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Isaiah 25 · a question people ask

"For you have made a city into a heap" (25:2). Which city?

In the text

The chapter doesn't name it. It says "a city", "a fortified city", and "a palace of strangers to be no city. It will never be built" (25:2). The chapters around it speak of a city without a name too: "The confused city is broken down" (24:10), "The city is left in desolation" (24:12), "the lofty city" (26:5), and "the fortified city is solitary" (27:10), where fortified is the Hebrew word of 25:2's "a fortified city". Chapter 26 opens with a song of a city too: "We have a strong city. God appoints salvation for walls and bulwarks" (26:1). The one place chapter 25 names is Moab (25:10), and it doesn't say that Moab's is the city of 25:2. These notes don't name one either.

The verses

“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.”
Isaiah 25:2 · World English Bible
“The confused city is broken down. Every house is shut up, that no man may come in.”
Isaiah 24:10 · World English Bible
“The city is left in desolation, and the gate is struck with destruction.”
Isaiah 24:12 · World English Bible
“In that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah: “We have a strong city. God appoints salvation for walls and bulwarks.”
Isaiah 26:1 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Isaiah 25

Isaiah 25: He has swallowed up death

In Hebrew one verb does both: the LORD of Armies "will destroy" the covering over all peoples (25:7) and has "swallowed up death forever" (25:8). Paul gives "Death is swallowed up in victory" as "what is written" (1 Corinthians 15:54), for the day the dead are raised.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions