Isaiah 24
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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