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Isaiah

About this book
Chapter 25

1 O Lord, you are my God! 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. 2 Indeed, you have made the city into a heap of rubble, the fortified town into a heap of ruins; the fortress of foreigners is no longer a city, it will never be rebuilt. 3 So a strong nation will extol you; the towns of powerful nations will fear you. 4 For 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, 5 like heat in a dry land, 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. 6 The Lord of Heaven’s Armies will hold a banquet for all the nations⁠ on this mountain.⁠ At this banquet there will be plenty of meat and aged wine—tender meat and choicest wine. 7 On this mountain he will swallow up the shroud that is over all the peoples, the woven covering that is over all the nations; 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!⁠ 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!” 10 For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain23.⁠ Moab will be trampled down where it stands, as a heap of straw is trampled down in a manure pile.⁠ 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. 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.

Texts in conversation

Compare Isaiah 25:6 and Matthew 8:11

Hebrew Bible · New Testament

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Summary

Isaiah describes a future day when God will prepare a lavish feast on Mount Zion for all people. Matthew echoes this eschatological vision in Jesus’ declaration that many from east and west will recline at table with Abraham.

Passages

Isaiah 25:6

Hebrew Bible
5 like heat in a dry land, 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. 6 The Lord of Heaven’s Armies will hold a banquet for all the nations on this mountain. At this banquet there will be plenty of meat and aged wine—tender meat and choicest wine. 7 On this mountain he will swallow up the shroud that is over all the peoples, the woven covering that is over all the nations; 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!
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

Matthew 8:11

New Testament
9 For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” 10 When Jesus heard this he was amazed and said to those who followed him, “I tell you the truth, I have not found such faith in anyone in Israel! 11 I tell you, many will come from the east and west to share the banquet with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, 12 but the sons of the kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
70–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Matthew

References

"... Jewish tradition depicts the messianic age, or the world to come, as a glorious banquet. Isaiah 25:6 foresees that "on this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear." From 2 Baruch, an apocalypse written after the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70, comes this beautiful vision: And Behemoth will reveal itself from its place, and Leviathan will come from the sea, the two great monsters which I created on the fifth day . . . and they will be nourishment for all who are left. The earth will also yield fruits ten-thousand-fold. ..."
Amy-Jill Levine, The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 2006), 42.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Isaiah 25:6 and Matthew 8:11

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