¹O Lord , you are my God![#sn The prophet speaks here as one who has observed the coming judgment of the proud.]

I will exalt you in praise, I will extol your fame.

For you have done extraordinary things,

and executed plans made long ago exactly as you decreed.

²Indeed, you have made the city into a heap of rubble,[#tn Or “For” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV).; #tn The Hebrew text has “you have made from the city.” The prefixed mem (מ) on עִיר (’ir, “city”) was probably originally an enclitic mem suffixed to the preceding verb. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:456, n. 3.]

the fortified town into a heap of ruins;

the fortress of foreigners is no longer a city,

it will never be rebuilt.

³So a strong nation will extol you;

the towns of powerful nations will fear you.

⁴For you are a protector for the poor,

a protector for the needy in their distress,

a shelter from the rainstorm,

a shade from the heat.

Though the breath of tyrants is like a winter rainstorm,

⁵like heat in a dry land,[#tn Or “drought” (TEV).]

you humble the boasting foreigners.

Just as the shadow of a cloud causes the heat to subside,

so he causes the song of tyrants to cease.

⁶The Lord who commands armies will hold a banquet for all the nations on this mountain.[#sn That is, Mount Zion (see 24:23); cf. TEV; NLT “In Jerusalem.”]

At this banquet there will be plenty of meat and aged wine –

tender meat and choicest wine.

⁷On this mountain he will swallow up

the shroud that is over all the peoples,

the woven covering that is over all the nations;

⁸he will swallow up death permanently.[#sn The image of the Lord “swallowing” death would be especially powerful, for death was viewed in Canaanite mythology and culture as a hungry enemy that swallows its victims. See the note at 5:14.]

The sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from every face,

and remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth.

Indeed, the Lord has announced it!

⁹At that time they will say,[#tn Heb “and one will say in that day.”]

“Look, here is our God!

We waited for him and he delivered us.

Here is the Lord ! We waited for him.

Let’s rejoice and celebrate his deliverance!”

¹⁰For the Lord ’s power will make this mountain secure.[#tn Heb “for the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain”; TEV “will protect Mount Zion”; NCV “will protect (rest on NLT) Jerusalem.”]

Moab will be trampled down where it stands,

as a heap of straw is trampled down in a manure pile.

¹¹Moab will spread out its hands in the middle of it,[#tn Heb “he”; the referent (Moab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.; #tn The antecedent of the third masculine singular pronominal suffix is probably the masculine noun מַתְבֵּן (matben, “heap of straw”) in v. 10 rather than the feminine noun מַדְמֵנָה (madmenah, “manure pile”), also in v. 10.]

just as a swimmer spreads his hands to swim;

the Lord will bring down Moab’s pride as it spreads its hands.

¹²The fortified city (along with the very tops of your walls) he will knock down,[#sn Moab is addressed.; #tn Heb “a fortification, the high point of your walls.”]

he will bring it down, he will throw it down to the dusty ground.