For You have made a city a ruin, A fortified city a ruin, A palace of foreigners to be a city no more; It will never be rebuilt.
Parallel translations
- WEB For you have made a city into a heap, a fortified city into a ruin, a palace of strangers to be no city. It will never be built.
- KJV For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built.
- BSB Indeed, You have made the city a heap of rubble, the fortified town a ruin. The fortress of strangers is a city no more; it will never be rebuilt.
- NASB For You have turned a city into a heap, A fortified city into a ruin; A palace of strangers is no longer a city, It will never be rebuilt.
- NLT You turn mighty cities into heaps of ruins. Cities with strong walls are turned to rubble. Beautiful palaces in distant lands disappear and will never be rebuilt.
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
God has turned the proud fortified city into a ruin that will never be rebuilt. He humbles the strongholds of the arrogant.
Overview
The Lord reduces the fortified city of strangers to a heap, an emblem of all human pride opposed to Him. Its permanence is broken forever. The verse celebrates God's power to overthrow every defiant power that exalts itself against His rule.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Isa 13:22Wolves will cry in their fortresses, and jackals in the pleasant palaces. Her time is near to come, and her days will not be prolonged.
- Isa 17:1The burden of Damascus: “Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it will be a ruinous heap.
- Isa 25:12He has brought the high fortress of your walls down, laid low, and brought to the ground, even to the dust.
- Rev 18:19They cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and mourning, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, in which all who had their ships in the sea were made rich by reason of her great wealth!’ For she is made desolate in one hour.
- Isa 23:13Behold, the land of the Chaldeans. This people was not. The Assyrians founded it for those who dwell in the wilderness. They set up their towers. They overthrew its palaces. They made it a ruin.
- Jer 51:26They shall not take cornerstone from you, nor a stone for foundations; but you will be desolate for ever,” says Yahweh.
- Nah 3:12–15All your fortresses will be like fig trees with the first-ripe figs: if they are shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater.
- Isa 21:9Behold, here comes a troop of men, horsemen in pairs.” He answered, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the engraved images of her gods are broken to the ground.
- Isa 14:23“I will also make it a possession for the porcupine, and pools of water. I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” says Yahweh of Armies.
- Deut 13:16You shall gather all its plunder into the middle of its street, and shall burn with fire the city, and all every bit of its plunder, to Yahweh your God. It shall be a heap forever. It shall not be built again.
- Rev 18:2–3He cried with a mighty voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and she has become a habitation of demons, a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird!
- Isa 17:3The fortress shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria. They will be as the glory of the children of Israel,” says Yahweh of Armies.
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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 25:2 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.