Isaiah 25

1 O LORD, thou [art] my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful [things]; [thy] counsels of old [are] 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 hast 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 shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible 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 hast been a defense to the poor, a defense to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones [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 Thou wilt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; [even] the heat with the shade of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones 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 on this mountain will the LORD of hosts make to all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees 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 cast over all people, and the vail [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 GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people will he remove from all the earth: for the LORD hath 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 the LORD, 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 on this mountain shall the hand of the LORD rest, and Moab shall be trodden down under him, even as straw is trodden down for 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 will spread forth his hands in the midst of them, as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth [his hands] to swim: and he will bring down their pride together with the spoils of their 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 fortress of the high fort of thy walls will he bring down, lay low, [and] bring 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.