Isaiah 25
God reigns on Jerusalem’s hill
Song of thanks to God
1LORD, you are my God.
I’m so glad you are.
What a wonderful God who does wonderful things.
The kind plans you made long ago,
Show us how faithful you are.
Is collapsed in a heap of rocks.
And the palace of that foreign king
Is gone and gone for good.
3Strong nations will praise you.
Rouge nations will fear you.
4You’ve been a haven of comfort to the poor,
A protector to those in distress,
A shelter in a rainstorm
And shade from the sun.
When ruthless souls barge into our lives
Like a rushing wall of rain,
5Like a wave of heat in a lingering drought
You block them like a cloud blackens the sun.
They wanted to sing a victory song,
But they’re singing a different tune.
Thanksgiving party
6On this Jerusalem hilltop,
The LORD of all prepares a feast for all.
People of every nation will dine
On exquisite food,
aged wine,
and succulent meats.
Like a shroud covers a corpse.
8He’ll put death out of business
Once and always.
He’ll wipe tears of mourning away.
And the shame his people feel
For the wrongs they’ve done
Will find no place in this world.
That’s the LORD talking.
9When that day comes, people will say:
Now that’s our God.
We trusted him and he came through.
Yes, this is the LORD we counted on.
Let’s celebrate, for he came to the rescue.
10When the power of the LORD
Comes down on this mountain
Moab[1] gets stomped where they stand
And trampled like straw in manure.
11They’ll flail arms in the air[2]
Like they’re swimming in dirt.
But their pride and their glory
sink with them.
12Their walls fall, too.
All the way to the ground
To the dirt and the dust below.
Footnotes
Poor Moab suddenly gets dropped into this otherwise song of praise. Some scholars say it may have originally been with the prophecies against the nations, in chapters 13-24. Moab was a nation east of the Dead Sea, in what is now Jordan. Israelites and Moab were frequent enemies throughout the centuries. Sometimes the Israelites controlled them, and sometimes not. Israel defeated them during the exodus out of Egypt, but later got along with them. The great-grandmother of King David, Ruth, was a Moabite who moved to Bethlehem and married an Israelite man, Boaz. King David eventually annexed Moab and claimed it as part of his kingdom. But Moab slipped from Israel’s control under later kings.
Some scholars say the flailing arms, straw, and manure might create the image of proud Moabites humbled by shoveling manure. They may have done this to mix the straw and manure with mud, to make bricks so they could rebuild walls and homes destroyed by Assyrian invaders. It’s a guess. Whatever the word picture, the proud Moabites were going to eat some humble pie.
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