Isaiah 25:8

8 The Sovereign Lord will destroy death forever! He will wipe away the tears from everyone's eyes and take away the disgrace his people have suffered throughout the world. The Lord himself has spoken. ¹

Isaiah 25:8 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 25:8

He will swallow up death in victory
Or, "for ever" {g}. This is to be understood, not of a spiritual death, which is swallowed up in conversion, and of which those that are quickened shall never die more; nor of the conversion of the Jews, which will be as life from the dead; nor of the civil death of the witnesses, and of their rising, who afterwards will never die more, in that sense; but of a corporeal death: this Christ has swallowed up in victory, by dying on the cross, both with respect to himself, who will never die more, and with respect to his people, from whom he has abolished it as a penal evil; but it chiefly respects the resurrection state, or the personal coming of Christ, when the dead in him shall rise first, and shall never die more, there will be no more death, neither corporeal, spiritual, nor eternal to them; on them death shall have no power, in any shape: and then will this saying be brought about or fulfilled, as the apostle has interpreted it, ( 1 Corinthians 15:54 ) ( Revelation 21:4 ) ( 20:6 ) so the Jews

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FOOTNOTES:

F8 interpret it of the future state, when those that live again shall die no more, and there will be no death; and of the days of the Messiah, when the dead will be raised ^F9: and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces;
there are many things now that cause tears to fall from the saints, as their own sins, indwelling sin, unbelief, carnality, leanness, backslidings and the sins of others, the temptations of Satan, the hiding of God's face, afflictions of various sorts, and the persecutions of men; but these will be no more in the New Jerusalem state; and therefore God is said to wipe them away, having removed the cause of them, ( Revelation 7:17 ) ( Revelation 21:4 ) the allusion is to a tender parent, that takes a handkerchief, and wipes the face of its child, when it has been crying, and quiets and comforts it: and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the
earth;
all the reproaches and calumnies which have been cast upon them, and all misrepresentations of them, shall be taken away from them everywhere, and they will no longer lie under them, but stand clear of all false charges and accusations: or all persecution shall now cease; there shall be none to hurt them in all the holy mountain, ( Isaiah 11:9 ) : for the Lord hath spoken [it];
and it shall be done. The Targum is,

``for by the word of the Lord it is so decreed.''

F7 (xunl) "in sempiternum", Munster, Pagninus, Montanus; "in aeternum", Piscator.
F8 Gloss. in T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 94. Misna, Moed Katon, c. 3. sect. 9. Midrash Kohelet, fol. 61. 2.
F9 Zohar in Gen. fol. 73. 1. Shemot Rabba, sect. 20. fol. 131. 4.

Isaiah 25:8 In-Context

6 Here on Mount Zion the Lord Almighty will prepare a banquet for all the nations of the world - a banquet of the richest food and the finest wine.

7 Here he will suddenly remove the cloud of sorrow that has been hanging over all the nations.

8 The Sovereign Lord will destroy death forever! He will wipe away the tears from everyone's eyes and take away the disgrace his people have suffered throughout the world. The Lord himself has spoken.

9 When it happens, everyone will say, "He is our God! We have put our trust in him, and he has rescued us. He is the Lord! We have put our trust in him, and now we are happy and joyful because he has saved us."

10 The Lord will protect Mount Zion, but the people of Moab will be trampled down the way straw is trampled in manure.

Cross References

• 1. 25.8 a1 Corinthians 15.54; bRevelation 7.17; 21.4.