Isaiah 25

1 O Jehovah, thou are my God. I will exalt thee. I will praise thy name. For thou have done wonderful things, even counsels of old, in faithfulness and truth.

Yahweh, you are my God; I will honor you and praise you [MTY]. You do wonderful things; you said long ago that you would do those things, and now you have done them like you said that you would.

2 For thou have made of a city a heap, of a fortified city a ruin, a palace of strangers to be no city. It shall never be built.

[Sometimes] you have caused cities to become heaps of rubble, cities that had strong walls around them. You have caused palaces in foreign countries to disappear; they will never be rebuilt.

3 Therefore a strong people shall glorify thee, a city of oppressive nations shall fear thee.

Therefore, people in powerful nations will declare that you are very great, and people in nations [whose leaders are] ruthless/cruel will revere you.

4 For thou have been a stronghold to a poor man, a stronghold to a needy man in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat, when the blast of the oppressors is as a storm against the wall.

Yahweh, you are [like] [SIM] a strong tower where poor people can (find refuge/be safe), a place where needy people can go when they are distressed. [You are like] [MET] a place where people can find refuge in a storm and where they can be shaded from the hot sun. Ruthless/Cruel [people] oppress us; they are like [SIM] a storm beating against a wall,

5 As the heat in a dry place thou will bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat by the shade of a cloud, the song of the oppressors shall be brought low.

and like [SIM] [the intense] heat in the desert. [But] you cause the roaring of people in foreign nations to cease. Like the air cools when a cloud comes overhead, you stop ruthless/cruel [people] from singing songs boasting about their being very great.

6 And in this mountain Jehovah of hosts will make to all peoples a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the dregs, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the dregs well refined.

Here in Jerusalem, the Commander of the armies of angels will prepare a wonderful feast for all the people [of the world]. It will be a banquet with plenty of good meat and fine well-aged [DOU] wine.

7 And he will destroy on this mountain the face of the covering that covers all peoples, and the veil that is spread over all nations.

[People here are] sad; their being sad is [like] a dark cloud that hangs over them, like they experience when someone dies. But Yahweh will enable them to quit being sad.

8 He will swallow up death in victory, and the lord Jehovah will wipe away tears from off all faces. And he will take away the reproach of his people from off all the earth. For Jehovah has spoken it.

He will get rid of death forever! Yahweh our God will cause people to no longer mourn because someone has died. And he will stop other people insulting and making fun of his land and [us] his people. [That will surely happen because] Yahweh has said it!

9 And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God. We have waited for him, and he will save us. This is Jehovah. We have waited for him. We will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

At that time, [people] will proclaim, “Yahweh is our God! We trusted in him, and he rescued us! Yahweh, in whom we trusted, has done it; we should rejoice because of his saving/rescuing [us]!”

10 For the hand of Jehovah will rest on this mountain. And Moab shall be trodden down in his place, even as straw is trodden down in the water of the dunghill.

Yahweh [MTY] will protect and bless Jerusalem. [But] he will crush [the people in the land of] Moab; they will be like [SIM] straw that is trampled in the manure [and left to rot].

11 And he shall spread forth his hands in the midst of it as he who swims spreads forth his hands to swim. But Jehovah will lay low his pride together with the craft of his hands.

Yahweh will push down the people of Moab like [SIM] a swimmer pushes [the water] with his hands. He will cause them to cease being proud, and he will show that all the things that they have done are worthless.

12 And the high fortress of thy walls he has brought down, laid low, and brought to the ground, even to the dust.

The high walls [around the cities] in Moab will be torn down; they will be demolished and fall into the dust/dirt.