Isaiah 24

Isaiah’s Apocalypse

1 # 24:1 Isaiah 24–27 is known as Isaiah’s Apocalypse because it contains eschatological prophecies that are also found in the book of Revelation. Behold! The Lord Yahweh is about to devastate the earth # 24:1 Or “land.” This is the Hebrew word ’erets, used sixteen times in chapter 24. It can be translated “land,” “earth,” or “world.” The context would seem to describe a global judgment. Isaiah prophesied about eleven different nations in chapters 13–23, but here he described a judgment upon the whole world.

and make it desolate.

He will mar its surface and scatter the inhabitants.

2Everyone will experience the same fate—

priests and people, masters and slaves,

their maids and mistresses, buyers and sellers,

lenders and borrowers, rich and poor. # 24:2 Or “debtor and creditor.” See Rev. 6:15.

3The earth will be utterly devastated and ruined,

for the Lord Yahweh has spoken this word!

4The ground itself mourns # 24:4 The Hebrew homonym can mean the ground “mourns [over the sin of its inhabitants]” or “dries up [with drought].” This is a powerful play on words in the Hebrew. and withers;

the soil languishes over the sins of its people,

and the wealthy elite wither and languish.

5The people have polluted the earth beneath their feet

by disobeying laws, violating truth, # 24:5 Or “moving past statutes.” See Mal. 2:5–7.

and breaking the ancient, everlasting covenant. # 24:5 See Rom. 1:18–32.

6Therefore a curse devours the earth;

its people suffer under their guilt,

causing earth’s inhabitants to dwindle, # 24:6 Or “burn up.” The Hebrew homonym kharah can mean “to diminish” or “to burn.”

and their number is reduced to so few.

7The new wine dries up, the vine withers,

and all the party-goers groan with disappointment.

8The joyful mirth of the tambourines is stilled,

the jubilant noise of the revelers is ended,

and the happy sound of the harp falls silent.

9No more wine and song!

Hard liquor has become bitter to those who drink it.

10The city lies in chaos, and no one can enter.

11Riots break out because there is no wine.

The sun has set on their gladness and joy;

celebrations have disappeared from the earth.

12The city is left desolate with her gates battered down.

13As an olive tree is shaken clean of its olives

and a grapevine picked clean of its grapes,

so will be the fate of the nations.

The Song of the Remnant

14The remnant # 24:14 Or “They.” Verses 14–16 are some of the more difficult verses to translate in Isaiah due to a number of textual variants. lifts up its voice with a joyful shout.

From the west they praise the majesty of the Lord Yahweh,

15and in the east # 24:15 Or “in the lights [fires],” a possible metaphor for the sunrise (the east). they give glory to the Lord God!

The coastlands magnify the name of Yahweh,

the Lord God of Israel!

16From all over the world we hear their songs of praise—

songs of glory and beauty to the Righteous One!

But I said, “I feel I’m wasting away.

I’m doomed; I’m wasting away.”

With deception, deceivers deceive!

With treachery, the treacherous betray! # 24:16 These lines contain a notable wordplay, using five Hebrew words with the identical triliteral root, bgd.

17Terror, pit, and trap are waiting for you, inhabitants of the earth.

18The one who flees from the report of terror will fall into the pit.

And whoever crawls out of the pit will be caught by the trap.

Heaven’s floodgates opened and earth’s foundations trembled.

19The earth is breaking, breaking!

The earth is crumbling, crumbling!

The earth is tottering, tottering!

20The earth staggers like a drunkard,

as a hut sways in a storm.

Its sin lies heavy upon it; it falls to rise no more.

The Lord Almighty Will Reign

21In that day, the Lord Yahweh will punish heaven’s host # 24:21 In this context, heaven’s host becomes a figure of speech for dark powers that operate in rebellion to God. See Eph. 6:10–14; Col. 2:15.

and the kings of the earth.

22They will be gathered together

and locked up in a prison like prisoners in a pit,

and after many days, they will be punished. # 24:22 Or “they will be remembered.”

23Then the sun and moon will hang their heads in shame,

for Yahweh, Commander of Angel Armies, will reign! # 24:23 When God is unveiled in his glory-light, the sun and moon are nothing compared to him.

He will manifest his glory on Mount Zion in Jerusalem,

before all her elders!

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Isaiah 24: TPT

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Isaiah 24

XXIV

1Behold, Jehovah is about to make the land empty, and to make it waste;

Yea, he will turn it upside down, and scatter abroad the inhabitants thereof.

2And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest;

As with the servant, so with his master;

As with the handmaid, so with her mistress;

As with the buyer, so with the seller;

As with the lender, so with the borrower;

As with the debtor, so with the creditor.

3The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled;

For Jehovah hath spoken this word.

4The land mourneth, it withereth;

The world languisheth, it withereth;

The high people of the land do languish.

5The land is even polluted under the inhabitants thereof;

For they have transgressed the laws, they have changed the decree;

They have broken the everlasting covenant.

6Therefore doth a curse devour the land,

And the inhabitants thereof suffer punishment.

Therefore the inhabitants of the land are burnt up;

And men are left few in number.

7The new wine mourneth; the vine languisheth;

And the merry-hearted do sigh.

8The mirth of tabrets ceaseth,

The noise of them that rejoice endeth,

The joy of the harp ceaseth.

9They shall not drink wine in the song;

Strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it.

10A desolate city is broken to pieces;

Every house is shut up, so that none can enter.

11There is a crying for wine in the streets,

All gladness hath vanished away;

The mirth of the land is gone.

12In the city is left devastation;

And the gate is battered down with a crash.

13For thus it shall be in the midst of the land, among the people,

As the shaking of an olive tree; as the gleaning when the harvest is finished.

14They shall lift up their voice, they shall shout for joy:

For the majesty of Jehovah they shall rejoice from the sea.

15Wherefore glorify ye Jehovah in the eastern regions,

Even the name of Jehovah, the God of Israel, in the isles of the sea.

16From the extremity of the earth have we heard songs: Glory to the righteous!

But I said: My leanness, my leanness, wo unto me! The plunders plunder; yea, the plunder the plunders plunder.

17The terror, and the pit, and the snare,

Are upon thee, O inhabitant of the land!

18And it shall be, that whoso fleeth from the sound of the terror shall fall into the pit;

And whoso cometh up out of the midst of the pit, shall be taken in the snare;

For the floodgates from on high are opened;

And the foundations of the earth tremble.

19The earth is utterly broken down,

The earth is shattered to pieces;

The earth is moved exceedingly.

20The earth verily reeleth like a drunkard,

And moveth to and fro like a hammock;

For her iniquity lieth heavy upon her;

And she shall fall, and rise no more.

21And it shall come to pass in that day,

That Jehovah shall punish on high the host that is on high;

And on earth the kings of the earth.

22And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered for the pit;

And shall be shut up in the prison:

And after many days shall they be visited.

23And the moon shall be confounded, and the sun shall be ashamed;

When Jehovah of hosts shall reign

On mount Zion, and in Jerusalem;

And before his ancients in glory.

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Translated by Rev John Jones (Ioan Tegid).Published at Oxford in 1830, second edition 1842.

Learn More About Isaiah 1830, 1842 (John Jones alias Ioan Tegid)