Isaiah 25

1 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.

O Jehovah, thou art my God; I will exalt thee; I will praise thy name, For thou hast done wonderful things; Thine ancient purposes are faithfulness and truth.

2 [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.

Thou hast made the city a heap; The fortified city a ruin. The palace of the barbarians is to be no more a city! It shall never be built again.

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

Therefore shall mighty kingdoms praise thee; The cities of the terrible nations shall honor thee;

4 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,

For thou hast been a defence to the poor; A defence to the needy in his distress; A refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, When the rage of tyrants was like a storm against a wall.

5 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.

As heat in a dry land is made to vanish, So thou puttest down the tumult of the barbarians; As heat is allayed by a thick cloud, So the triumph of the tyrants is brought low.

6 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.

Then in this mountain shall Jehovah of hosts prepare for all nations A feast of fat things, and wines kept on the lees; Of fat things full of marrow, of wines kept on the lees well refined.

7 [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.

He will destroy in this mountain the covering that was cast over all people, And the veil that was spread over all nations.

8 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!

He will destroy death forever; The Lord Jehovah will wipe away the tears from all faces, And the reproach of his people will he take away from the whole earth; For Jehovah hath said it.

9 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]!”

In that day shall men say, “Behold, this is our God; We waited for him, and he hath saved us; This is Jehovah, for whom we waited; Let us rejoice and exult in his salvation.”

10 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].

For the hand of Jehovah shall rest upon this mountain, And Moab shall be trodden down in his place, As straw is trodden down in a dung-pool.

11 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.

And he shall stretch out his hands in the midst of it, As the swimmer stretcheth out his hands to swim, But God shall put down his pride, Together with the devices of his hands.

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

And the high bulwarks of thy walls will he lay low; He will bring them down to the ground; he will lay them in the dust.