Isaiah 24

1 Behold, the Lord maketh the earth emptie, and hee maketh it waste: hee turneth it vpside downe, and scattereth abrode the inhabitants thereof.

2 And there shalbe like people, like Priest, and like seruaunt, like master, like maide, like mistresse, like bier, like seller, like lender, like borower, like giuer, like taker to vsurie.

3 The earth shalbe cleane emptied, and vtterly spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this worde.

4 The earth lamenteth and fadeth away: the world is feeble and decaied: the proude people of the earth are weakened.

5 The earth also deceiueth, because of the inhabitantes thereof: for they transgressed the lawes: they changed the ordinances, and brake the euerlasting couenant.

6 Therefore hath the curse deuoured the earth, and the inhabitantes thereof are desolate. Wherefore the inhabitants of the land are burned vp, and fewe men are left.

7 The wine faileth, the vine hath no might: all that were of merie heart, doe mourne.

8 The mirth of tabrets ceaseth: the noyse of them that reioyce, endeth: the ioye of the harpe ceaseth.

9 They shall not drinke wine with mirth: strong drinke shall be bitter to them that drinke it.

10 The citie of vanitie is broken downe: euery house is shut vp, that no man may come in.

11 There is a crying for wine in the streetes: al ioy is darkened: the mirth of the world is gone away.

12 In the citie is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction.

13 Surely thus shall it bee in the middes of the earth, among the people, as the shaking of an oliue tree, and as the grapes when the vintage is ended.

14 They shall lift vp their voyce: they shall shout for the magnificence of the Lord: they shall reioyce from the sea.

15 Wherefore praise yee the Lord in the valleis, euen the Name of the Lord God of Israel, in the yles of the sea.

16 From the vttermost part of the earth wee haue heard praises, euen glory to the iust, and I sayd, My leanesse, my leanesse, woe is mee: the transgressours haue offended: yea, the transgressours haue grieuously offended.

17 Feare, and the pitte, and the snare are vpon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.

18 And hee that fleeth from the noyse of the feare, shall fall into the pit: and he that commeth vp out of the pit, shall be taken in the snare: for the windowes from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth doe shake.

19 The earth is vtterly broken downe: the earth is cleane dissolued: the earth is mooued exceedingly.

20 The earth shall reele to and from like a drunken man, and shall be remooued like a tent, and the iniquitie thereof shall be heauie vpon it: so that it shall fall, and rise no more.

21 And in that day shall the Lord visite the hoste aboue that is on hie, euen the Kinges of the world that are vpon the earth.

22 And they shall be gathered together, as the prisoners in the pit: and they shall be shut vp in the prison, and after many daies shall they be visited.

23 Then the moone shall be abashed, and the sunne ashamed, when the Lord of hostes shall reigne in mount Zion and in Ierusalem: and glory shalbe before his ancient men.