Bible Strands
Isaiah 25:2
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.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet addresses Yahweh on behalf of the covenant community, placing a declaration of judgment against hostile nations within a hymn praising God’s past faithfulness.
The words — שַׂ֤מְתָּ (samta) translates literally as "you have made," and מַפֵּלָ֑ה (mapelah) means "a ruin," describing the active dismantling of urban defenses.
The thread — This imagery of fortified settlements reduced to rubble recurs in Isaiah 13:22 against Babylon, Isaiah 17:1 against Damascus, and Isaiah 25:12 against high-walled fortresses.
Why it lands — The text states that foreign strongholds are permanently dismantled by divine action, requiring the reader to acknowledge that human security outside God's purposes is fundamentally unstable.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 13:22 Hyenas will howl in her fortresses and jackals in her luxurious palaces. Babylon’s time is at hand, and her days will not be prolonged.
- Isaiah 17:1 This is the burden against Damascus: “Behold, Damascus is no longer a city; it has become a heap of ruins.
- Isaiah 25:12 The high-walled fortress will be brought down, cast to the ground, into the dust.
- Deuteronomy 13:16 And you are to gather all its plunder in the middle of the public square, and completely burn the city and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God. The city must remain a mound of ruins forever, never to be rebuilt.
- Isaiah 14:23 “I will make her a place for owls and for swamplands; I will sweep her away with the broom of destruction,” declares the LORD of Hosts.
- Isaiah 21:9 Look, here come the riders, horsemen in pairs.” And one answered, saying: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon! All the images of her gods lie shattered on the ground!”
- Isaiah 23:13 Look at the land of the Chaldeans—a people now of no account. The Assyrians destined it for the desert creatures; they set up their siege towers and stripped its palaces. They brought it to ruin.
- Jeremiah 51:26 No one shall retrieve from you a cornerstone or a foundation stone, because you will become desolate forever,” declares the LORD.
- Nahum 3:12 All your fortresses are fig trees with the first ripe figs; when shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater!
- Revelation 18:2 And he cried out in a mighty voice: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a lair for demons and a haunt for every unclean spirit, every unclean bird, and every detestable beast.