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God Will Swallow Up Death Forever

1  O LORD, you are my God;
    I will exalt you; I will praise your name,
for you have done wonderful things,
    plans formed of old, faithful and sure.
2  For you have made the city a heap,
    the fortified city a ruin;
the foreigners' palace is a city no more;
    it will never be rebuilt.
3  Therefore strong peoples will glorify you;
    cities of ruthless nations will fear you.
4  For you have been a stronghold to the poor,
    a stronghold to the needy in his distress,
    a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat;
for the breath of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall,
5      like 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  On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples
    a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,
    of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
7  And he will swallow up on this mountain
    the covering that is cast over all peoples,
    the veil that is spread over all nations.
8      He will swallow up death forever;
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
    and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
    for the LORD has spoken.
9  It will be said on that day,
    “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
    This is the LORD; we have waited for him;
    let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
10  For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain,
    and Moab shall be trampled down in his place,
    as straw is trampled down in a dunghill. ^{1 25:10 The Hebrew words for dunghill and for the Moabite town Madmen (Jeremiah 48:2) sound alike}
11  And he will spread out his hands in the midst of it
    as a swimmer spreads his hands out to swim,
    but the LORD will lay low his pompous pride together with the skill ^{2 25:11 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.

You Keep Him in Perfect Peace

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

“We have a strong city;
    he sets up salvation
    as walls and bulwarks.
2  Open the gates,
    that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in.
3  You 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  For 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 the poor,
    the steps of the needy.”

7  The path of the righteous is level;
    you make level the way of the righteous.
8  In the path of your judgments,
    O LORD, we wait for you;
your name and remembrance
    are the desire of our soul.
9  My soul yearns for you in the night;
    my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.
For when your judgments are in the earth,
    the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
10  If 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, your hand is lifted up,
    but they do not see it.
Let them see your zeal for your people, and be ashamed.
    Let the fire for your adversaries consume them.
12  O LORD, you will ordain peace for us,
    for you have indeed done for us all our works.
13  O LORD our God,
    other lords besides you have ruled over us,
    but 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  But you have increased the nation, O LORD,
    you have increased the nation; you are glorified;
    you have enlarged all the borders of the land.

16  O LORD, in distress they sought you;
    they poured out a whispered prayer
    when your discipline was upon them.
17  Like 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      we 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  Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise.
    You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!
For your 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 for a little while
    until the fury has passed by.
21  For behold, the LORD is coming out from his place
    to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity,
and the earth will disclose the blood shed on it,
    and will no more cover its slain.

The Redemption of Israel

1 In that day the LORD with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.

2  In that day,
“A pleasant vineyard, ^{3 27:2 Many Hebrew manuscripts A vineyard of wine} sing 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.
Would 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  In days to come ^{4 27:6 Hebrew In those to come} Jacob shall take root,
    Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots
    and fill the whole world with fruit.

7  Has he struck them as he struck those who struck them?
    Or have they been slain as their slayers were slain?
8  Measure by measure, ^{5 27:8 Or By driving her away; the meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain} by exile you contended with them;
    he removed them with his fierce breath ^{6 27:8 Or wind} in the day of the east wind.
9  Therefore by this the guilt of Jacob will be atoned for,
    and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin: ^{7 27:9 Septuagint and this is the blessing when I take away his sin}
when he makes all the stones of the altars
    like chalkstones crushed to pieces,
    no Asherim or incense altars will remain standing.
10  For 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.
For 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 from the river Euphrates ^{8 27:12 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 a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

Judgment on Ephraim and Jerusalem

1  Ah, the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim,
    and the fading flower of its glorious beauty,
    which is on the head of the rich valley of those overcome with wine!
2  Behold, the Lord has one who is mighty and strong;
    like a storm of hail, a destroying tempest,
like a storm of mighty, overflowing waters,
    he casts down to the earth with his hand.
3  The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim
    will be trodden underfoot;
4  and the fading flower of its glorious beauty,
    which is on the head of the rich valley,
will be like a first-ripe fig ^{9 28:4 Or fruit} before the summer:
    when someone sees it, he swallows it
    as soon as it is in his hand.

5  In that day the LORD of hosts will be a crown of glory, ^{10 28:5 The Hebrew words for glory and hosts sound alike}
    and a diadem of beauty, to the remnant of his people,
6  and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment,
    and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

7  These also reel with wine
    and stagger with strong drink;
the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink,
    they are swallowed by ^{11 28:7 Or confused by} wine,
    they stagger with strong drink,
they reel in vision,
    they stumble in giving judgment.
8  For all tables are full of filthy vomit,
    with no space left.

9  “To whom will he teach knowledge,
    and to whom will he explain the message?
Those who are weaned from the milk,
    those taken from the breast?
10  For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
    line upon line, line upon line,
    here a little, there a little.”

11  For by people of strange lips
    and with a foreign tongue
the LORD will speak to this people,
12      to whom he has said,
“This is rest;
    give rest to the weary;
and this is repose”;
    yet they would not hear.
13  And the word of the LORD will be to them
precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
    line upon line, line upon line,
    here a little, there a little,
that they may go, and fall backward,
    and be broken, and snared, and taken.

A Cornerstone in Zion

14  Therefore hear the word of the LORD, you scoffers,
    who rule this people in Jerusalem!
15  Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death,
    and with Sheol we have an agreement,
when the overwhelming whip passes through
    it will not come to us,
for we have made lies our refuge,
    and in falsehood we have taken shelter”;
16  therefore thus says the Lord God,
“Behold, I am the one who has laid ^{12 28:16 Dead Sea Scroll I am laying} as a foundation in Zion,
    a stone, a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation:
    ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’
17  And I will make justice the line,
    and righteousness the plumb line;
and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,
    and waters will overwhelm the shelter.”
18  Then your covenant with death will be annulled,
    and your agreement with Sheol will not stand;
when the overwhelming scourge passes through,
    you will be beaten down by it.
19  As often as it passes through it will take you;
    for morning by morning it will pass through,
    by day and by night;
and it will be sheer terror to understand the message.
20  For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on,
    and the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in.
21  For the LORD will rise up as on Mount Perazim;
    as in the Valley of Gibeon he will be roused;
to do his deed—strange is his deed!
    and to work his work—alien is his work!
22  Now therefore do not scoff,
    lest your bonds be made strong;
for I have heard a decree of destruction
    from the Lord God of hosts against the whole land.

23  Give ear, and hear my voice;
    give attention, and hear my speech.
24  Does he who plows for sowing plow continually?
    Does he continually open and harrow his ground?
25  When he has leveled its surface,
    does he not scatter dill, sow cumin,
and put in wheat in rows
    and barley in its proper place,
    and emmer ^{13 28:25 A type of wheat} as the border?
26  For he is rightly instructed;
    his God teaches him.

27  Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge,
    nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin,
but dill is beaten out with a stick,
    and cumin with a rod.
28  Does one crush grain for bread?
    No, he does not thresh it forever; ^{14 28:28 Or Grain is crushed for bread; he will surely thresh it, but not forever}
when he drives his cart wheel over it
    with his horses, he does not crush it.
29  This also comes from the LORD of hosts;
    he is wonderful in counsel
    and excellent in wisdom.

The Siege of Jerusalem

1  Ah, Ariel, Ariel,
    the city where David encamped!
Add year to year;
    let the feasts run their round.
2  Yet I will distress Ariel,
    and there shall be moaning and lamentation,
    and she shall be to me like an Ariel. ^{15 29:2 Ariel could mean lion of God, or hero (2 Samuel 23:20), or altar hearth (Ezekiel 43:1516)}
3  And I will encamp against you all around,
    and will besiege you with towers
    and I will raise siegeworks against you.
4  And you will be brought low; from the earth you shall speak,
    and from the dust your speech will be bowed down;
your voice shall come from the ground like the voice of a ghost,
    and from the dust your speech shall whisper.

5  But the multitude of your foreign foes shall be like small dust,
    and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff.
And in an instant, suddenly,
6      you will be visited by the LORD of hosts
with thunder and with earthquake and great noise,
    with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.
7  And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel,
    all that fight against her and her stronghold and distress her,
    shall be like a dream, a vision of the night.
8  As when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he is eating,
    and awakes with his hunger not satisfied,
or as when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he is drinking,
    and awakes faint, with his thirst not quenched,
so shall the multitude of all the nations be
    that fight against Mount Zion.

9  Astonish yourselves ^{16 29:9 Or Linger awhile} and be astonished;
    blind yourselves and be blind!
Be drunk, ^{17 29:9 Or They are drunk} but not with wine;
    stagger, ^{18 29:9 Or they stagger} but not with strong drink!
10  For the LORD has poured out upon you
    a spirit of deep sleep,
and has closed your eyes (the prophets),
    and covered your heads (the seers).

11 And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed. When men give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” 12 And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read.”

13  And the Lord said:
“Because this people draw near with their mouth
    and honor me with their lips,
    while their hearts are far from me,
and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,
14  therefore, behold, I will again
    do wonderful things with this people,
    with wonder upon wonder;
and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,
    and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.”

15  Ah, you who hide deep from the LORD your counsel,
    whose deeds are in the dark,
    and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”
16  You turn things upside down!
Shall the potter be regarded as the clay,
that the thing made should say of its maker,
    “He did not make me”;
or the thing formed say of him who formed it,
    “He has no understanding”?

17  Is it not yet a very little while
    until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field,
    and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest?
18  In that day the deaf shall hear
    the words of a book,
and out of their gloom and darkness
    the eyes of the blind shall see.
19  The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the LORD,
    and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.
20  For the ruthless shall come to nothing
    and the scoffer cease,
    and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off,
21  who by a word make a man out to be an offender,
    and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate,
    and with an empty plea turn aside him who is in the right.

22 Therefore thus says the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:

“Jacob shall no more be ashamed,
    no more shall his face grow pale.
23  For when he sees his children,
    the work of my hands, in his midst,
    they will sanctify my name;
they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob
    and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
24  And those who go astray in spirit will come to understanding,
    and those who murmur will accept instruction.”

Do Not Go Down to Egypt

1  “Ah, stubborn children,” declares the LORD,
“who carry out a plan, but not mine,
and who make an alliance, ^{19 30:1 Hebrew who weave a web} but not of my Spirit,
    that they may add sin to sin;
2  who set out to go down to Egypt,
    without asking for my direction,
to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh
    and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!
3  Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame,
    and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation.
4  For though his officials are at Zoan
    and his envoys reach Hanes,
5  everyone comes to shame
    through a people that cannot profit them,
that brings neither help nor profit,
    but shame and disgrace.”

6 An oracle on the beasts of the Negeb.

Through a land of trouble and anguish,
    from where come the lioness and the lion,
    the adder and the flying fiery serpent,
they carry their riches on the backs of donkeys,
    and their treasures on the humps of camels,
    to a people that cannot profit them.
7  Egypt's help is worthless and empty;
    therefore I have called her
    “Rahab who sits still.”

A Rebellious People

8  And now, go, write it before them on a tablet
    and inscribe it in a book,
that it may be for the time to come
    as a witness forever. ^{20 30:8 Some Hebrew manuscripts, Syriac, Targum, Vulgate, and Greek versions; Masoretic Text forever and ever}
9  For they are a rebellious people,
    lying children,
children unwilling to hear
    the instruction of the LORD;
10  who say to the seers, “Do not see,”
    and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right;
speak to us smooth things,
    prophesy illusions,
11  leave the way, turn aside from the path,
    let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”
12  Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel,
“Because you despise this word
    and trust in oppression and perverseness
    and rely on them,
13  therefore this iniquity shall be to you
    like a breach in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse,
    whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant;
14  and its breaking is like that of a potter's vessel
    that is smashed so ruthlessly
that among its fragments not a shard is found
    with which to take fire from the hearth,
    or to dip up water out of the cistern.”

15  For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel,
“In returning ^{21 30:15 Or repentance} and rest you shall be saved;
    in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”
But you were unwilling, 16 and you said,
“No! We will flee upon horses”;
    therefore you shall flee away;
and, “We will ride upon swift steeds”;
    therefore your pursuers shall be swift.
17  A thousand shall flee at the threat of one;
    at the threat of five you shall flee,
till you are left
    like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain,
    like a signal on a hill.

The LORD Will Be Gracious

18  Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you,
    and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.
For the LORD is a God of justice;
    blessed are all those who wait for him.

19 For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. 20 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. 21 And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. 22 Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, “Be gone!”

23 And he will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. In that day your livestock will graze in large pastures, 24 and the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. 25 And on every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. 26 Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when the LORD binds up the brokenness of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.

27  Behold, the name of the LORD comes from afar,
    burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke; ^{22 30:27 Hebrew in weight of uplifted clouds}
his lips are full of fury,
    and his tongue is like a devouring fire;
28  his breath is like an overflowing stream
    that reaches up to the neck;
to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction,
    and to place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads astray.

29 You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel. 30 And the LORD will cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst and storm and hailstones. 31 The Assyrians will be terror-stricken at the voice of the LORD, when he strikes with his rod. 32 And every stroke of the appointed staff that the LORD lays on them will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres. Battling with brandished arm, he will fight with them. 33 For a burning place ^{23 30:33 Or For Topheth} has long been prepared; indeed, for the king it is made ready, its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.