Isaiah 25:6-8

25:6 The Lord who commands armies will hold a banquet for all the nations on this mountain. ¹ 

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

tender meat and choicest wine. ² 

25:7 On this mountain he will swallow up

the shroud that is over all the peoples, ³ 

the woven covering that is over all the nations; ⁴ 

25:8 he will swallow up death permanently. ⁵ 

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! ⁶ 

[25:6]  ¹ sn That is, Mount Zion (see 24:23); cf. TEV; NLT “In Jerusalem.”

[25:6]  ² tn Heb “And the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts] will make for all the nations on this mountain a banquet of meats, a banquet of wine dregs, meats filled with marrow, dregs that are filtered.”

[25:7]  ³ tn The Hebrew text reads, “the face of the shroud, the shroud over all the nations.” Some emend the second הַלּוֹט (hallot) to a passive participle הַלּוּט (hallut, “that is wrapped”).

[25:7]  ⁴ sn The point of the imagery is unclear. Perhaps the shroud/covering referred to was associated with death in some way (see v. 8).

[25:8]  ⁵ 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.

[25:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “has spoken” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).