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”
Isaiah 24
New Living Translation
Destruction of the Earth
24 Look! The Lord is about to destroy the earth
and make it a vast wasteland.
He devastates the surface of the earth
and scatters the people.
2 Priests and laypeople,
servants and masters,
maids and mistresses,
buyers and sellers,
lenders and borrowers,
bankers and debtors—none will be spared.
3 The earth will be completely emptied and looted.
The Lord has spoken!
4 The earth mourns and dries up,
and the land wastes away and withers.
Even the greatest people on earth waste away.
5 The earth suffers for the sins of its people,
for they have twisted God’s instructions,
violated his laws,
and broken his everlasting covenant.
6 Therefore, a curse consumes the earth.
Its people must pay the price for their sin.
They are destroyed by fire,
and only a few are left alive.
7 The grapevines waste away,
and there is no new wine.
All the merrymakers sigh and mourn.
8 The cheerful sound of tambourines is stilled;
the happy cries of celebration are heard no more.
The melodious chords of the harp are silent.
9 Gone are the joys of wine and song;
alcoholic drink turns bitter in the mouth.
10 The city writhes in chaos;
every home is locked to keep out intruders.
11 Mobs gather in the streets, crying out for wine.
Joy has turned to gloom.
Gladness has been banished from the land.
12 The city is left in ruins,
its gates battered down.
13 Throughout the earth the story is the same—
only a remnant is left,
like the stray olives left on the tree
or the few grapes left on the vine after harvest.
14 But all who are left shout and sing for joy.
Those in the west praise the Lord’s majesty.
15 In eastern lands, give glory to the Lord.
In the lands beyond the sea, praise the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.
16 We hear songs of praise from the ends of the earth,
songs that give glory to the Righteous One!
But my heart is heavy with grief.
Weep for me, for I wither away.
Deceit still prevails,
and treachery is everywhere.
17 Terror and traps and snares will be your lot,
you people of the earth.
18 Those who flee in terror will fall into a trap,
and those who escape the trap will be caught in a snare.
Destruction falls like rain from the heavens;
the foundations of the earth shake.
19 The earth has broken up.
It has utterly collapsed;
it is violently shaken.
20 The earth staggers like a drunk.
It trembles like a tent in a storm.
It falls and will not rise again,
for the guilt of its rebellion is very heavy.
21 In that day the Lord will punish the gods in the heavens
and the proud rulers of the nations on earth.
22 They will be rounded up and put in prison.
They will be shut up in prison
and will finally be punished.
23 Then the glory of the moon will wane,
and the brightness of the sun will fade,
for the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will rule on Mount Zion.
He will rule in great glory in Jerusalem,
in the sight of all the leaders of his people.
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Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
