its keeper;
every moment I water it.
Lest anyone punish it,
I keep it night and day;
4 I have no wrath.
^cuWould that I had thorns and briers to battle!
I would march against them,
I would burn them up together.
5 Or let them lay hold of my protection,
let them make peace with me,
let them make peace with me.”
6 ^cvIn days to come ^{▼▼Hebrew In those to come} Jacob shall take root,
Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots
and fill the whole world with fruit.
7 ^cxHas he struck them ^cyas he struck those who struck them?
Or have they been slain ^czas their slayers were slain?
8 ^daMeasure by measure, ^{▼▼Or By driving her away; the meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain} by exile you contended with them;
^dche removed them with his fierce breath ^{▼▼Or wind} in the day of the east wind.
9 Therefore by this ^dethe guilt of Jacob will be atoned for,
and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin: ^{▼▼Septuagint and this is the blessing when I take away his sin}
^dgwhen he makes all the stones of the altars
like chalkstones crushed to pieces,
no ^dhAsherim or incense altars will remain standing.
10 ^diFor the fortified city is solitary,
a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness;
there the calf grazes;
there it lies down and strips its branches.
11 When its boughs are dry, they are broken;
women come and make a fire of them.
^djFor this is a people without discernment;
therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them;
he who formed them will show them no favor.
12 In that day ^dkfrom the river Euphrates ^{▼▼Hebrew from the River} to the Brook of Egypt the Lord will thresh out the grain, and you will be gleaned one by one, O people of Israel. 13 And in that day ^dma great trumpet will be blown, ^dnand those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt ^dowill come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.