He Will Swallow Up Death Forever
1 Yahweh, you are my God. I will exalt you! I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago, in complete faithfulness and truth. 2 For you have made a city into a heap, a fortified city into a ruin, a palace of strangers to be no city. It will never be built. 3 Therefore a strong people will glorify you. A city of awesome nations will fear you. 4 For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat, when the blast of the dreaded ones is like a storm against the wall. 5 As the heat in a dry place you will bring down the noise of strangers; as the heat by the shade of a cloud, the song of the dreaded ones will be brought low. 6 In this mountain, Yahweh of Armies will make all peoples a feast of choice meat, a feast of choice wines, of choice meat full of marrow, of well refined choice wines. 7 He will destroy in this mountain the surface of the covering that covers all peoples, and the veil that is spread over all nations. 8 He has swallowed up death forever! The Lord Yahweh will wipe away tears from off all faces. He will take the reproach of his people away from off all the earth, for Yahweh has spoken it. 9 It shall be said in that day, “Behold, this is our God! We have waited for him, and he will save us! This is Yahweh! We have waited for him. We will be glad and rejoice in his salvation!” 10 For Yahweh’s hand will rest in this mountain. Moab will be trodden down in his place, even like straw is trodden down in the water of the dunghill. 11 He will spread out his hands in the middle of it, like one who swims spreads out hands to swim, but his pride will be humbled together with the craft of his hands. 12 He has brought the high fortress of your walls down, laid low, and brought to the ground, even to the dust.
A feast on a mountain for all peoples, a veil taken off, and the one enemy that had always done the swallowing is swallowed.
Yahweh, you are my God. I will exalt you! I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago, in complete faithfulness and truth.
After the desolation of the previous chapter, a song. And what is praised is that the plans were laid long ago — the thing that has just happened was not improvised.
For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat, when the blast of the dreaded ones is like a storm against the wall.
The evidence offered for God's greatness is what he was to people with nothing. Four images, and all of them are ordinary shelter — a wall, a roof, shade. Nothing here is spectacular.
In this mountain, Yahweh of Armies will make all peoples a feast of choice meat, a feast of choice wines, of choice meat full of marrow, of well refined choice wines.
The most generous verse in the book. The guest list is all peoples, and the menu is described twice over with the best of everything — marrow, which was the richest part of the animal, and wine that has been settled and strained.
The chapter before ended with the world in ruins. This begins with a banquet, and the same mountain that was the seat of judgment is the dining room.
He will destroy in this mountain the surface of the covering that covers all peoples, and the veil that is spread over all nations.
A shroud, and it is over everybody. Whatever it is, it is removed before the next sentence explains what it was for.
He has swallowed up death forever! Isaiah 25:8.
The verse the whole chapter exists for. Death is the thing that swallows in this book and in every other; here it is the object of the verb rather than the subject. Paul quotes the line in the argument about the resurrection, at the point where the perishable puts on the imperishable 1 Corinthians 15:54.
The Lord Yahweh will wipe away tears from off all faces.
A gesture, and it is done by hand, one face at a time. The last book of Scripture repeats it twice Revelation 7:17 Revelation 21:4.
He will take the reproach of his people away from off all the earth, for Yahweh has spoken it.
It shall be said in that day, “Behold, this is our God! We have waited for him, and he will save us! This is Yahweh! We have waited for him. We will be glad and rejoice in his salvation!”
The response is recognition. Not surprise — we have waited for him, said twice, by people who turn out to have been expecting exactly this.
For Yahweh’s hand will rest in this mountain. Moab will be trodden down in his place, even like straw is trodden down in the water of the dunghill.
The chapter does not end in the banquet hall. Moab is named, and the image is of someone trying to swim in a midden Isaiah 25:11 — a picture of effort in the wrong medium, and the pride is drowned in it.
settled What this mark means