Thou that art full of stirs, a tumultuous city, a joyous city: thy slain men are not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle.
Parallel translations
- WEB You that are full of shouting, a tumultuous city, a joyous town; your slain are not slain with the sword, neither are they dead in battle.
- BSB O city of commotion, O town of revelry? Your slain did not die by the sword, nor were they killed in battle.
- NKJV You who are full of noise, A tumultuous city, a joyous city? Your slain men are not slain with the sword, Nor dead in battle.
- NASB You who were full of noise, You tumultuous town, you jubilant city; Your dead were not killed with the sword, Nor did they die in battle.
- NLT The whole city is in a terrible uproar. What do I see in this reveling city? Bodies are lying everywhere, killed not in battle but by famine and disease.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The noisy, festive city's dead fall not honorably in battle but in disgrace. It matters because it exposes the shame beneath Jerusalem's misplaced merriment.
Overview
Jerusalem is full of shouting and revelry even as catastrophe looms. Isaiah notes that its slain do not die in valiant combat but in flight or famine, a death without honor. The contrast between celebration and disgrace exposes the city's spiritual blindness. The verse rebukes a people who feast when they ought to mourn and repent.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Isa 32:13Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers; yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city:
- Isa 23:7Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days? her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn.
- Jer 14:18If I go forth into the field, then behold the slain with the sword! and if I enter into the city, then behold them that are sick with famine! yea, both the prophet and the priest go about into a land that they know not.
- Lam 2:20Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?
- Lam 4:9–10They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.
- Isa 37:36Then the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.
- Jer 38:2Thus saith the LORD, He that remaineth in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth forth to the Chaldeans shall live; for he shall have his life for a prey, and shall live.
- Jer 52:6And in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.
- Amos 6:3–6Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near;
- Isa 22:12–13And in that day did the Lord GOD of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:
- Isa 37:33Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields, nor cast a bank against it.
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 22:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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