Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
God is praised for destroying a powerful city and for protecting the needy. Isaiah predicts prosperity in Jerusalem, the end of death, and the destruction of Moab.
II. Photo
God will turn his wrath against Moab: “Then He will spread out His hands in their homeland, As a swimmer spreads his hands out to swim.” (v. 11a)
III. Important Verses
1-2: O LORD, You are my God; I will extol You, I will praise Your name. For You planned graciousness of old, Counsels of steadfast faithfulness. For You have turned a city into a stone heap, A walled town into a ruin, The citadel of strangers into rubble, Never to be rebuilt.
4-5: For You have been a refuge for the poor man, A shelter for the needy man in his distress — Shelter from rainstorm, shade from heat. When the fury of tyrants was like a winter rainstorm, The rage of strangers like heat in the desert, You subdued the heat with the shade of clouds, The singing of the tyrants was vanquished.
8-9: [God] will destroy death forever. My Lord GOD will wipe the tears away From all faces And will put an end to the reproach of His people Over all the earth — For it is the LORD who has spoken. In that day they shall say: This is our God; We trusted in Him, and He delivered us. This is the LORD, in whom we trusted; Let us rejoice and exult in His deliverance!
10: For the hand of the LORD shall descend Upon this mount, And Moab shall be trampled under Him As straw is threshed to bits at Madmenah.
IV. Outline
1a. Invocation
1b. Anticipated praise
1c-3. Praise: God destroyed a powerful city
4-5. Praise: God protects the needy
6-8. God will provide bounty and destroy death
9. Anticipated praise of God
10-12. God will destroy Moab
V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.
VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Blenkinsopp, Joseph. “Isaiah 1-39” The Anchor Bible vol. 19 (New York: Doubleday, 2000).
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Sweeney, Marvin A. “Isaiah 1-39 with an Introduction to Prophetic Literature” The Forms of Old Testament Literature vol. 16 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, 1996).
Photo taken from http://www.iam-retireebenefits.com/assets/swimmer.jpg