World English Bible
- The LORD, 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.
- 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.
- Therefore a strong people will glorify you. A city of awesome nations will fear you.
- 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.
- 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.
- In this mountain, the LORD 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.
- He will destroy in this mountain the surface of the covering that covers all peoples, and the veil that is spread over all nations.
- He has swallowed up death forever! The Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces. He will take the reproach of his people away from off all the earth, for the LORD 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 the LORD! We have waited for him. We will be glad and rejoice in his salvation!”
- For the LORD’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.
- 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.
- He has brought the high fortress of your walls down, laid low, and brought to the ground, even to the dust.
Isaiah’s song begins with a ruined city and ends with a feast. That order matters. The fortified city promised safety, but its walls could not protect everyone; the poor and needy still needed a refuge. On Zion, God becomes what the city could not be: a stronghold for those with no strength to claim. Then he does something no fortress can do. He sets a table for all peoples.
In the ancient world, a feast of marrow-rich meat and well-aged wine spoke of extraordinary abundance. Isaiah places that abundance before nations who had known fear, hunger, and war. Yet even such a meal would be brief if death remained at the door. So the host removes the covering spread over the nations. The Hebrew verb in verse 8 is startling: God will swallow death. Death has swallowed generations, emptied households, and cut short every human celebration. At this feast, death itself is consumed.
The apostle Paul takes up Isaiah’s words when he proclaims the resurrection of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:54). Christian hope is not that grief was never real, or that faithful people should learn not to feel it. Notice what follows the defeat of death: the Lord wipes tears from all faces. A king may defeat an enemy from far away; he cannot wipe a tear without drawing near. God’s final victory is immense enough to end death and tender enough to attend to each person who has suffered under it.
But Isaiah will not let us leave the table without looking at the chapter’s hard ending. Moab is brought low in a disturbing image of pride struggling in filth. This is not permission to despise a people: elsewhere Isaiah himself weeps for Moab (Isaiah 16:11). It is a warning that God’s welcome does not leave cruelty and self-exalting power intact. The hands that build proud defenses cannot make death retreat. We must come with hands ready to receive.
Today, you may be living between these scenes: the tears are present; the feast is promised. Isaiah does not ask you to pretend you have arrived. The people in verse 9 say, twice, “We have waited for him.” Waiting can be an act of faith when we wait for the God who has promised to come near.
For further reading: Exodus 24:9–11; 1 Corinthians 15:50–57; Revelation 21:1–4. Hymn: “For All the Saints.”
Prayer: Lord, be our refuge while we wait. Keep us from trusting proud walls or making light of another’s tears. Teach us to receive your mercy, and bring us at last to the table where death is no more. Amen.