Isaiah 13-27

New Catholic Bible

² Upon a barren hill raise a banner;
    cry aloud to them.
Wave your hand to them
    to enter the gates of the nobles.
³ I have commanded my consecrated soldiers
    and summoned my dedicated warriors
    to carry out my vengeance.
⁴ Listen to the great tumult on the mountains
    like that of an immense gathering.
Listen to the uproar of the kingdoms,
    of nations assembling;
the Lord of hosts is mustering
    an army for battle.
⁵ From a distant land,
    from the end of the heavens,
the Lord and the instruments of his wrath
    are coming to destroy the entire earth.
⁶ Cry out in anguish,
    for the day of the Lord is near;
    it will come like devastation from the Almighty.
⁷ Therefore, every hand will hang limp
    and every man’s courage will fade;
⁸ they will all be panic-stricken,
    overcome with pangs and agony
    and writhing like a woman in labor.
They will look aghast at each other,
    with their faces aflame with fear.
⁹ Behold, the day of the Lord is coming,
    a cruel day of wrath and burning anger,
to reduce the land to a desert waste
    and to destroy all the sinners within it.
¹⁰ The stars of the heavens and their constellations
    will no longer give forth their light.
The sun will be dark when it rises,
    and the moon will not provide its light.
¹¹ By taking this course
    I will punish the world for its wickedness
    and those who are evil for their iniquity.
I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant
    and humble the insolence of tyrants.
¹² I will make human beings more scarce than pure gold,
    far more rare than the gold of Ophir.
¹³ Therefore, I am determined to make the heavens tremble
    and the earth will be shaken to its very foundations,
at the wrath of the Lord of hosts,
    on the day of his blazing anger.
¹⁴ Like a gazelle fleeing from a hunter,
    or like a flock of sheep that no one gathers,
everyone will return to his own people
    and flee to his native land.
¹⁵ Any who are found will be slaughtered;
    without exception they will be slain by the sword.
¹⁶ Their infants will be smashed to pieces before their eyes;
    their houses will be plundered
    and their wives will be ravished.
¹⁷ Behold, I am stirring up against them the Medes
    who have no interest in silver
    and are not tempted by gold.^[c]
18 With their bows they will slaughter the young men,
    and they will show no pity for young children.
¹⁹ And Babylon, the most glorious of kingdoms,
    the splendor and jewel of the Chaldeans,
will be like Sodom and Gomorrah
    when they were overthrown by God.
²⁰ It will never be inhabited;
    no future generations will ever reside there.
No Arab will ever again pitch his tent there,
    nor will shepherds rest their flocks in that land.
²¹ However, wild animals of the desert will dwell there,
    and its houses will be filled with jackals.
There ostriches will reside,
    and there wild goats^[d] will dance.
²² Hyenas will howl in her castles
    and jackals in her luxurious palaces.
Her time draws near,
    and her days will not be prolonged.

Behold how the oppressor has come to an end!
    Behold how his arrogance has ceased!
⁵ The Lord has broken the rod of the wicked,
    the scepter of rulers,
⁶ that struck down the peoples in wrath,
    inflicting continuous blows,
and that furiously crushed the nations
    with relentless persecution.
⁷ The entire world is at rest and peaceful;
    shouts of joy resound.
⁸ The cypresses exult over you,
    as do the cedars of Lebanon, saying,
“Now that you have been laid low,
    no one approaches to cut us down.”^[f]
9 The netherworld below is all astir
    to greet you upon your arrival.
To welcome you it aroused the departed spirits,
    all the rulers of the earth.
It raised from their thrones
    all those who were kings of the nations.
¹⁰ All of them will speak out
    and greet you with these words,
“You too have become as weak as we are.
    You have become like us.”
¹¹ Your pomp has descended to the netherworld
    along with the music of your harps.
Maggots compose the mattress upon which you lie,
    and worms serve as your blanket.
¹² To what depths have you fallen from the heavens,
    O morning star, son of the dawn!
How you have been cut down to the ground,
    you who laid the nations low!
¹³ You used to say in your heart,
    “I will scale the heavens.
I will raise my throne
    above the stars of God.
I will sit on the Mountain of Assembly,
    in the far recesses of the north.
¹⁴ I will ascend above the highest clouds;
    I will be like the Most High.”
¹⁵ Instead you have been hurled down to the netherworld,
    to the depths of the abyss.
¹⁶ Those who see you will stare at you,
    and as they do so they will wonder,
“Is this the man who made the earth tremble
    and overthrew kingdoms,
¹⁷ who turned the world into a desert,
    laid its cities in ruins,
    and refused to let his prisoners return home?”
¹⁸ All the kings of the nations lie in honor,
    each one in his own tomb.
¹⁹ But you have been cast out without burial,
    like some loathsome piece of flesh;
you are covered with the dead,
    with those pierced by the sword
    who descend to the rocks of the abyss.
²⁰ You will never be buried with those kings
    because you have destroyed your land
    and brought death to your people.
The offspring of the wicked
    will never again be mentioned.
²¹ Make ready to slaughter his sons
    because of the guilt of their father.
Let them never again rise to possess the earth
    and cover the face of the earth with their cities.

²⁴ The Lord of hosts has sworn:
    As I have resolved, so will it be;
    as I have planned, so will it come to pass.
²⁵ I will break the Assyrian in my land
    and trample him underfoot on my mountains;
his yoke will be lifted from my people,
    and his burden will be removed from their shoulders.
²⁶ This is the plan that the Lord has prepared
    for the entire world,
and this is the hand that he has outstretched
    over all the nations.
²⁷ For the Lord of hosts has devised this plan;
    who can thwart it?
His hand is outstretched;
    who can turn it back?

²⁹ Let not a single one of you rejoice, O Philistia,
    that the rod that struck you is broken.
For from the root of a snake will be born a viper,
    and its fruit will be a flying serpent.
³⁰ The poor of my people will eat in my pasture,
    and the destitute will lie down in safety.
But I will make your offspring die of hunger,
    and I will then slay the remnant.
³¹ Howl, O gate! Cry out, O city!
    Let all Philistia be stricken with fear!
For a mighty foe is coming from the north,
    without a single straggler in its ranks.
³² What reply will then be given
    to the envoys of that nation?
“The Lord has established Zion,
    and the afflicted of his people
    will find refuge in her.”

Having been laid waste in a single night,
    Ar of Moab is destroyed.
Having been laid waste in a single night,
    Kir of Moab is destroyed.
² The daughter of Dibon goes up
    to the high places to weep.
Moab wails unceasingly
    over Nebo and Medeba.
Every head has been shaved,
    every beard has been cut off.
³ In the streets they wear sackcloth;
    on the roofs and in the public squares
    everyone wails and collapses in tears.
⁴ Hesbon and Elealeh cry out in distress;
    their voices are heard as far away as Jahaz.
As a result, the bravest of Moab’s warriors cry out
    and their hearts grow faint.
⁵ My heart cries out for Moab;
    her fugitives have arrived close to Zoar,
    at Eglath-shelishiyah.
They climb the slope of Luhith,
    weeping as they make their ascent;
on the road to Horonaim
    they emit heart-rending cries.
⁶ The waters of Nimrim
    have become a desolate waste.
The grass is parched,
    the plants have withered away,
    and nothing green can be seen.
⁷ Therefore, the people carry away
    across the Ravine of the Willows
whatever possessions they can manage
    and the savings they have accumulated.
⁸ Their cry of distress has echoed
    around the land of Moab.
Their wailing reaches as far as Eglaim;
    it can be heard even to the land of Beer-elim.
⁹ The waters of Dimon are filled with blood,
    but I have far worse in store for Dimon:
a lion for those who are fleeing from Moab,
    as well as for those who are left on its soil.

^1 [j]Send forth lambs to the ruler of the land,
    from Sela across the desert
    to the mount of daughter Zion.
² Like fluttering birds,
    like scattered nestlings,
are the women of Moab
    at the fords of the Arnon.
³ Offer your counsel,
    grant us your justice.
At high noon
    let your shadow be like night.
Hide those who are outcasts
    and do not betray the fugitives.
⁴ Allow the outcasts of Moab
    to settle among you,
    and be their refuge from the destroyer.
When the oppression has ceased
    and the devastation is at an end,
and the marauders who have trampled the land
    have finally departed,
⁵ a throne established in faithful love
    will be established in the tent of David,
and on it will sit in fidelity
    a judge who offers fair judgment
    and is prompt to ensure justice.
⁶ We have heard about the pride of Moab,
    about how truly intense that pride is,
with its arrogance, its pride, and its insolence,
    as well as its boasts which have little basis.
⁷ Therefore, let Moab wail,
    every one of its inhabitants.
In their grief they will long
    for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth.
⁸ The vineyards of Heshbon have withered,
    the vines of Sibmah.
The lords of the nations
    have destroyed the choicest vines
that once reached as far as Jazer
    and spread out toward the desert,
and whose shoots with their spreading branches
    spread across the sea.
⁹ Therefore, I weep with Jazer
    for the vines of Sibmah.
I drench you with tears,
    Heshbon and Elealeh,
for the cries of battle have fallen
    over your harvest and vintage.
¹⁰ Joy and gladness
    have been taken away from the fields.
In the vineyards no songs are sung,
    no joyful shouts are raised.
No one treads out wine in the wine-presses
    no cheers of happiness are heard.
¹¹ That is the reason why
    my heart throbs like a harp for Moab
    and my soul for Kir-hareseth.
¹² When the Moabites approach
    and exhaust themselves on the high places,
they will flock to their sanctuaries to pray,
    but it will avail them nothing.

Before long Damascus will cease to be a city,
    and she will be reduced to a heap of ruins.
² Her towns will be abandoned forever;
    they will serve as pastures for flocks
    who will lie there undisturbed.
³ No longer will Ephraim have a fortress
    or Damascus a kingdom.
The glory of the remnant of Aram
    will be like that of the children of Israel,
    says the Lord of hosts.
⁴ On that day
    the glory of Jacob will grow dim
    and the flesh of his body will grow lean,
⁵ as when the reaper gathers the standing grain,
    harvesting the ears with his arms,
or as when one gleans the ears of grain
    in the Valley of Rephaim.^[k]
6 Nothing will remain except the scattered remnant,
    as when an olive tree is beaten:
two or three olives on the highest bough,
    four or five on each of its fruitful branches,
    says the Lord, the God of Israel.
⁷ On that day,
    men will look to their Creator,
and they will turn their eyes
    to the Holy One of Israel.
⁸ They will not gaze upon the altars, their handiwork,
    nor shall they regard what their fingers have made
    the sacred poles and the altars of incense.
⁹ On that day their strong cities will be
    like those abandoned by the Hivites and the Amorites
which they deserted because of the Israelites’ advance;
    their cities will be left desolate.
¹⁰ You have forgotten the God of your salvation
    and have not kept in mind the Rock, your refuge.
Therefore, you plant your pagan gardens
    and sow exotic seeds for a foreign god.
¹¹ Even though you cause them to sprout
    on the day that you plant them,
and make them sprout blossoms
    on the following morning,
yet the harvest will disappear
    when struck by a wasting disease and incurable blight.
¹² Listen to the thunder of vast hordes,
    its volume like that of the roaring sea.
Listen to the roar of nations,
    its volume like that of mighty waves.
¹³ But when God rebukes them
    they flee far away,
driven like chaff on the mountains before the wind
    and like whirling dust before the storm.
¹⁴ In the evening terror has spread,
    but by the morning it has disappeared.
    Such is the fate of those who plunder us,
    the lot of those who despoil us.

¹ Woe to the land of buzzing locusts
    beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,^[l]
2 sending ambassadors by sea
    in papyrus vessels across the waters.
Go forth, you swift messengers,
    to a nation tall and bronzed,
to a people dreaded near and far,
    a mighty and conquering nation
    whose land is crossed by many rivers.
³ All you who inhabit the world,
    you who dwell on the earth,
you will see when the signal is raised on the mountains
    and hear when the trumpet is sounded.
⁴ For this is what the Lord said to me:
    I will quietly look down from my dwelling
like the shimmering heat of the summer sun,
    like a cloud of dew during the harvest heat.
⁵ For prior to the harvest, when the flowering is over
    and the blooms become ripening grapes
the shoots will be cut off with pruning hooks,
    and the branches will be cut away and discarded.
⁶ They will all be left
    to the birds of prey on the mountains
    and to the wild beasts of the earth.
In summer the birds of prey will dwell there,
    while the wild animals will winter on them.

Behold, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud,
    and he is coming to Egypt.
The idols of Egypt will tremble before him,
    and the hearts of the Egyptians will melt within them.
² I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians,
    and they will fight against one another,
brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor,
    city against city, kingdom against kingdom.
³ The spirit of the Egyptians will ebb away within them,
    and I will throw their deliberations into disarray.
They will then resort to consulting idols
    and the spirits of the dead,
    as well as ghosts and sorcerers.
⁴ I will deliver the Egyptians
    into the power of a harsh master,
a cruel king who will rule over them—
    says the Lord, the Lord of hosts.
⁵ The waters of the Nile will ebb away,
    and the river will become parched and dry.
⁶ Its canals will emit a terrible stench,
    and its branches will diminish and dry up;
    reeds and rushes will wither away.
⁷ All the plants on the banks of the Nile
    and all the vegetation of the Nile
    will dry up, blow away, and vanish.
⁸ The fishermen will groan and mourn,
    all those who cast their hooks into the Nile,
while those who spread their nets on the water
    will lose heart.
⁹ The linen-workers will despair,
    as will the combers and weavers.
¹⁰ The spinners will be dismayed,
    and all who work for wages will be crushed.
¹¹ The princes of Zoan^[m] are utter fools;
    the wisest of Pharaoh’s counselors offer stupid advice.
How can you dare to say to Pharaoh,
    “I am descended from sages;
    I spring from ancient kings”?
¹² Where then are your sages?
    Let them tell you,
so that all may know
    what the Lord of hosts has planned against Egypt.
¹³ The princes of Zoan have become fools.
    and the princes of Memphis have been deceived.
The chiefs of her tribes
    have led Egypt astray.
¹⁴ The Lord has infused them
    with a spirit of confusion;
they have made Egypt stagger in everything she does,
    just as a drunkard staggers around in his vomit.
¹⁵ Neither head nor tail,
    neither palm branch nor reed,
    will be able to do anything for Egypt.

Like whirlwinds sweeping over the Negeb,^[p]
    there comes from the desert,
    from a land that inspires terror,
² a harsh vision that is shown to me:
    the traitor betrays
    and the despoiler despoils.
Go forth, O Elam;^[q]
    lay siege, O Media.
I will bring to an end
    all the pain she has inflicted.
³ Therefore, my loins are filled with anguish;
    pangs have seized me
    like those of a woman in labor.
I am so distraught that I cannot hear;
    I am too frightened even to look.
⁴ My mind reels,
    and I am overcome with dread;
the twilight I yearned for
    has become horrifying to me.
⁵ They set the table;
    they spread out the rugs;
    they eat and they drink.
Rise up, O princes;
    oil your shields.
⁶ For this is what the Lord has said to me:
    Go forth and post a lookout;
    let him report what he sees.
⁷ If he should see cavalry,
    horsemen riding in pairs,
men mounted on donkeys,
    men mounted on camels,
instruct him to watch closely
    and to listen diligently.
⁸ Then the lookout shouted,
    “I stand on the watchtower, O Lord,
    all day long,
and I remain stationed at my post
    throughout the night.
⁹ Behold, here come the cavalry now,
    horsemen riding in pairs.”
Then the Lord responded:
    Fallen, fallen is Babylon,
and all the images of her gods
    have been smashed to the ground.
¹⁰ O my people,
    you who have been trodden
    upon the threshing floor,
what I have heard from the Lord of hosts,
    from the God of Israel,
    I have proclaimed to you.

Someone is calling to me from Seir,
    “Watchman, when will the night end?
    Watchman, when will it end?”
¹² The watchman replies,
    “Morning will come, and so will the night.
If you wish to ask, do so;
    come back again.”

In the thickets of the desert you will encamp,
    you caravans of Dedanites.
¹⁴ Bring water to the thirsty
    and greet the fugitives with bread,
    you inhabitants of the land of Tema.^[r]
15 For they have fled from the sword,
    from the sharp edge of the drawn sword,
from the bent bow,
    and from the stress of battles.

What possible reason can there be
    for all of you to have gone up on the housetops,
² dwellers in a city full of commotion,
    a city exultant and filled with tumult?
Your slain did not fall by the sword,
    nor did they perish in battle.
³ All your leaders fled away together,
    only to be captured
    without a weapon to defend themselves.
All of them who were found were captured
    even though they had fled in all directions.
⁴ That is the reason why I said:
    Turn your eyes away from me;
    let me weep bitterly.
Do not try to console me
    about the destruction of my people.
⁵ For this is a day ordained by the Lord of hosts,
a day of rout, tumult, and confusion
    in the Valley of Vision,
a day on which walls will be battered down
    and cries for help echo through the mountains.
⁶ Elam has taken up his quiver,
    the chariots of Aram have their horses prepared,
    and Kir has bared his shield.
⁷ Your fairest valleys are filled with chariots,
    and the cavalry stands ready at the gates;
⁸ the Lord has removed his sheltering hand from Judah.

¹² On that day the Lord,
    the Lord of hosts,
called on you to eat and mourn,
    to shave your head and put on sackcloth.
¹³ But instead you indulged in joy and merriment,
    the killing of oxen and the slaughtering of sheep,
    the eating of meat and the drinking of wine,
saying, “Let us eat and drink,
    for tomorrow we die.”

This wickedness will not be forgiven you
    until you die,
    says the Lord God of hosts.

Go forth and find that official,
    Shebna, the master of the palace, and say:
¹⁶ What are you doing here,
    and who gave you permission
    to hew a tomb for yourself here?
By what right have you hewn your grave on a height
    and chiseled out your tomb in the rock?
¹⁷ The Lord is about to hurl you away violently;
    he will grasp you firmly
¹⁸ and roll you up and throw you like a ball
    into a vast expanse.
There you will die,
    and there your splendid chariots will lie;
    you are a disgrace to your master’s household.
¹⁹ I will remove you from your office,
    and you will be pulled down from your post.
²⁰ On that day I will summon
    my servant Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah.
²¹ I will clothe him with your robe
    and place your sash around his waist,
    and I will bestow upon him your authority.
He will be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem
    and to the house of Judah.
²² I will place on his shoulder
    the key of the house of David.
When he opens,
    no one will close;
when he closes,
    no one will open.^[w]
23 I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place,
    and he will become a throne of honor for his family.
²⁴ Upon him will depend all the glory of his family,
    his descendants, and his offspring,
    and even the smallest vessels, from cups to pitchers.
²⁵ On that day, says the Lord of hosts,
    the peg that was securely fastened
    will give way, break loose, and fall,
and whatever had been hanging on it will be lost.
    For the Lord has spoken.

Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
    for your harbor has been destroyed.
From the land of Cyprus
    the news has reached them.
² Be silent, you who dwell along the coast,
    you merchants of Sidon,
whose messengers crossed over the sea
³     to the vast ocean.
The grain of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile
    provided your revenue;
    you were the merchant for the nations.
⁴ Be ashamed, O Sidon, the fortress of the sea,
    for the sea has declared:
“I have not endured the anguish of labor,
    nor have I given birth;
I have not reared young men
    or brought up young women.”
⁵ When the news reaches Egypt,
    they will writhe in anguish
    upon hearing the fate of Tyre.
⁶ Cross over to Tarshish;
    wail, you inhabitants of the coast.
⁷ Is this your vibrant city
    founded in the days of old,
and whose feet have led her away
    to settle in distant lands?
⁸ Who has devised this plan
    against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,
whose merchants were princes
    and whose traders were held in the highest esteem
    throughout the earth?
⁹ The Lord of hosts has devised this plan
    to deflate the glory of the proud
    and to humiliate the honored men of the earth.
¹⁰ Cross over to your own land,
    you ships of Tarshish,
    for your harbors no longer exist.^[y]
11 The Lord has stretched out his hand over the sea
    and brought kingdoms to their knees;
he has commanded the destruction
    of the fortresses of Canaan.
¹² He has said:
    You will exult no more,
    O greatly oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon.
Arise and cross over to Cyprus,
    but even there you will find no rest.
¹³ Look at the land of the Chaldeans;
    it was this people, not Assyria,
who erected siege-towers,
    tore down its palaces,
    and left it in ruins.
¹⁴ Cry out in anguish, O ships of Tarshish,
    for your fortress has been destroyed.

¹⁶ Take your harp
    and walk throughout the city,
    you long-forgotten prostitute.
Pluck your strings sweetly
    and sing many songs
    so that they may remember you.

¹ Behold how the Lord is preparing
    to lay waste the earth;
he will turn it into a desert
    and scatter its inhabitants,
² with the same fate afflicting both priest and people,
    slave and master,
maid and mistress,
    seller and buyer,
lender and borrower,
    creditor and debtor.
³ The earth will be totally ravaged
    and completely despoiled;
    this has the Lord decreed.
⁴ The earth mourns and fades away;
    the world languishes and withers;
    the exalted of the earth are brought low.
⁵ The earth is defiled
    by those who dwell in it;
for they have transgressed laws,
    violated statutes,
    and broken the everlasting covenant.^[aa]
6 Therefore, a curse has consumed the earth,
    and its inhabitants pay the penalty of their guilt;
as a result, the number of its inhabitants dwindles,
    and only a few survive.
⁷ The new wine dries up
    and the vine withers away
    as the revelers groan in their sorrow.
⁸ The cheerful sound of tambourines is stilled;
    the shouts of the revelers fade away;
    the lyre’s joyful melodies are no longer heard.
⁹ The people drink wine but without any singing;
    strong liquor tastes bitter to those who consume it.
¹⁰ The city is shattered and in a state of chaos;
    every house has its entrance barred.^[ab]
11 In the streets the people cry out for wine;
    no joy can be observed;
    happiness seems to have been banished from the land.
¹² Only desolation remains in the city;
    its gates have been smashed so badly
    that they are beyond hope of repair.
¹³ This condition will hold true
    among all the nations throughout the world;
as happens to an olive tree after it is beaten
    or to the gleanings that remain
    after the grape harvest.
¹⁴ The people raise their voices in joyful praise,
    proclaiming from the west the majesty of the Lord,
¹⁵ “Let the Lord be glorified in the east;
    in the coastlands of the sea
glorify the name of the Lord,
    the God of Israel.”
¹⁶ From the ends of the earth we hear songs
    that praise the glory of the Righteous One.
But I said, “I am wasting away.
    I am wasting away. Woe is me!
For the traitors continue to betray;
    the traitors have acted with great treachery.
¹⁷ Terror and the pit and the snare
    threaten all of you inhabitants of the earth.
¹⁸ Anyone who flees from the sound of terror
    will fall into the pit,
and whoever climbs out of the pit
    will be caught in the snare.
For the windows of heaven will be opened
    and the foundations of the earth will shake.
¹⁹ The earth will be totally shattered,
    the earth will be torn apart
    the earth will be violently convulsed.
²⁰ The earth will stagger like a drunkard
    and sway like a fragile hut;
its transgressions will weigh heavily upon it,
    and it will fall, never to rise again.”
²¹ On that day the Lord will punish
    in the heavens the host of the heavens,^[ac]
    and on the earth the kings of the earth.
²² They will be herded together,
    jammed in like prisoners in a dungeon.
They will be shut up in a pit
    and punished after many years.
²³ Then the moon will seem to fade away
    and the sun will hide in shame.
For the Lord of hosts will reign
    on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
and he will manifest his glory
    to the elders of his people.

¹ O Lord, you are my God.
    I will exalt you and praise your name,
for you have accomplished wonderful things,
    formulated in ages past, faithful and sure.
² You have made the city a heap of ruins,
    the fortified city a mass of rubble.
The citadel of foreigners is a city no more,
    and it will never be rebuilt.
³ Therefore, mighty peoples will honor you,
    and the cities of ruthless nations
    will regard you with awe.
⁴ For you have been a refuge for the poor,
    a refuge to the needy in their distress,
a shelter from the storm
    and a shade from the heat.
⁵ The blast of the ruthless
    is like a winter storm or a scorching drought,
but you subdue the roar of the foe,
    and the song of the ruthless fades away.
⁶ On this mountain^[ad] the Lord of hosts
    will prepare for all peoples
a feast of rich food and vintage wines,
    of succulent foods and well-aged wines.
⁷ On this mountain the Lord will destroy
    the veil that shrouds^[ae] all the peoples,
the path spread over all the nations;
⁸     he will destroy death forever.
Then the Lord God will wipe away
    the tears from every face,
and from the entire earth he will remove
    the shame of all his people;
    for the Lord has spoken.
⁹ It will be said on that day,
    “Behold, this is our God;
    in him we place our hope for deliverance.
This is the Lord for whom we have waited;
    let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us.”
¹⁰ For the hand of the Lord will not rest on this mountain,
    but Moab will be trodden under his feet
    as straw is trodden into the dung-heap.
¹¹ The Lord will stretch forth his hands in Moab
    as a swimmer stretches out his hands to swim,
and he will humble their pride
    as his hands sweep over them.
¹² He will overthrow the high fortifications of their walls,
    casting them down to the ground
    and making them level with the dust.

We have a strongly fortified city,
    with walls and ramparts established to protect us.
² Open the gates
    to allow the upright nation to enter,
    the nation that keeps faith.
³ O Lord, you grant peace to those who are steadfast
    because of their trust in you.
⁴ Trust in the Lord forever,
    for the Lord is an eternal rock.
⁵ He has brought low those in high places
    and leveled their citadel,
casting it down to the ground
    and flinging it down to the dust,
⁶ to be trampled underfoot
    by the feet of the poor and the oppressed.
⁷ The path of the righteous is smooth,
    for you make level the way of the just.
⁸ As we proceed in the path of your judgments,
    we wait for you, O Lord;
your name and your renown
    are all that our heart desires.
⁹ My soul longs for you throughout the night,
    and my spirit within me seeks your presence.
For when your judgments are revealed to the earth,
    the inhabitants of the world learn to practice justice.
¹⁰ If favor is granted to the wicked,
    they will never learn justice.
In the presence of the upright they will act perversely
    and fail to behold the majesty of the Lord.
¹¹ O Lord, your hand is raised high
    but they fail to see it.
Let them be ashamed
    when they behold your zeal for your people;
    let the fire reserved for your enemies consume them.
¹² O Lord, you will grant us peace;
    everything we have accomplished you have done for us.
¹³ O Lord, our God,
    other lords besides you have ruled us,
    but we acknowledge only your name.
¹⁴ The dead will not come back to life;
    their departed spirits will not rise again.
For you have punished and destroyed them
    and eradicated all memory of them.
¹⁵ O Lord, you have enlarged the nation,
    and in enlarging it you have been glorified;
    you have extended all the frontiers of the country.
¹⁶ O Lord, in our distress we cried out to you,
    pouring forth our prayers
    as we suffered your chastisement.
¹⁷ As a woman who is pregnant
    writhes and cries out in her agony
when her time of delivery is near,
    so were we because of you, O Lord.
¹⁸ We were with child and writhed with pain,
    but we gave birth only to wind.
We have achieved no salvation for the earth,
    and no one has been born to inhabit the world.
¹⁹ But your dead will live
    and their bodies will rise again.
Awake and sing for joy,
    you who sleep in the dust.
For your dew will be radiant,
    and the earth will give birth again
    to those who have long been dead.

²⁰ Go forth, my people, enter your chambers,
    and shut your doors behind you.
Withdraw for a short while
    until the wrath has subsided.
²¹ For the Lord emerges from his dwelling place
    to punish the inhabitants of the earth
    for their wickedness.
The earth will reveal the blood shed upon it
    and will no longer hide its slain.

¹ On that day,
    the Lord will use his sword
    that is cruel and great and strong
to punish Leviathan^[af] the fleeing serpent,
    Leviathan the writhing serpent,
and he will slay that dragon
    that resides in the sea.
^2 [ag]On that day,
    sing of the pleasant vineyard.
³ I, the Lord, am its keeper,
    and I water it frequently
lest any harm come to it;
    I guard it night and day.
⁴ I do not quickly succumb to anger,
    but if I were to find briars and thorns,
I would march against them in battle
    and consume them in fire.
⁵ However, if they decide to ask for my protection,
    let them make their peace with me;
    otherwise I cannot protect them.
⁶ In days to come,
    Jacob will take root,
Israel will bud and blossom,
    and the entire world will be covered with fruit.
⁷ Has the Lord struck them down
    as he struck down those who struck him?
Has he slaughtered them
    as their attackers were slaughtered?
⁸ By expelling and exiling them
    he has taken action against them,
removing them with a breath
    as fierce as the east wind.
⁹ In this way will the guilt of Jacob be expiated
    and the full fruit of renouncing his sin will occur,
when he crushes all the altar stones to pieces
    like lumps of chalk,
    and no sacred poles and incense altars
    will remain standing.
¹⁰ For the fortified city will be abandoned,
    a deserted pasture, a forsaken wilderness;
the calves will graze and lie down there,
    destroying its branches.
¹¹ When its boughs grow dry and snap off,
    women will come and use them for firewood.
For this is a people that lacks understanding;
    therefore their Maker will not have compassion for them;
    he who formed them will not show mercy toward them.
¹² On that day,
    the Lord will thresh the grain
from the streams of the Euphrates
    to the Wadi of Egypt,
and you will be gathered one by one,
    O people of Egypt.
¹³ On that day,
    a great trumpet will be sounded,
and those who were lost in the land of Assyria
    and those who were outcasts in the land of Egypt
will come to worship the Lord
    on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.