Judgment on the Whole Earth

Isaiah 24

1 Behold, c the Lord will empty the earth 1 and make it desolate,
and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants.
 2 d And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest;
as with the slave, so with his master;
as with the maid, so with her mistress;
e as with the buyer, so with the seller;
as with the lender, so with the borrower;
f as with the creditor, so with the debtor.
 3 g The earth shall be utterly empty and utterly plundered;
h for the Lord has spoken this word.

4 i The earth mourns and withers;
the world languishes and withers;
the highest people of the earth languish.
 5 The earth lies j defiled
under its inhabitants;
for k they have transgressed the laws,
violated the statutes,
broken the everlasting covenant.
 6 Therefore l a curse devours the earth,
and its inhabitants m suffer for their guilt;
therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched,
and few men are left.
 7 n The wine mourns,
the vine languishes,
all the merry-hearted sigh.
 8 o The mirth of the tambourines is stilled,
the noise of the jubilant has ceased,
the mirth of the lyre is stilled.
 9 No more do they drink wine p with singing;
strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.
 10 q The wasted city is broken down;
r every house is shut up so that none can enter.
 11 s There is an outcry in the streets for lack of wine;
t all joy has grown dark;
the gladness of the earth is banished.
 12 Desolation is left in the city;
the gates are battered into ruins.
 13 For thus it shall be in the midst of the earth
among the nations,
u as when an olive tree is beaten,
as at the gleaning when the grape harvest is done.

14 They lift up their voices, they sing for joy;
over the majesty of the Lord they shout from the west. 2
15 v Therefore in the east 3 give glory to the Lord;
in the coastlands of the sea, give glory to the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.
 16 w From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise,
of glory to x the Righteous One.
But I say, "I waste away,
I waste away. Woe is me!
For y the traitors have betrayed,
with betrayal the traitors have betrayed."

17 z Terror and the pit and the snare 4
are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth!
 18 z He who flees at the sound of the terror
shall fall into the pit,
and he who climbs out of the pit
shall be caught in the snare.
For a the windows of heaven are opened,
and b the foundations of the earth tremble.
 19 The earth is utterly broken,
the earth is split apart,
the earth is violently shaken.
 20 The earth c staggers like a drunken man;
it sways like a hut;
d its transgression lies heavy upon it,
and it falls, and will not rise again.

21 On that day the Lord will punish
the host of heaven, in heaven,
and e the kings of the earth, on the earth.
 22 f They will be gathered together
as prisoners in a pit;
they will be shut up in a prison,
and after many days g they will be punished.
 23 h Then the moon will be confounded
and the sun ashamed,
for i the Lord of hosts reigns
on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
and his glory will be before his elders.

  1. Cross References
    Isaiah 13:9
    Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it.
  2. Cross References
    Hosea 4:9
    And it shall be like people, like priest; I will punish them for their ways and repay them for their deeds.
    Lamentations 4:16
    The Lord himself has scattered them; he will regard them no more; no honor was shown to the priests, no favor to the elders.
    Isaiah 3:1 - 3
    For behold, the Lord God of hosts is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah support and supply, all support of bread, and all support of water.
  3. Cross References
    Ezekiel 7:12 - 13
    The time has come; the day has arrived. Let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn, for wrath is upon all their multitude.
  4. Cross References
    Jeremiah 15:10
    Woe is me, my mother, that you bore me, a man of strife and contention to the whole land! I have not lent, nor have I borrowed, yet all of them curse me.
  5. Cross References
    Isaiah 24:1
    Behold, the Lord will empty the earth and make it desolate, and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants.
    Isaiah 24:6
    Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt; therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched, and few men are left.
  6. Cross References
    Isaiah 1:20
    But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
  7. Cross References
    Isaiah 16:8
    For the fields of Heshbon languish, and the vine of Sibmah; the lords of the nations have struck down its branches, which reached to Jazer and strayed to the desert; its shoots spread abroad and passed over the sea.
    Hosea 4:3
    Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens, and even the fish of the sea are taken away.
  8. Cross References
    Numbers 35:33
    You shall not pollute the land in which you live, for blood pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it.
  9. Cross References
    Isaiah 2:6
    For you have rejected your people, the house of Jacob, because they are full of things from the east and of fortune-tellers like the Philistines, and they strike hands with the children of foreigners.
    Isaiah 2:8
    Their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made.
  10. Cross References
    Zechariah 5:3 - 4
    Then he said to me, "This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole land. For everyone who steals shall be cleaned out according to what is on one side, and everyone who swears falsely shall be cleaned out according to what is on the other side.
  11. Cross References
    Psalms 5:10
    Make them bear their guilt, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out, for they have rebelled against you.
  12. Cross References
    Joel 1:10
    The fields are destroyed, the ground mourns, because the grain is destroyed, the wine dries up, the oil languishes.
    Joel 1:12
    The vine dries up; the fig tree languishes. Pomegranate, palm, and apple, all the trees of the field are dried up, and gladness dries up from the children of man.
  13. Cross References
    Jeremiah 7:34
    And I will silence in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, for the land shall become a waste.
    Hosea 2:11
    And I will put an end to all her mirth, her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her appointed feasts.
    Amos 8:10
    I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on every waist and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day.
  14. Cross References
    Amos 6:5 - 6
    Who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp and like David invent for themselves instruments of music.
  15. Cross References
    Isaiah 34:11
    But the hawk and the porcupine shall possess it, the owl and the raven shall dwell in it. He shall stretch the line of confusion over it, and the plumb line of emptiness.
  16. Cross References
    Isaiah 23:1
    The oracle concerning Tyre. Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for Tyre is laid waste, without house or harbor! From the land of Cyprus it is revealed to them.
  17. Cross References
    Isaiah 24:7
    The wine mourns, the vine languishes, all the merry-hearted sigh.
    Psalms 144:14
    May our cattle be heavy with young, suffering no mishap or failure in bearing; may there be no cry of distress in our streets!
    Joel 1:5
    Awake, you drunkards, and weep, and wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it is cut off from your mouth.
  18. Cross References
    Joel 1:12
    The vine dries up; the fig tree languishes. Pomegranate, palm, and apple, all the trees of the field are dried up, and gladness dries up from the children of man.
  19. Cross References
    Isaiah 17:6
    Gleanings will be left in it, as when an olive tree is beaten - two or three berries in the top of the highest bough, four or five on the branches of a fruit tree, declares the Lord God of Israel.
    Micah 7:1
    Woe is me! For I have become as when the summer fruit has been gathered, as when the grapes have been gleaned: there is no cluster to eat, no first-ripe fig that my soul desires.
  20. Cross References
    Isaiah 45:6
    That people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other.
  21. Cross References
    Isaiah 24:14
    They lift up their voices, they sing for joy; over the majesty of the Lord they shout from the west.
  22. Cross References
    Isaiah 26:2
    Open the gates, that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in.
    Isaiah 60:21
    Your people shall all be righteous; they shall possess the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I might be glorified.
  23. Cross References
    Isaiah 21:2
    A stern vision is told to me; the traitor betrays, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, O Elam; lay siege, O Media; all the sighing she has caused I bring to an end.
    Isaiah 33:1
    Ah, you destroyer, who yourself have not been destroyed, you traitor, whom none has betrayed! When you have ceased to destroy, you will be destroyed; and when you have finished betraying, they will betray you.
  24. Cross References
    Jeremiah 48:43 - 44
    Terror, pit, and snare are before you, O inhabitant of Moab! declares the Lord.
    Job 20:24
    He will flee from an iron weapon; a bronze arrow will strike him through.
    Amos 5:19
    As if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him.
  25. Cross References
    Isaiah 24:17
    Terror and the pit and the snare are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth!
  26. Cross References
    Genesis 7:11
    In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.
  27. Cross References
    Psalms 18:7
    Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked, because he was angry.
  28. Cross References
    Isaiah 19:14
    The Lord has mingled within her a spirit of confusion, and they will make Egypt stagger in all its deeds, as a drunken man staggers in his vomit.
    Isaiah 29:9
    Astonish yourselves and be astonished; blind yourselves and be blind! Be drunk, but not with wine; stagger, but not with strong drink!
  29. Cross References
    Isaiah 24:5 - 6
    The earth lies defiled under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant.
  30. Cross References
    Psalms 76:12
    Who cuts off the spirit of princes, who is to be feared by the kings of the earth.
    Isaiah 10:12
    When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes.
    Isaiah 31:8
    And the Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not of man; and a sword, not of man, shall devour him; and he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be put to forced labor.
  31. Cross References
    Micah 4:11 - 12
    Now many nations are assembled against you, saying, "Let her be defiled, and let our eyes gaze upon Zion.
  32. Cross References
    Isaiah 29:6
    You will be visited by the Lord of hosts with thunder and with earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.
  33. Cross References
    Isaiah 13:10
    For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light.
  34. Cross References
    Psalms 99:1 - 2
    The Lord reigns; let the peoples tremble! He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!
    Micah 4:7
    And the lame I will make the remnant, and those who were cast off, a strong nation; and the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion from this time forth and forevermore.
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.
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