Isaiah 24
Evangelical Heritage Version
The Lord Will Judge the Earth
24 Watch, the Lord is going to strip the earth bare and make it desolate.
He will wring it out and scatter its inhabitants.
2 It will be the same for people and priest,
for servant and master,
for servant girl and lady,
for buyer and seller,
for lender and borrower,
for creditor and debtor.
3 The earth will be stripped bare, totally plundered,
for the Lord has spoken this word.
4 The earth mourns and withers.
The world fades and withers away.
The proud people of the earth fade away.
5 The earth is polluted by its inhabitants,
because they have bypassed the laws.
They have changed the statutes
and set aside the everlasting covenant.
6 Therefore a curse devours the earth,
and those who live there will be found guilty.
That is why the inhabitants of the earth will be burned up,
and so few will remain.
7 The new wine mourns.
The vine dries up.
Those who were feeling merry now sigh.
8 The happy sound of drums has ceased.
The noise of partying has ended.
The joyful lyre is silent.
9 They will drink no wine with their songs anymore.
Beer[a] is bitter to those who drink it.
10 The city is in chaos and ruins.
Every house is closed up,
and no one can get in.
11 They cry for wine in the streets,
but all festive joy is gone.
Joyful celebration is banished from the land.
12 The city is left desolate,
and the gate is smashed into pieces.
13 This is the way it will be among the peoples on earth:
It will be like an olive tree after it has been picked over,
like the gleanings left after the grape harvest.
14 They raise their voices and sing for joy.
From the west[b] they shout for the majesty of the Lord.
15 Therefore, in the east[c] glorify the Lord.
In the coastlands of the sea, glorify the name of the Lord,
the God of Israel!
16 We hear songs from the ends of the earth:
Glory to the Righteous One!
But I said, “I am wasting away! I am wasting away! Woe is me!”
The treacherous deal treacherously.
Yes, the treacherous deal very treacherously.
17 Panic, pit, and peril[d] await all who live on the earth.
18 Whoever flees from the noise of terror will fall into the pit.
Whoever crawls out of the pit will be caught in the trap.
The windows[e] in the sky have opened,
and the foundations of the earth quake.
19 The earth is broken to pieces.
The earth is tearing itself apart.
The earth is shaking violently.
20 The earth staggers like a drunken man.
It shakes like a shack in a windstorm.
The burden of its rebellion is so heavy
that it will fall, unable to rise again.
21 On that day the Lord will deal with the army on high
and with the kings of the earth below.
22 They will be gathered together like prisoners in a pit.
They will be locked up in prison,
and after many days they will be dealt with.
23 Then the bright moon will be ashamed,
and the hot sun will be embarrassed,
for the Lord of Armies will reign on Mount Zion in Jerusalem,
and his glory will shine in the presence of his elders.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 24:9 Beer refers to any fermented drink not made from grapes. Distilled alcohol was not used in biblical times.
- Isaiah 24:14 Literally sea
- Isaiah 24:15 Literally among the lights
- Isaiah 24:17 The Hebrew words pahad, pahat, and pah sound similar and are used for poetic effect. A bit of literalness is sacrificed to retain the effect; pah is more literally trap.
- Isaiah 24:18 Or floodgates
Isaiah 24
Lexham English Bible
The Judgment on the Earth
24 Look! Yahweh is about to lay the earth waste
and is about to devastate it,
and he will twist her surface,
and he will scatter her inhabitants.
2 And it shall be as with the people, so with the priest;
as with the slave, so with his master;
as with the female slave, so with her mistress;
as with the buyer, so with the seller;
as with the lender, so with the borrower;
as with the creditor, so with the one to whom he lends.
3 The earth shall be utterly laid waste,
and it shall be utterly plundered,
for Yahweh has spoken this word.
4 The earth dries up, it withers;
the world languishes, it withers.
The elevated of the people of the earth languish,
5 and the earth is defiled beneath its inhabitants.
For they have transgressed laws;
they have passed by statutes;[a]
they have broken the everlasting covenant.
6 Therefore a curse devours the earth,
and the inhabitants in it suffer for their guilt.
Therefore the inhabitants of the earth burn,
and few men are left.[b]
7 The new wine dries up;
the vine languishes.
All the merry of heart sigh;
8 the joy of the tambourine has stopped.
The noise of the jubilant has ceased;
the joy of the lyre has stopped.
9 They do not drink wine with song;
strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.
10 The city of emptiness is broken;
every house is shut so that no one can enter;[c]
11 there is an outcry over the wine in the streets.
All joy turns into darkness;[d]
the joy of the earth disappears.
12 Desolation is left in the city;
the gate is crushed into a state of ruin.
13 For it shall be like this in the midst of the earth,
among the nations,
like the beating of an olive tree,
like gleanings when a grape harvest is at an end.
14 They lift up their voices;[e] they sing for joy;
they shout out from the west over the majesty of Yahweh.
15 Therefore glorify Yahweh in the east,
the name of Yahweh the God of Israel in the coastlands of the sea.
16 We hear songs from the edge[f] of the earth:
“Glory to the righteous one!”
But I say, “Ruin to me!
Ruin to me! Woe to me!
The treacherous ones deal treacherously,
and the treacherous ones deal treacherously with treachery!”
17 Terror and the pit and the snare are upon you, inhabitants[g] of the earth!
18 And this shall happen:
The one who flees from the sound of the terror shall fall into the pit,
and the one who goes up from inside the pit[h] shall be caught in the snare,
for the windows from heaven are opened,
and the foundations of the earth tremble.
19 The earth is utterly broken;
the earth is torn asunder;
the earth is shaken violently.
20 The earth staggers to and fro like the drunkard,
and it sways like a hut,
and its transgression is heavy upon it,
and it falls and does not rise again.
21 And this shall happen on that day:
Yahweh will punish the host of heaven in heaven,
and the kings of the earth on the earth.
22 And they will be gathered in a gathering, like a prisoner in[i] a pit.
And they will be shut in[j] a prison and be punished after[k] many days.
23 And the full moon will be ashamed
and the sun will be ashamed,
for Yahweh of hosts will rule on Mount Zion[l] and in Jerusalem,
and before his elders in glory.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 24:5 Hebrew “statute”
- Isaiah 24:6 Literally “he is left a man of smallness”
- Isaiah 24:10 Literally “from entering”
- Isaiah 24:11 Literally “evening”
- Isaiah 24:14 Hebrew “voice”
- Isaiah 24:16 Literally “wing”
- Isaiah 24:17 Hebrew “inhabitant”
- Isaiah 24:18 Literally “the middle of the pit”
- Isaiah 24:22 Literally “on”
- Isaiah 24:22 Literally “on”
- Isaiah 24:22 Literally “from”
- Isaiah 24:23 Literally “the mountain of Zion”
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.
2012 by Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software