Isaiah 24

¹Isaiah 24:1. Behold, the LORD lays waste the earth and leaves it in ruins. He will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants—²Isaiah 24:2. people and priest alike, servant and master, maid and mistress, buyer and seller, lender and borrower, creditor and debtor.³Isaiah 24:3. The earth will be utterly laid waste and thoroughly plundered. For the LORD has spoken this word.⁴Isaiah 24:4. The earth mourns and withers; the world languishes and fades; the exalted of the earth waste away.⁵Isaiah 24:5. The earth is defiled by its people; they have transgressed the laws; they have overstepped the decrees and broken the everlasting covenant.⁶Isaiah 24:6. 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.⁷Isaiah 24:7. The new wine dries up, the vine withers. All the merrymakers now groan.⁸Isaiah 24:8. The joyful tambourines have ceased; the noise of revelers has stopped; the joyful harp is silent.⁹Isaiah 24:9. They no longer sing and drink wine; strong drink is bitter to those who consume it.¹⁰Isaiah 24:10. The city of chaos is shattered; every house is closed to entry.¹¹Isaiah 24:11. In the streets they cry out for wine. All joy turns to gloom; rejoicing is exiled from the land.¹²Isaiah 24:12. The city is left in ruins; its gate is reduced to rubble.¹³Isaiah 24:13. So will it be on the earth and among the nations, like a harvested olive tree, like a gleaning after a grape harvest.¹⁴Isaiah 24:14. They raise their voices, they shout for joy; from the west they proclaim the majesty of the LORD.¹⁵Isaiah 24:15. Therefore glorify the LORD in the east. Extol the name of the LORD, the God of Israel in the islands of the sea.¹⁶Isaiah 24:16. 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.¹⁷Isaiah 24:17. Terror and pit and snare await you, O dweller of the earth.¹⁸Isaiah 24:18. 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.¹⁹Isaiah 24:19. The earth is utterly broken apart, the earth is split open, the earth is shaken violently.²⁰Isaiah 24:20. The earth staggers like a drunkard and sways like a shack. Earth’s rebellion weighs it down, and it falls, never to rise again.²¹Isaiah 24:21. In that day the LORD will punish the host of heaven above and the kings of the earth below.²²Isaiah 24:22. They will be gathered together like prisoners in a pit. They will be confined to a dungeon and punished after many days.²³Isaiah 24:23. 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.