Isaiah 24

Berean Standard Bible

Chapter summary

The LORD lays waste and plunders the earth, scattering all its inhabitants regardless of their social status. The earth mourns, withers, and is consumed by a curse because its people have broken laws and the everlasting covenant. Celebrations cease, music stops, wine dries up, and cities are left in ruined, shattered states with closed houses. Amid global devastation, terror, and shaking foundations, survivors in various regions raise their voices to sing and glorify the LORD. Finally, the LORD punishes the heavenly host and earthly kings by confining them in a dungeon, while the moon and sun are confounded as the LORD reigns in glory on Mount Zion and Jerusalem.

Summary automatically generated from the Bible text.

Words of Jesus in red

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