Against all the peoples of the earth
24
📚See, the LORD makes the earth empty,
and lays it waste,
and turns it upside down,
and scatters its inhabitants
around.
24:1 From the beginning of chapter 13 God spoke of the punishment He would inflict on various nations. Now He joins them all together with all other nations and speaks of the destruction He will send on the whole world. This chapter deals with the end of this age, “the day of the Lord”, the time when God pours out His anger on a godless world. The wording of Isa 24:4, 6, 13, 16, 19, 20, 23; 25:6-8; 26:19-21 seems sufficient evidence for thinking this. Those verses speak of events which the New Testament reveals will occur at the end of this age and the beginning of the next. Chapters 25-27 are linked with this chapter and refer to the same events. These chapters are also tied together by the expression “in that day” – Isa 24:21; 25:9; 26:1; 27:1-2, 12. “Makes the earth empty, and lays it waste”, etc – Isa 34:1-4; 2 Pet 3:10-12; Rev 15—16.⚜
2 📚And it will be like this:
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 lender,
so with the borrower;
as with the creditor,
so with the debtor.
24:2 When God punishes the world for its sins He will observe no social distinctions (Rev 6:15-17).⚜
3 📚The land will be completely
emptied,
and utterly plundered;
for the LORD has spoken
this word.
4 📚The earth mourns and
fades away;
the world languishes and
fades away,
the haughty people of the earth
languish.
24:4 The tense of the verbs changes to present and continues so, for the most part, up to v 21. It is as though Isaiah were caught forward and saw what was happening with his own eyes – as indeed he probably did in vision.⚜
5 📚The earth is also defiled
under its inhabitants,
because they have transgressed
the laws,
changed the ordinance,
broken the everlasting
covenant.
24:5 Here is the reason for the destruction described in the previous verses. The earth is a part of God’s holy creation. Men have defiled it. God gave good and holy laws and covenants for the good of mankind. Mankind despised and violated them. This is the history of the world as God sees it. Compare Gen 6:5, 12; Ps 14:2; Rom 1:18-32.⚜
6 📚Therefore 📖 the curse 📖 has
devoured the earth,
and those who live on
it are desolate;
therefore the inhabitants
of the earth are burned,
and few 📖 men are left.
7 📚The new wine fails,
the vine languishes,
all the merry hearted sigh.
8 📚The mirth of tambourines
ceases,
the noise of the revelers comes
to an end,
the joy of the harp ceases.
9 📚They will not drink wine
with a song;
strong drink will be bitter
to those who drink it.
10 📚The city of confusion 📖 is
broken down.
Every house is shut up,
so that no one comes in.
11 📚In the streets there is
a crying out for wine.
All joy becomes gloom,
the mirth of the land is gone.
12 📚In the city desolation is left,
and the gate is smashed to ruins.
13 📚When it becomes like this
inside the land among
the people,
it will be like the shaking
of an olive tree,
and like the gleanings
when grape harvest is ended.
24:13 Verse 6 – comparatively few of earth’s people will remain after the event of v 1.⚜
24:7-13 A picture of conditions before the final destruction of earth.⚜
14 📚They will raise their voice;
they will sing;
because of the majesty
of the LORD they will cry out
aloud from the sea.
15 📚Therefore glorify the LORD
in the fires,
the name of the LORD God
of Israel in the coastlands
of the sea.
16 📚From the ends of the earth
we have heard songs,
“Glory to the Righteous One”.
But I said 📖, “My leanness,
my leanness! Woe to me!
The treacherous deal treacherously;
yes, the treacherous deal
very treacherously”.
24:14-16 The few who remain after God’s judgment will sing for joy to the God of Israel, the only God there is. They will know that it is He who has preserved and saved them from destruction. See Rev 7:1-8. “Fires” (v 15) – the Hebrew word here probably means “east”.⚜
17 📚Terror and the pit and
the snare await you,
O inhabitant of the earth.
18 📚And it will happen that
the one who flees
from the sound of terror,
will fall into the pit;
and the one who comes up
from inside the pit will be caught
in the snare.
For the windows above
are open 📖,
and the foundations
of the earth shake.
24:18 Compare Amos 5:19.⚜
19 📚The earth is violently
broken up,
the earth is splintered,
the earth is shaken violently.
20 📚The earth will reel to
and fro like a drunkard,
and will sway like a cottage;
and its transgression will be
heavy on it, and it will fall,
and not rise again.
21 📚And it will come about
in that day 📖,
that the LORD will punish
the host of exalted
ones on high 📖,
and the kings of the earth
on the earth.
22 📚And they 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
punished 📖.
The LORD God will reign in Jerusalem
23 📚Then the moon will be
abashed and the sun
ashamed,
for the LORD of hosts 📖 will reign
in Mount Zion,
and in Jerusalem,
and before his elders
gloriously.
24:23 Again the reign of God Himself over a judged and purged earth is brought before us (see Isa 2:2-4; 7:6-7; 11:1-10). In the glory of God and His reign the glory of the sun and moon will be as nothing. It is remarkable how similar this chapter is to chapters 14 to 21 of the book of the Revelation. What we have there in some detail is given in this chapter in great brevity. Here as there we see God’s anger coming on all the people of the earth, their utter sinfulness and depravity, the destruction of all that in which they delight, a remnant of true believers, a terrible shaking of the earth, the punishment of Satan and evil men followed by the reign of God and His Christ.⚜