Isaiah 24 (NET)

The Lord Will Judge the Earth

1 Look, the Lord is ready to devastate the earth

and leave it in ruins;

he will mar its surface

and scatter its inhabitants.

2 Everyone will suffer – the priest as well as the people,1

the master as well as the servant,2

the elegant lady as well as the female attendant,3

the seller as well as the buyer,4

the borrower as well as the lender,5

the creditor as well as the debtor.6

3 The earth will be completely devastated

and thoroughly ransacked.

For the Lord has decreed this judgment.7

4 The earth8 dries up9 and withers,

the world shrivels up and withers;

the prominent people of the earth10 fade away.

5 The earth is defiled by11 its inhabitants,12

for they have violated laws,

disregarded the regulation,13

and broken the permanent treaty.14

6 So a treaty curse15 devours the earth;

its inhabitants pay for their guilt.16

This is why the inhabitants of the earth disappear,17

and are reduced to just a handful of people.18

7 The new wine dries up,

the vines shrivel up,

all those who like to celebrate19 groan.

8 The happy sound20 of the tambourines stops,

the revelry of those who celebrate comes to a halt,

the happy sound of the harp ceases.

9 They no longer sing and drink wine;21

the beer tastes bitter to those who drink it.

10 The ruined town22 is shattered;

all of the houses are shut up tight.23

11 They howl in the streets because of what happened to the wine;24

all joy turns to sorrow;25

celebrations disappear from the earth.26

12 The city is left in ruins;27

the gate is reduced to rubble.28

13 This is what will happen throughout29 the earth,

among the nations.

It will be like when they beat an olive tree,

and just a few olives are left at the end of the harvest.30

14 They31 lift their voices and shout joyfully;

they praise32 the majesty of the Lord in the west.

15 So in the east33 extol the Lord,

along the seacoasts extol34 the fame35 of the Lord God of Israel.

16 From the ends of the earth we36 hear songs –

the Just One is majestic.37

But I38 say, “I’m wasting away! I’m wasting away! I’m doomed!

Deceivers deceive, deceivers thoroughly deceive!”39

17 Terror, pit, and snare

are ready to overtake you inhabitants of the earth!40

18 The one who runs away from the sound of the terror

will fall into the pit;41

the one who climbs out of the pit,

will be trapped by the snare.

For the floodgates of the heavens42 are opened up43

and the foundations of the earth shake.

19 The earth is broken in pieces,

the earth is ripped to shreds,

the earth shakes violently.44

20 The earth will stagger around45 like a drunk;

it will sway back and forth like a hut in a windstorm.46

Its sin will weigh it down,

and it will fall and never get up again.

The Lord Will Become King

21 At that time47 the Lord will punish48

the heavenly forces in the heavens49

and the earthly kings on the earth.

22 They will be imprisoned in a pit,50

locked up in a prison,

and after staying there for a long time,51 they will be punished.52

23 The full moon will be covered up,53

the bright sun54 will be darkened;55

for the Lord who commands armies will rule56

on Mount Zion in Jerusalem57

in the presence of his assembly, in majestic splendor.58

124:2tn Heb “and it will be like the people, like the priest.” 224:2tn Heb “like the servant, like his master.” 324:2tn Heb “like the female servant, like her mistress.” 424:2tn Heb “like the buyer, like the seller.” 524:2tn Heb “like the lender, like the borrower.” 624:2tn Heb “like the creditor, just as the one to whom he lends.” 724:3tn Heb “for the Lord has spoken this word.” 824:4tn Some prefer to read “land” here, but the word pair אֶרֶץ/תֵּבֵל (erets/tevel [see the corresponding term in the parallel line]) elsewhere clearly designates the earth/world (see 1 Sam 2:8; 1 Chr 16:30; Job 37;12; Pss 19:4; 24:1; 33:8; 89:11; 90:2; 96:13; 98:9; Prov 8:26, 31; Isa 14:16-17; 34:1; Jer 10:12; 51:15; Lam 4:12). According to L. Stadelmann, תבל designates “the habitable part of the world” (The Hebrew Conception of the World [AnBib], 130). 924:4tn Or “mourns” (BDB 5 s.v. אָבַל). HALOT 6-7 lists the homonyms I אבל (“mourn”) and II אבל (“dry up”). They propose the second here on the basis of parallelism. 1024:4tn Heb “the height of the people of the earth.” The translation assumes an emendation of the singular form מְרוֹם (mÿrom, “height of”) to the plural construct מְרֹמֵי (mÿrome, “high ones of”; note the plural verb at the beginning of the line), and understands the latter as referring to the prominent people of human society. 1124:5tn Heb “beneath”; cf. KJV, ASV, NRSV “under”; NAB “because of.” 1224:5sn Isa 26:21 suggests that the earth’s inhabitants defiled the earth by shedding the blood of their fellow human beings. See also Num 35:33-34, which assumes that bloodshed defiles a land. 1324:5tn Heb “moved past [the?] regulation.” 1424:5tn Or “everlasting covenant” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “the ancient covenant”; CEV “their agreement that was to last forever.”sn For a lengthy discussion of the identity of this covenant/treaty, see R. Chisholm, “The ‘Everlasting Covenant’ and the ‘City of Chaos’: Intentional Ambiguity and Irony in Isaiah 24,” CTR 6 (1993): 237-53. In this context, where judgment comes upon both the pagan nations and God’s covenant community, the phrase “permanent treaty” is intentionally ambiguous. For the nations this treaty is the Noahic mandate of Gen 9:1-7 with its specific stipulations and central regulation (Gen 9:7). By shedding blood, the warlike nations violated this treaty, which promotes population growth and prohibits murder. For Israel, which was also guilty of bloodshed (see Isa 1:15, 21; 4:4), this “permanent treaty” would refer more specifically to the Mosaic Law and its regulations prohibiting murder (Exod 20:13; Num 35:6-34), which are an extension of the Noahic mandate. 1524:6sn Ancient Near Eastern treaties often had “curses,” or threatened judgments, attached to them. (See Deut 28 for a biblical example of such curses.) The party or parties taking an oath of allegiance acknowledged that disobedience would activate these curses, which typically threatened loss of agricultural fertility as depicted in the following verses. 1624:6tn The verb אָשַׁם (’asham, “be guilty”) is here used metonymically to mean “pay, suffer for one’s guilt” (see HALOT 95 s.v. אשׁם). 1724:6tn BDB 359 s.v. חָרַר derives the verb חָרוּ (kharu) from חָרַר (kharar, “burn”), but HALOT 351 s.v. II חרה understands a hapax legomenon חָרָה (kharah, “to diminish in number,” a homonym of חָרָה) here, relating it to an alleged Arabic cognate meaning “to decrease.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has חורו, perhaps understanding the root as חָוַר (khavar, “grow pale”; see Isa 29:22 and HALOT 299 s.v. I חור). 1824:6tn Heb “and mankind is left small [in number].” 1924:7tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “all the joyful in heart,” but the context specifies the context as parties and drinking bouts. 2024:8tn Heb “the joy” (again later in this verse). 2124:9tn Heb “with a song they do not drink wine.” 2224:10tn Heb “the city of chaos” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV). Isaiah uses the term תֹּהוּ (tohu) rather frequently of things (like idols) that are empty and worthless (see BDB 1062 s.v.), so the word might characterize the city as rebellious or morally worthless. However, in this context, which focuses on the effects of divine judgment, it probably refers to the ruined or worthless condition in which the city is left (note the use of the word in Isa 34:11). For a discussion of the identity of this city, see R. Chisholm, “The ‘Everlasting Covenant’ and the ‘City of Chaos’: Intentional Ambiguity and Irony in Isaiah 24,” CTR 6 (1993): 237-53. In the context of universal judgment depicted in Isa 24, this city represents all the nations and cities of the world which, like Babylon of old and the powers/cities mentioned in chapters 13-23, rebel against God’s authority. Behind the stereotypical language one can detect various specific manifestations of this symbolic and paradigmatic city, including Babylon, Moab, and Jerusalem, all of which are alluded or referred to in chapters 24-27. 2324:10tn Heb “every house is closed up from entering.” 2424:11tn Heb “[there is] an outcry over the wine in the streets.” 2524:11tn Heb “all joy turns to evening,” the darkness of evening symbolizing distress and sorrow. 2624:11tn Heb “the joy of the earth disappears.” 2724:12tn Heb “and there is left in the city desolation.” 2824:12tn Heb “and [into] rubble the gate is crushed.” 2924:13tn Heb “in the midst of” (so KJV, ASV, NASB). 3024:13sn The judgment will severely reduce the earth’s population. See v. 6. 3124:14sn The remnant of the nations (see v. 13) may be the unspecified subject. If so, then those who have survived the judgment begin to praise God. 3224:14tn Heb “they yell out concerning.” 3324:15tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “in the lights,” interpreted by some to mean “in the region of light,” referring to the east. Some scholars have suggested the emendation of בָּאֻרִים (ba’urim) to בְּאִיֵּי הַיָּם (bÿ’iyyey hayyam, “along the seacoasts”), a phrase that is repeated in the next line. In this case, the two lines form synonymous parallelism. If one retains the MT reading (as above), “in the east” and “along the seacoasts” depict the two ends of the earth to refer to all the earth (as a merism). 3424:15tn The word “extol” is supplied in the translation; the verb in the first line does double duty in the parallelism. 3524:15tn Heb “name,” which here stands for God’s reputation achieved by his mighty deeds. 3624:16sn The identity of the subject is unclear. Apparently in vv. 15-16a an unidentified group responds to the praise they hear in the west by exhorting others to participate. 3724:16tn Heb “Beauty belongs to the just one.” These words may summarize the main theme of the songs mentioned in the preceding line. 3824:16sn The prophet seems to contradict what he hears the group saying. Their words are premature because more destruction is coming. 3924:16tn Heb “and [with] deception deceivers deceive.”tn Verse 16b is a classic example of Hebrew wordplay. In the first line (“I’m wasting away…”) four consecutive words end with hireq yod ( ִי); in the second line all forms are derived from the root בָּגַד (bagad). The repetition of sound draws attention to the prophet’s lament. 4024:17tn Heb “[are] upon you, O inhabitant of the earth.” The first line of v. 17 provides another classic example of Hebrew wordplay. The names of the three instruments of judgment (פָח,פַחַת,פַּחַד [pakhad, fakhat, fakh]) all begin with the letters פח (peh-khet) and the first two end in dental consonants (ת/ד, tet/dalet). Once again the repetition of sound draws attention to the statement and contributes to the theme of the inescapability of judgment. As their similar-sounding names suggest, terror, pit, and snare are allies in destroying the objects of divine wrath. 4124:18tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2. 4224:18tn Heb “from the height”; KJV “from on high.” 4324:18sn The language reflects the account of the Noahic Flood (see Gen 7:11). 4424:19tn Once more repetition is used to draw attention to a statement. In the Hebrew text each lines ends with אֶרֶץ (’erets, “earth”). Each line also uses a Hitpolel verb form from a geminate root preceded by an emphatic infinitive absolute. 4524:20tn Heb “staggering, staggers.” The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute before the finite verb for emphasis and sound play. 4624:20tn The words “in a windstorm” are supplied in the translation to clarify the metaphor. 4724:21tn Or “in that day” (so KJV). The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2. 4824:21tn Heb “visit [in judgment].” 4924:21tn Heb “the host of the height in the height.” The “host of the height/heaven” refers to the heavenly luminaries (stars and planets, see, among others, Deut 4:19; 17:3; 2 Kgs 17:16; 21:3, 5; 23:4-5; 2 Chr 33:3, 5) that populate the divine/heavenly assembly in mythological and prescientific Israelite thought (see Job 38:7; Isa 14:13). 5024:22tn Heb “they will be gathered [in] a gathering [as] a prisoner in a cistern.” It is tempting to eliminate אֲסֵפָה (’asefah, “a gathering”) as dittographic or as a gloss, but sound repetition is one of the main characteristics of the style of this section of the chapter. 5124:22tn Heb “and after a multitude of days.” 5224:22tn Heb “visited” (so KJV, ASV). This verse can mean to visit for good or for evil. The translation assumes the latter, based on v. 21a. However, BDB 823 s.v. פָּקַד B.Niph.2 suggests the meaning “visit graciously” here, in which case one might translate “they will be released.” 5324:23tn Heb “will be ashamed.” 5424:23tn Or “glow of the sun.” 5524:23tn Heb “will be ashamed” (so NCV). 5624:23tn Or “take his throne,” “become king.” 5724:23map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4. 5824:23tn Heb “and before his elders [in] splendor.”