Isaiah 24

Look: the LORD is emptying the earth and leaving it in ruins. He twists its surface out of shape and scatters the people who live on it.

1Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.

Note"The LORD" printed in small capitals stands for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew consonants usually written YHWH. Jewish readers avoided pronouncing it and said "the Lord" instead; English translations have followed that practice ever since.

2It will be the same for everyone: for ordinary people and for the priest, for the servant and for his master, for the maid and for her mistress, for the buyer and for the seller, for the lender and for the borrower, for the one who charges interest and for the one who owes it.

2And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.

3The land will be completely emptied and completely stripped of everything, because the LORD has said so.

3The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the LORD hath spoken this word.

NoteThe Hebrew word rendered "land" here is the same word rendered "earth" in verse 1 (erets). It can mean the whole planet, the inhabited world, or one particular country. Isaiah uses it about a dozen times in this chapter and never settles the question, so the disaster reads at times like a world-wide collapse and at times like the ruin of a single country.

4The earth dries up and withers. The world wastes away and fades. The proud and powerful people of the earth waste away with it.

4The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.

NoteThe Hebrew of the last line is uncertain. It can mean "the exalted ones among the people of the earth waste away", the great and powerful, or, with the same consonants, "the height wastes away along with the earth," that is, the sky fades along with the ground.

5The earth is polluted by the people living on it, because they have broken the laws, ignored the rules, and broken the covenant that was meant to last forever.

5The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.

NoteA covenant is a binding agreement sworn between two parties, with stated obligations and stated penalties for breaking it, the standard form for ancient treaties between a king and his subjects. Which "everlasting covenant" is meant here is disputed: the agreement made with Noah and all living creatures after the flood, which was for all humanity, or the law given at Sinai, which was for Israel alone.

6So a curse has eaten up the earth, and the people who live there are held guilty. The earth's people have been burned, and only a few are left.

6Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.

Note"Curse" here translates a Hebrew word (alah) that means specifically the penalty clause of a sworn agreement, the punishment the parties called down on themselves if they broke their word. It is the legal consequence of verse 5, not random misfortune. The word rendered "burned" is also read by some as "grown few" or "scorched pale"; the sense of the line is that the population has dwindled.

7The new wine dries up and the grapevine withers. Everyone who used to be happy is now groaning.

7The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merryhearted do sigh.

Note"New wine" is a distinct Hebrew word (tirosh) for the freshly pressed juice of the current harvest. It stands for the year's crop at its most abundant, so saying it "dries up" means the harvest itself has failed.

8The happy sound of tambourines has stopped. The noise of the partygoers is over. The cheerful music of the harp has stopped.

8The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth.

NoteThe instrument is a small hand-held drum, a wooden hoop with a skin stretched over it, played mostly by women at celebrations and victory dances. It had no metal jingles like a modern tambourine.

9They no longer drink wine while singing. Strong drink tastes bitter to anyone who drinks it.

9They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it.

Note"Strong drink" translates shekar, a fermented drink made from something other than grapes, barley beer, or drink made from dates, figs or honey. It is regularly paired with wine to mean "every kind of alcohol."

10The city of chaos is broken down. Every house is shut up, so no one can get in.

10The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in.

NoteThe Hebrew word behind "chaos" is tohu, the same word used for the formless emptiness of the world before creation in Genesis 1:2, and elsewhere for a trackless desert or for something worthless. The city is not named, and readers have proposed everything from Babylon to Jerusalem; Isaiah leaves it as any city, or every city.

11In the streets people cry out for wine. All happiness has gone dark, and the joy of the land is gone.

11There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone.

12Nothing is left in the city but ruin, and the gate has been smashed to pieces.

12In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction.

NoteThe gate of an ancient walled city was more than a doorway: it was a fortified structure with chambers where markets were held, legal cases were tried and elders sat in council. Smashing the gate means both that the defenses have fallen and that public life has ended.

13This is how it will be across the land and among the peoples: like an olive tree after it has been beaten for its fruit, or like the few grapes left behind once the harvest is over.

13When thus it shall be in the midst of the land among the people, there shall be as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done.

NoteBoth pictures are of harvest leftovers. Olives were gathered by beating the branches with poles, and the law told owners not to go over a tree a second time; grapes were picked once and the stragglers left behind. What remains in either case is a scattering of fruit high in the branches, a vivid way of saying that only a scattered handful of people survives.

14They lift up their voices and sing about the greatness of the LORD. From the sea they shout aloud.

14They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the LORD, they shall cry aloud from the sea.

Note"From the sea" means from the west. Hebrew names directions from the standpoint of someone facing the sunrise, so the Mediterranean, lying west of Israel, simply is "the sea" and its name serves as the word for that direction.

15So give honor to the LORD in the east, and honor the name of the LORD, the God of Israel, in the islands of the sea.

15Wherefore glorify ye the LORD in the fires, even the name of the LORD God of Israel in the isles of the sea.

NoteThe Hebrew here (urim) literally means "in the lights" or "in the fires," which is why the King James Version has "in the fires." Most take it as the region of light, meaning the east, to pair with the west of verse 14, but the reading is genuinely uncertain. "The islands of the sea" translates a word for the coastlands and islands of the Mediterranean, the far edge of the known world from Israel's point of view.

16From the farthest parts of the earth we hear songs: "Glory to the Righteous One." But I said, "I am wasting away, I am wasting away. This is terrible for me. Traitors keep betraying; traitors betray again and again."

16From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me! the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously.

Note"I am wasting away" renders a Hebrew phrase (razi-li) found nowhere else; it may come from a root meaning "waste away," or from one meaning "secret," giving "I have a secret." Translators simply have to choose. In the last line the Hebrew hammers one root three times, bogedim bagadu baged, a deliberate piling up of the same sound that English can only approximate. "The Righteous One" can also be read as a plural, "the righteous."

17Terror, and a pit, and a trap are waiting for you, you who live on the earth.

17Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.

NoteThe three Hebrew words (pachad, pachat, pach) chime together, an effect lost in translation. They describe one hunting technique: beaters drive the animal forward with noise, it stumbles into a covered pit, and a net waits for anything that gets out.

18Here is what will happen. Whoever runs from the sound of the terror will fall into the pit, and whoever climbs out of the pit will be caught in the trap. For the windows of the sky are opened, and the foundations of the earth shake.

18And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.

Note"The windows of the sky" is flood language. In the older Hebrew picture of the world, a solid dome held back the waters above, and hatches in it let the rain through; the same phrase describes the start of Noah's flood in Genesis 7:11.

19The earth is completely broken apart. The earth is split wide open. The earth is shaken violently.

19The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.

20The earth staggers back and forth like a drunk man and sways like a flimsy hut. Its rebellion weighs it down, and it falls and does not get up again.

20The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.

NoteThe comparison is to the temporary shelter, branches and cloth over a frame: that a watchman put up in a field or vineyard to guard the crop, and abandoned once the harvest ended. It sags and leans in the wind, and nobody repairs it. The King James Version's "cottage" meant a rough hut, not a house.

21On that day the LORD will punish the army of powers in the heights above, and the kings of the earth down on the earth.

21And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.

Note"The army of powers in the heights" translates "the host of the height." In Hebrew this phrase covers the stars and the heavenly beings thought to stand behind them; surrounding nations worshiped these as gods, and the line sets them in parallel with the kings on the ground, powers above and powers below, both answerable.

22They will be herded together like prisoners in a pit and locked up in a dungeon, and after many days they will be dealt with.

22And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.

NoteThe "pit" is a cistern, a bottle-shaped tank cut into rock for storing water; an empty one made a ready-made holding cell with no way to climb out. The last verb (pakad) is deliberately open: it can mean punished, or attended to, or released. Hebrew readers have taken it both ways, so it is left here as "dealt with."

23Then the moon will be embarrassed and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of Hosts rules on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, showing his glory in front of his elders.

23Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.

NoteHebrew calls the moon "the white one" and the sun "the hot one" here rather than using their ordinary names, and both were worshiped as deities across the ancient Near East. "The LORD of Hosts" means the LORD commanding armies, the same word for "host" as in verse 21. Mount Zion is the ridge in Jerusalem where the temple stood. "His elders" are the senior men who represented the community; the King James Version's "ancients" meant elders, not ancient things.