Isaiah
Isaiah 24
1Behold, Yahweh makes the earth empty, makes it waste, turns it upside down, and scatters its inhabitants. 2It will be as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the creditor, so with the debtor; as with the taker of interest, so with the giver of interest. 3The earth will be utterly emptied and utterly laid waste; for Yahweh has spoken this word. 4The earth mourns and fades away. The world languishes and fades away. The lofty people of the earth languish. 5The earth also is polluted under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, and broken the everlasting covenant. 6Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, and those who dwell therein are found guilty. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left. 7The new wine mourns. The vine languishes. All the merry-hearted sigh. 8The mirth of tambourines ceases. The sound of those who rejoice ends. The joy of the harp ceases. 9They will not drink wine with a song. Strong drink will be bitter to those who drink it. 10The confused city is broken down. Every house is shut up, that no man may come in. 11There is a crying in the streets because of the wine. All joy is darkened. The mirth of the land is gone. 12The city is left in desolation, and the gate is struck with destruction. 13For it will be so within the earth among the peoples, as the shaking of an olive tree, as the gleanings when the vintage is done.
14These shall lift up their voice. They will shout for the majesty of Yahweh. They cry aloud from the sea. 15Therefore glorify Yahweh in the east, even the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel, in the islands of the sea! 16From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs. Glory to the righteous!
But I said, “I pine away! I pine away! woe is me!” The treacherous have dealt treacherously. Yes, the treacherous have dealt very treacherously. 17Fear, the pit, and the snare, are on you who inhabit the earth. 18It will happen that he who flees from the noise of the fear will fall into the pit; and he who comes up out of the middle of the pit will be taken in the snare; for the windows on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble. 19The earth is utterly broken. The earth is torn apart. The earth is shaken violently. 20The earth will stagger like a drunken man, and will sway back and forth like a hammock. Its disobedience will be heavy on it, and it will fall and not rise again.
21It will happen in that day that Yahweh will punish the army of the high ones on high, and the kings of the earth on the earth. 22They will be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and will be shut up in the prison; and after many days they will be visited. 23Then the moon will be confounded, and the sun ashamed; for Yahweh of Armies will reign on Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem; and glory will be before his elders.
Commentary
No commentary on this chapter yet.
What others are saying
4 commentators · 54 notes on this chapter
Matthew Henry3
Writes as a pastor rather than a critic. Expect devotional and practical application over historical or linguistic analysis, read through a Reformed covenantal frame — and expect the Old Testament to be read forward toward Christ throughout.
Why this voice is here: The most widely read English commentary for three centuries. Included as a baseline: where Henry and a modern voice diverge, the divergence itself is usually the interesting part.
It is a very dark and melancholy scene that this prophecy presents to our view; turn our eyes which way we will, every thing looks dismal. The threatened desolations are here described in a great variety of expressions to the same purport, and all…
Here is mercy remembered in the midst of wrath. In Judah and Jerusalem, and the neighbouring countries, when they are overrun by the enemy, Sennacherib or Nebuchadnezzar, there shall be a remnant preserved from the general ruin, and it shall be a devout and…
These verses, as those before, plainly speak, I. Comfort to saints. They may be driven, by the common calamities of the places where they live, into the uttermost parts of the earth, or perhaps they are forced thither for their religion; but there they are…
John Gill23
The most exhaustive and the most doctrinally committed here. Expect high — even supralapsarian — Calvinism applied consistently, and unusually heavy use of rabbinic and Talmudic sources for Jewish context. Where a passage bears on election or the will, Gill will read it in one direction, and knowing that in advance is the point.
Why this voice is here: The strongest Calvinist reading available in the public domain, and the best on Jewish background. Read alongside Clarke, not instead of him — between them you get both sides of the argument.
Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty,.... Some, by the "earth", only understand the land of Israel or Judea, and interpret the prophecy of the captivity of the ten tribes by Shalmaneser, as Kimchi, and other Jewish writers; and others, of the destruction…
And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest,.... Or, "prince" (p); no order or rank of men will fare better than another; their dignity, in things civil or ecclesiastical, will not secure them from ruin; it will be no better with princes and…
The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled,.... Entirely emptied of its inhabitants, and wholly spoiled of its riches and substance; this is repeated, and with greater strength, to confirm what is before said, and which receives a greater…
Keil & Delitzsch7
The technical one, and Old Testament only. Expect Hebrew grammar, textual argument, and direct engagement with nineteenth-century critical scholarship — closer to a scholarly apparatus than a devotional read. Where a modern critic claims a text is late or composite, this is where the conservative counter-argument was made.
Why this voice is here: Old Testament only, and heavy going — but the place to look when someone asserts a passage cannot mean what it appears to.
It is thoroughly characteristic of Isaiah, that the commencement of this prophecy, like Isa 19:1, places us at once in the very midst of the catastrophe, and condenses the contents of the subsequent picture of judgment into a few rapid, vigorous, vivid, and…
That this is the case is evident from Isa 24:4-9, where the accursed state into which the earth is brought is more fully described, and the cause thereof is given. "Smitten down, withered up is the earth; pined away, wasted away is the world; pined away have…
The world with its pleasure is judged; the world's city is also judged, in which both the world's power and the world's pleasure were concentrated. "The city of tohu is broken to pieces; every house is shut up, so that no man can come in. There is lamentation…
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown21
The concise option. Three authors split the canon, so the voice shifts between sections. Expect brief, sober, conservative notes that resolve difficulties rather than dwelling on them — useful for orientation, thinner than Gill or Clarke where a passage is genuinely contested.
Why this voice is here: The quickest way to see what the mainstream Reformed reading of a passage is. Start here, then go to Gill or Clarke when it matters.
as with the people, so with the priest--All alike shall share the same calamity: no favored class shall escape (compare Eze 7:12-13; Hos 4:9; Rev 6:15).
world--the kingdom of Israel; as in Isa 13:11, Babylon. haughty--literally, "the height" of the people: abstract for concrete, that is, the high people; even the nobles share the general distress.
earth--rather, "the land." defiled under . . . inhabitants--namely, with innocent blood (Gen 4:11; Num 35:33; Psa 106:38). laws . . . ordinance . . . everlasting covenant--The moral laws, positive statutes, and national covenant designed to be for ever…
World English Bible — Public domain