Isaiah 24:1-13

Judgment on the Whole Earth

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.

  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.
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.