Isaiah 24

1 Behold, the Lord will lay waste to the earth, and he will strip it, and he will afflict its surface, and he will scatter its inhabitants.

Behold, the Lord is about to lay waste the world, and will make it desolate, and will lay bare the surface of it, and scatter them that dwell therein.

2 And this shall be: as with the people, so with the priest; and as with the servant, so with his master; as with the handmaid, 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.

And the people shall be as the priest, and the servant as the lord, and the maid as the mistress; the buyer shall be as the seller, the lender as the borrower, and the debtor as his creditor.

3 The earth will be utterly devastated and utterly plundered. For the Lord has spoken this word.

The earth shall be completely laid waste, and the earth shall be utterly spoiled: for the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.

4 The earth mourned, and slipped away, and languished. The world slipped away; the loftiness of the people of the earth was weakened.

The earth mourns, and the world is ruined, the lofty ones of the earth are mourning.

5 And the earth was corrupted by its inhabitants. For they have transgressed the laws, they have changed the ordinance, they have dissipated the everlasting covenant.

And she has sinned by reason of her inhabitants; because they have transgressed the law, and changed the ordinances, [even] the everlasting covenant.

6 Because of this, a curse will devour the earth, and its inhabitants will sin. And for this reason, its caretakers will become crazed, and few men will be left behind.

Therefore a curse shall consume the earth, because the inhabitants thereof have sinned: therefore the dwellers in the earth shall be poor, and few men shall be left.

7 The vintage has mourned. The vine has languished. All those who were rejoicing in their hearts have groaned.

The wine shall mourn, the vine shall mourn, all the merry-hearted shall sigh.

8 The gladness of the drums has ceased. The sound of rejoicing has quieted. The sweetness of stringed instruments has been silenced.

The mirth of timbrels has ceased, the sound of the harp has ceased.

9 They will not drink wine with a song. The drink will be bitter to those who drink it.

They are ashamed, they have not drunk wine; strong drink has become bitter to them that drink [it].

10 The city of vanity has been worn away. Every house has been closed up; no one enters.

All the city has become desolate: one shall shut his house so that none shall enter.

11 There will be a clamor for wine in the streets. All rejoicing has been abandoned. The gladness of the earth has been carried away.

There is a howling for the wine everywhere; all the mirth of the land has ceased, all the mirth of the land has departed.

12 Solitude is what remains in the city, and calamity will overwhelm its gates.

And cities shall be left desolate, and houses being left shall fall to ruin.

13 For so shall it be in the midst of the earth, in the midst of the people: it is as if the few remaining olives are being shaken from the olive tree, and it is like a few clusters of grapes, when the grape harvest has already ended.

All this shall be in the land in the midst of the nations, as if one should strip an olive tree, so shall they strip them; but when the vintage is done,

14 These few shall lift up their voice and give praise. When the Lord will have been glorified, they will make a joyful noise from the sea.

these shall cry aloud; and they that are left on the land shall rejoice together in the glory of the Lord: the water of the sea shall be troubled.

15 Because of this, glorify the Lord in doctrine: the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, in the islands of the sea.

Therefore shall the glory of the Lord be in the isles of the sea; the name of the Lord shall be glorious.

16 From the ends of the earth, we have heard the praises of the glory of the Just One. And I said: “My secret is for myself! My secret is for myself! Woe to me! Those who would betray us have betrayed us, and they have betrayed us with the betrayal of transgression.”

O Lord God of Israel, from the ends of the earth we have heard wonderful things, [and there is] hope to the godly: but they shall say, Woe to the despisers, that despise the law.

17 Dread, and the pit, and the snare are over you, O inhabitant of the earth!

Fear, and a pit, and a snare, are upon you that dwell on the earth.

18 And this shall be: whoever will flee from the voice of dread will fall into the pit. And whoever will extricate himself from the pit will be caught in the snare. For the floodgates from above have been opened, and the foundations of the earth will be shaken.

And it shall come to pass, [that] he that flees from the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that comes up out of the pit shall be caught by the snare: for windows have been opened in heaven, and the foundations of the earth shall be shaken,

19 The earth will be utterly broken! The earth will be utterly crushed! The earth will be utterly shaken!

the earth shall be utterly confounded, and the earth shall be completely perplexed.

20 The earth will stagger greatly, like a drunken man, and will be carried away, like the tent of a single night. And its iniquity will be heavy upon it, and it will fall and not rise up again.

It reels as a drunkard and one oppressed with wine, and the earth shall be shaken as a storehouse of fruits; for iniquity has prevailed upon it, and it shall fall, and shall not be able to rise.

21 And this shall be: in that day, the Lord will visit upon the armies of the sky above, and upon the kings of the earth who are on the ground.

And God shall bring [his] hand upon the host of heaven, and upon the kings of the earth.

22 And they will be gathered together like the gathering of one bundle into a pit. And they will be enclosed in that place, as in a prison. And after many days, they will be visited.

And they shall gather the multitude thereof into prisons, and they shall shut them into a strong hold: after many generations they shall be visited.

23 And the moon will be ashamed, and the sun will be confounded, when the Lord of hosts will reign on mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and when he will have been glorified in the sight of his elders.

And the brick shall decay, and the wall shall fall; for the Lord shall reign from out of Sion, and out of Jerusalem, and shall be glorified before [his] elders.