Isaiah 24
1 Behold, the LORD lays waste the earth and leaves it in ruins. He will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants—
Some day, Yahweh is going to destroy everything on the earth. He will devastate it and cause it to become a desert and scatter its people.
2 people and priest alike, servant and master, maid and mistress, buyer and seller, lender and borrower, creditor and debtor.
He will scatter everyone— priests and common people, servants and their masters, maids and their mistresses, buyers and sellers, lenders and borrowers, people who owe money and people who are owed money.
3 The earth will be utterly laid waste and thoroughly plundered.
Nothing that is worth anything will be left on earth; everything valuable will be destroyed. [That will surely happen because] Yahweh has said it.
4 The earth mourns and withers; the world languishes and fades; the exalted of the earth waste away.
[Everything on] the earth will dry up and die [DOU]; its important people will become weak and unimportant.
5 The earth is defiled by its people; they have transgressed the laws; they have overstepped the decrees and broken the everlasting covenant.
The earth has become unacceptable to Yahweh because the people who live on it have disobeyed his laws; they have rejected the agreement that he intended to last forever.
6 Therefore a curse has consumed the earth, and its inhabitants must bear the guilt; the earth’s dwellers have been burned, and only a few survive.
Therefore, [Yahweh] will curse the earth; the people who live on it must be punished because of the sins that they have committed. They will be destroyed by fire, and [only a] few people will remain [alive].
7 The new wine dries up, the vine withers. All the merrymakers now groan.
The grapevines will wither, and there will be no [grapes to make] wine. All [the people] who were previously happy will then groan and mourn.
8 The joyful tambourines have ceased; the noise of revelers has stopped; the joyful harp is silent.
People will no longer play cheerful songs with tambourines, people will no longer play joyfully on their harps, and people will no longer shout noisily [during their celebrations].
9 They no longer sing and drink wine; strong drink is bitter to those who consume it.
People will no longer sing while they drink wine, and [all] their alcoholic drinks will taste bitter.
10 The city of chaos is shattered; every house is closed to entry.
[Towns and] cities will be desolate; every house will be locked to prevent thieves from entering.
11 In the streets they cry out for wine. All joy turns to gloom; rejoicing is exiled from the land.
[Mobs] will gather in the streets, wanting wine; no one on the earth will be happy [DOU] any more.
12 The city is left in ruins; its gate is reduced to rubble.
Cities will be ruined and [all] their gates will be battered/broken into pieces.
13 So will it be on the earth and among the nations, like a harvested olive tree, like a gleaning after a grape harvest.
It will be like that all over the earth: [there will only be a few people still alive], like what happens when [workers] beat all the olives off a tree [and there are only a few left], [or] when they harvest the grapes and there are only a few left [on the vines].
14 They raise their voices, they shout for joy; from the west they proclaim the majesty of the LORD.
But [those who are left alive] will sing joyfully; people [in nations] to the west [of Israel] will declare that Yahweh is very great;
15 Therefore glorify the LORD in the east. Extol the name of the LORD, the God of Israel in the islands of the sea.
people in nations to the east [of Israel will also] praise Yahweh [MTY]; in countries across the sea, people will praise Yahweh, the God whom we Israelis [worship].
16 From the ends of the earth we hear singing: “Glory to the Righteous One.” But I said, “I am wasting away! I am wasting away! Woe is me.” The treacherous betray; the treacherous deal in treachery.
We will hear [people] in the most distant places on the earth singing praise to [Yahweh], the [truly] righteous one. But [now], I am [SYN] very sad. Weep for me, [because] I have become thin and weak. Terrible things are happening! Treacherous [people still] betray/deceive others everywhere [DOU].
17 Terror and pit and snare await you, O dweller of the earth.
You people all over the earth, you will be terrified, and you will fall into deep pits and traps/snares.
18 Whoever flees the sound of panic will fall into the pit, and whoever climbs from the pit will be caught in the snare. For the windows of heaven are open, and the foundations of the earth are shaken.
Those who [try to] flee because they are terrified will fall into [deep] pits, and those who climb out of the pits will be caught by traps/snares. The sky will split open and torrents [SIM] [of rain will fall]; the foundations of the earth will shake.
19 The earth is utterly broken apart, the earth is split open, the earth is shaken violently.
The earth will split apart and be shattered; it will shake violently.
20 The earth staggers like a drunkard and sways like a shack. Earth’s rebellion weighs it down, and it falls, never to rise again.
[It will be as though] the earth will stagger like [SIM] a drunk; it will shake like [SIM] a hut [shakes in a windstorm]. It will collapse and not [be able to] rise again, [because] the guilt of the people who rebel [against Yahweh] is very great.
21 In that day the LORD will punish the host of heaven above and the kings of the earth below.
At that time, Yahweh will punish the [wicked] powerful beings in the skies and the wicked kings on the earth.
22 They will be gathered together like prisoners in a pit. They will be confined to a dungeon and punished after many days.
They will [all] be gathered together and thrown into a dungeon/pit. They will be shut/locked in that dungeon/pit, and later they will be punished.
23 The moon will be confounded and the sun will be ashamed; for the LORD of Hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before His elders with great glory.
At that time the light of the moon and the sun will be lessened; [it will be as though] they are ashamed [in the presence of] Yahweh, because he, the Commander of the armies of angels, will rule gloriously (on Zion Hill/in Jerusalem), in the presence of the leaders [of his people].
