Isaiah 25: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

This chapter is a song of praise to the LORD for turning a fortified city into rubble and for being a shelter to the poor and needy when ruthless people press in on them. It then describes what the LORD of hosts will do on "this mountain": spread a rich feast for all peoples, remove the covering that lies over all nations, swallow up death, wipe away tears, and take away his people's disgrace, so that in that day people say they waited for him and he saves them. The chapter closes with Moab trampled down like straw in a manure pile and its high walls brought down to the dust.

Claim by Claim

1. 25:1
   • The speaker addresses the LORD.
   • The speaker declares that the LORD is his God.
   • The speaker says he will exalt the LORD.
   • The speaker says he will praise the LORD's name.
   • The reason given is that the LORD has done wonders.
   • The LORD's plans were formed long ago.
   • Those plans are faithful and sure.
2. 25:2
   • The LORD has turned a city into a heap of rubble.
   • The LORD has turned a fortified town into a ruin.
   • A palace of strangers is no longer a city.
   • It will never be rebuilt.
3. 25:3
   • Therefore a strong people will honor the LORD.
   • The city of ruthless nations will fear the LORD.
4. 25:4
   • The LORD has been a stronghold for the poor.
   • The LORD has been a stronghold for the needy in his distress.
   • The LORD has been a refuge from the storm.
   • The LORD has been a shade from the heat.
   • The blast of the ruthless is like a rainstorm beating against a wall.
5. 25:5
   • The uproar of strangers is like heat in a dry place.
   • The LORD subdues the uproar of strangers.
   • Heat is subdued by the shade of a cloud.
   • The song of the ruthless is silenced.
6. 25:6
   • On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make a feast for all peoples.
   • The feast will consist of rich food.
   • The feast will consist of aged wine.
   • The rich food will be full of marrow.
   • The aged wine will be well refined.
7. 25:7
   • On this mountain the LORD will swallow up the covering that is over all peoples.
   • He will swallow up the veil that is spread over all nations.
8. 25:8
   • He will swallow up death permanently.
   • The Lord GOD will wipe away tears from every face.
   • He will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth.
   • The reason given is that the LORD has spoken it.
9. 25:9
   • In that day it will be said: this is our God.
   • The speakers say they have waited for him.
   • The speakers say he will save them.
   • The speakers say this is the LORD.
   • The speakers say they have waited for him.
   • The speakers call for gladness and rejoicing in his salvation.
10. 25:10
    • The hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain.
    • Moab will be trampled down where he is.
    • Moab's trampling is compared to straw trodden down in a dung pit.
11. 25:11
    • He will spread out his hands in the midst of it.
    • The spreading of hands is compared to a swimmer spreading his hands to swim.
    • He will bring down Moab's pride.
    • Moab's pride is brought low together with something belonging to his hands, the word being obscure and meaning either the skill or the plunder of his hands.
12. 25:12
    • He will bring down the fortified height of your walls.
    • He will lay them low.
    • He will bring them to the ground, down to the dust.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

25:1

LORD printed in capitals stands for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew letters (YHWH) which Jewish readers by long custom did not say aloud, substituting the ordinary word for "lord." English Bibles keep that custom by printing LORD in capitals; where the text has the ordinary word for a master or lord it is printed "Lord."

25:2

The Hebrew never names this city, and Isaiah gives no clue which one he means; readers ancient and modern have suggested Babylon, a Moabite town, or no particular city at all but any arrogant power. "Stronghold of foreigners" translates a phrase that could equally mean a palace belonging to foreigners or a citadel garrisoned by them.

25:3

"Terrible" in 1611 English meant terrifying or ruthless, describing nations that others feared. It did not mean "very bad," the way we use the word now.

25:4

Walls in this region were commonly built of sun-dried mud brick. A driving rainstorm could soften and bring one down, which is why a storm beating against a wall serves as a picture of destructive force. The word behind "blast" is the ordinary Hebrew word for breath or wind.

25:5

"Song" here translates a Hebrew word spelled the same as the word for a pruned branch or vine-cutting. The King James translators took it the second way ("the branch of the terrible ones"); most modern translations take it as "song" or "noise," matching the "uproar" earlier in the verse. Both readings are available in the Hebrew.

25:6

"This mountain" is Mount Zion, the hill in Jerusalem where the temple stood; it was named at the end of the previous chapter. "The LORD who commands heaven's armies" renders the title "LORD of hosts," picturing God as the commander of vast armies (variously understood as Israel's armies, the stars, or heavenly beings. Wine was left standing on its lees) the sediment left by fermentation, to gain strength and flavor, then poured off and strained before drinking, so "aged wine strained clear" means the finest wine obtainable rather than everyday wine. Marrow-filled bones were a delicacy, so "the best cuts full of marrow" means the richest meat, not merely a large quantity.

25:7

The two Hebrew words are for a wrapping and a woven sheet drawn over the face. Readers have understood this either as the veil worn by mourners and the cloth wrapped round a corpse, which fits the mention of death in the next verse, or as a covering that keeps people from seeing. The text does not decide between them.

25:8

"Swallow up" is the same verb used of the covering in the previous verse. The Hebrew phrase rendered "forever" can also mean "completely" or "to victory"; the King James "in victory" follows the ancient Greek translation. "Disgrace" translates a word for public shame and the taunting that goes with it, the mockery a defeated, scattered people endured from its neighbors. "Lord GOD" here reflects a Hebrew phrase combining the ordinary word for lord with the divine name; to avoid printing "Lord LORD," English Bibles set the second word as GOD.

25:9

Shame is the sad feeling when others laugh at you. God's people had felt that for a long time.

25:10

Moab was a small kingdom on the high plateau east of the Dead Sea, across the Jordan from Judah, close kin to Israel by tradition and a frequent enemy; Isaiah devotes two earlier chapters to it. A hand "resting" somewhere pictures settled, established presence, and the same hand that settles on the mountain falls on Moab. Straw was trodden into dung both to make fertilizer and to form dung cakes for fuel, so being trampled into the manure pile is an image of something worthless being worked underfoot. The phrase translated "where he stands" is spelled in a way that some read instead as a place name, roughly "in the waters of Madmen."

25:11

The Hebrew does not make clear who spreads out his hands, Moab, flailing like a swimmer trying to get out of the heap, or the LORD reaching down into it. Both readings have long been held. The last phrase, King James "the spoils of their hands," uses a rare Hebrew word of uncertain meaning, taken variously as plunder, as skill or craft, and as trickery.

25:12

"Your" is singular here: the poem turns from speaking about Moab to speaking directly to it, a common shift in Hebrew poetry. "High fortified walls" describes a defensive wall raised with towers, the strongest fortification a town could have.