Isaiah 24

XXIV

¹Behold, Jehovah is about to make the land empty, and to make it waste;

Yea, he will turn it upside down, and scatter abroad the inhabitants thereof.

²And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest;

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 debtor, so with the creditor.

³The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled;

For Jehovah hath spoken this word.

⁴The land mourneth, it withereth;

The world languisheth, it withereth;

The high people of the land do languish.

⁵The land is even polluted under the inhabitants thereof;

For they have transgressed the laws, they have changed the decree;

They have broken the everlasting covenant.

⁶Therefore doth a curse devour the land,

And the inhabitants thereof suffer punishment.

Therefore the inhabitants of the land are burnt up;

And men are left few in number.

⁷The new wine mourneth; the vine languisheth;

And the merry-hearted do sigh.

⁸The mirth of tabrets ceaseth,

The noise of them that rejoice endeth,

The joy of the harp ceaseth.

⁹They shall not drink wine in the song;

Strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it.

¹⁰A desolate city is broken to pieces;

Every house is shut up, so that none can enter.

¹¹There is a crying for wine in the streets,

All gladness hath vanished away;

The mirth of the land is gone.

¹²In the city is left devastation;

And the gate is battered down with a crash.

¹³For thus it shall be in the midst of the land, among the people,

As the shaking of an olive tree; as the gleaning when the harvest is finished.

¹⁴They shall lift up their voice, they shall shout for joy:

For the majesty of Jehovah they shall rejoice from the sea.

¹⁵Wherefore glorify ye Jehovah in the eastern regions,

Even the name of Jehovah , the God of Israel, in the isles of the sea.

¹⁶From the extremity of the earth have we heard songs: Glory to the righteous!

But I said: My leanness, my leanness, wo unto me! The plunders plunder; yea, the plunder the plunders plunder.

¹⁷The terror, and the pit, and the snare,

Are upon thee, O inhabitant of the land!

¹⁸And it shall be, that whoso fleeth from the sound of the terror shall fall into the pit;

And whoso cometh up out of the midst of the pit, shall be taken in the snare;

For the floodgates from on high are opened;

And the foundations of the earth tremble.

¹⁹The earth is utterly broken down,

The earth is shattered to pieces;

The earth is moved exceedingly.

²⁰The earth verily reeleth like a drunkard,

And moveth to and fro like a hammock;

For her iniquity lieth heavy upon her;

And she shall fall, and rise no more.

²¹And it shall come to pass in that day,

That Jehovah shall punish on high the host that is on high;

And on earth the kings of the earth.

²²And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered for the pit;

And shall be shut up in the prison:

And after many days shall they be visited.

²³And the moon shall be confounded, and the sun shall be ashamed;

When Jehovah of hosts shall reign

On mount Zion, and in Jerusalem;

And before his ancients in glory.