Text -- Isaiah 25:8-12 (NET)

25:8 he will swallow up death permanently. 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! 25:9 At that time they will say, “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!” 25:10 For the Lord’s power will make this mountain secure. Moab will be trampled down where it stands, as a heap of straw is trampled down in a manure pile. 25:11 Moab will spread out its hands in the middle of it, just as a swimmer spreads his hands to swim; the Lord will bring down Moab’s pride as it spreads its hands. 25:12 The fortified city (along with the very tops of your walls) he will knock down, he will bring it down, he will throw it down to the dusty ground.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Isa 25:8

¹ 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.

² tn Heb “has spoken” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

NET Notes: Isa 25:9

¹ tn Heb “and one will say in that day.”

² tn Heb “this [one].”

³ tn Heb “this [one].”

NET Notes: Isa 25:10

¹ 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.”

² tn Heb “under him,” i.e., “in his place.”

³ tc The marginal reading (Qere) is בְּמוֹ (bÿmo, “in”). The consonantal text (Kethib) has בְּמִי (bÿmi, “in the water of”).

NET Notes: Isa 25:11

¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Moab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² 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.

³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁴ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Moab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁵ tn The Hebrew text has, “he will bring down his pride along with the [?] of his hands.” The meaning of אָרְבּוֹת (’arbot), which occurs only here in the OT, is unknown. Some (see BDB 70 s.v. אָרְבָּה) translate “artifice, cleverness,” relating the form to the verbal root אָרָב (’arav, “to lie in wait, ambush”), but this requires some convoluted semantic reasoning. HALOT 83 s.v. *אָרְבָּה suggests the meaning “[nimble] movements.” The translation above, which attempts to relate the form to the preceding context, is purely speculative.

NET Notes: Isa 25:12

¹ sn Moab is addressed.

² tn Heb “a fortification, the high point of your walls.”

³ tn Heb “he will bring [it] down, he will make [it] touch the ground, even to the dust.”