Isaiah 24
1BEHOLD the Lord is about to destroy this inhabited land! He will lay it waste and uncover the face thereof and scatter abroad them who dwell therein.
2And it shall be as with the people so with the priest; as with the servant, so with the master; as with the maid, so with the 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.
3With destruction the land will be destroyed, and with spoiling this land will be ransacked: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken this.
4The land mourned and this empire is destroyed—the lofty people of the land mourned.
5As for the land, it transgressed by means of its inhabitants. Because they transgressed the law, and changed the institutions—the everlasting covenant,
6therefore a curse devoureth the land. Because they who dwell therein have sinned, therefore the inhabitants of the land shall be distressed, and few are the men who shall be left.
7The wine will mourn, the vineyard will mourn, and all that were merry-hearted will sigh.
8The mirth of the tabrets hath ceased, the sound of the kithara is no more.
9They are confounded: they have drunk no wine. The palm wine was bitter to them who drank it.
10Every city is desolated—the houses will be shut up that none may enter.
11Raise the mournful cry every where for the wine. A stop is put to all the joy of the land—all the joy of the land is gone.
12The cities will be left desolate, and the houses being forsaken will be destroyed.
13All this shall come to pass in this land, in the midst of the nations. As when one shall shake an olive tree, so shall they be shaken: and when the vintage is over
14a shout will be raised. But they who are left in the land shall be gladdened with the glory of the Lord.
15The water of the sea will be troubled: for this cause the glory of the Lord will be in the isles of the sea. In the isles of the sea the name of the Lord will be glorious.
16O Lord the God of Israel! from the outskirts of the earth we have heard of Thy wonders: there is hope for the righteous. Let them say also, Woe to the rebels who reject the law!
17Terror and a pit and a snare are for you who dwell in the land: and it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the terror, shall fall into the pit;
18and he who getteth out of the pit, shall be caught by the snare. Because the floodgates of heaven are opened, therefore the foundations of the land shall be shaken.
19With confusion the land will be confounded; with perplexity this land will be perplexed.
20It reeled to and fro like a drunkard when intoxicated: like a lodge in a vineyard the land shall be shaken. For iniquity hath prevailed over it; and it shall fall and shall not be able to rise.
21When God shall bring His hand on the hosts of heaven, even upon the kings of this land;
22and the congregation thereof shall have been assembled for imprisonment, and shut up as chaff for many generations; of them there shall be a visitation.
23When the bricks shall have mouldered away, and the wall shall have fallen; because the Lord will commence His reign from Sion and from Jerusalem, and be glorified in the presence of the elders.