Isaiah 25:8

This chapter contains a summary of the judgments denounced by Jeremiah against Judah, Babylon, and many other nations. It begins with reproving the Jews for disobeying the calls of God to repentance, Jer 25:1-7; on which account their captivity, with that of her neighboring nations, during seventy years, is foretold, Jer 25:8-11. At the expiration of that period, (computing from the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, to the famous edict of the first year of Cyrus), an end was to be put to the Babylonian empire, Jer 25:12-14. All this is again declared by the emblem of that cup of wrath which the prophet, as it should seem in a vision, tendered to all the nations which he enumerates, Jer 25:15-29. And for farther confirmation, it is a third time repeated in a very beautiful and elevated strain of poetry, Jer 25:30-38. The talent of diversifying the ideas, images, and language, even when the subject is the same, or nearly so, appears no where in such perfection as among the sacred poets.

Quoted in Co1 15:54, in support of the resurrection. swallow up . . . in victory--completely and permanently "abolish" (Ti2 1:10; Rev 20:14; Rev 21:4; compare Gen 2:17; Gen 3:22). rebuke--(Compare Mar 8:38; Heb 11:26).

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, Co1 15:54 so the Jews (h) 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 (i): 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, &c. 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, Rev 7:17, Rev 21:4 the allusion is to a tender parent, that takes a handkerchief, and wipes the face of its child, when it has been cry…

After the threatenings of wrath in the foregoing chapter we have here, I. Thankful praises for what God had done, which the prophet, in the name of the church, offers up to God, and teaches us to offer the like (Isa 25:1-5). II. Precious promises of what God would yet further do for his church, especially in the grace of the gospel (Isa 25:6-8). III. The church's triumph in God over her enemies thereupon (Isa 25:9-12). This chapter looks as pleasantly upon the church as the former looked dreadfully upon the world.

25:8 He will swallow up death forever: Isaiah’s hope was God’s power over sin and sin’s devastating results. In the New Testament this promise is realized in Jesus Christ (1 Cor 15:54). • The Lord’s presence will be a source of eternal comfort; he will wipe away all tears (see Rev 21:4).