Isaiah 25:8

25:8 he will swallow up death permanently. ¹ 

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! ² 

Isaiah 30:19

30:19 For people will live in Zion;

in Jerusalem ³  you will weep no more. ⁴ 

When he hears your cry of despair, he will indeed show you mercy;

when he hears it, he will respond to you. ⁵ 

Isaiah 35:10

35:10 those whom the Lord has ransomed will return that way. ⁶ 

They will enter Zion with a happy shout.

Unending joy will crown them, ⁷ 

happiness and joy will overwhelm ⁸  them;

grief and suffering will disappear. ⁹ 

Revelation 7:15-17

7:15 For this reason they are before the throne of God, and they serve ¹⁰  him day and night in his temple, and the one seated on the throne will shelter them. ¹¹  7:16 They will never go hungry or be thirsty again, and the sun will not beat down on them, nor any burning heat, ¹²  7:17 because the Lamb in the middle of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” ¹³ 

Revelation 21:4

21:4 He ¹⁴  will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will not exist any more – or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the former things have ceased to exist.” ¹⁵ 

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).

³ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

⁴ tn Heb “For people in Zion will live, in Jerusalem, you will weep no more.” The phrase “in Jerusalem” could be taken with what precedes. Some prefer to emend יֵשֵׁב (yeshev, “will live,” a Qal imperfect) to יֹשֵׁב (yoshev, a Qal active participle) and translate “For [you] people in Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more.”

⁵ tn Heb “he will indeed show you mercy at the sound of your crying out; when he hears, he will answer you.”

⁶ tn Heb “and the redeemed will walk, the ransomed of the Lord will return.”

⁷ tn Heb “[will be] on their head[s].” “Joy” may be likened here to a crown (cf. 2 Sam 1:10). The statement may also be an ironic twist on the idiom “earth/dust on the head” (cf. 2 Sam 1:2; 13:19; 15:32; Job 2:12), referring to a mourning practice.

⁸ tn Heb “will overtake” (NIV); NLT “they will be overcome with.”

⁹ tn Heb “grief and groaning will flee”; KJV “sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

¹⁰ tn Or “worship.” The word here is λατρεύω (latreuw).

¹¹ tn Grk “will spread his tent over them,” normally an idiom for taking up residence with someone, but when combined with the preposition ἐπί (epi, “over”) the idea is one of extending protection or shelter (BDAG 929 s.v. σκηνόω).

¹² tn An allusion to Isa 49:10. The phrase “burning heat” is one word in Greek (καῦμα, kauma) that refers to a burning, intensely-felt heat. See BDAG 536 s.v.

¹³ sn An allusion to Isa 25:8.

¹⁴ tn Grk “God, and he.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation. Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

¹⁵ tn For the translation of ἀπέρχομαι (apercomai; here ἀπῆλθαν [aphlqan]) L&N 13.93 has “to go out of existence – ‘to cease to exist, to pass away, to cease.’”