Thanksgiving
1 ① Yahweh, you are my God; I exalt you and praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, faithful and true, planned long ago.
2You have made the city a heap, the massively defended city a ruin. The bastion of foreign domination is a city no more, nor will it ever be rebuilt.
3Therefore a strong people glorifies you; the head of a great nation holds you in awe.
4For you have been a refuge to the poor, a haven to the needy in time of distress, a harbor in the storm, a shade from the heat.
For the blast from the ruthless is like an icy storm, 5like heat in a dry place. You silence the noise of foreigners; you subdue the singing of the despot and the proud.
6On this mountain Yahweh Saba oth will prepare for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines, meat full of marrow, fine wine strained.
7On this mountain he will destroy the pall cast over all peoples, this very shroud spread over all nations, 8and death will be no more. The Lord Yahweh will wipe away the tears from all cheeks and eyes; he will take away the humiliation of his people all over the world:
for Yahweh has spoken.
9On that day you will say: This is our God. We have waited for him to save us, let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
10For on this mountain the hand of Yahweh rests.
Moab instead will be trodden down, as straw trodden down on a dunghill. 11He will stretch forth his hands there, as a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim. But Yahweh will strike down their pride together with their falsehood. 12He will raze the high-walled fortress; he will level it to the ground, as dust.
- Is 25,1 Chapters 25 and 26:1-6: a thanksgiving to Yahweh who has done away with the presence of the oppressor. His citadel, installed, it would seem, in Jerusalem itself had been completely destroyed. Stanza 25:6-9 recalls that this victory is only one stage: the great hope is the banquet of the elect after the judgment when God will destroy death. John will use these images in Rev 7:17 and 21:4. Is 25,7 {N}26,{/}7-21: psalm of hope to which we draw attention. This psalm of hope was written long after Isaiah. It exemplifies Jewish piety in the centuries after their return home, following the exile. The people returned from exile, full of hope. The masters to whom they were subjected were perhaps foreigners, possibly their own kings before the exile (13-14). Now all has changed, now the community wants no other sovereign than God and counts only on the Law (8 and 16). They hoped for their liberation (v. 17). They believed that upon return, they would build a better world, but this apparently did not happen (v. 18), since the pagans remained in the Holy Land and continued to make the life of believers difficult (v. 10-12). So the people pray to God for the time of their restoration. God, being just, will not only grant them the liberation of the living, but will raise up the innocent victims who trusted in him, so that they may also know God's peace (v. 19-21). {N}27,{/}2 {N}27,{/}2-5: a song of the vine in contrast with the threatening song, 5:1-7.
