Esias 24

1 Behold, the Lord is about to lay waste the world, and will make it desolate, and will lay bare the surface of it, and scatter them that dwell therein.

Some day, Yahweh is going to destroy everything on the earth. He will devastate it and cause it to become a desert and scatter its people.

2 And the people shall be as the priest, and the servant as the lord, and the maid as the mistress; the buyer shall be as the seller, the lender as the borrower, and the debtor as his creditor.

He will scatter everyone— priests and common people, servants and their masters, maids and their mistresses, buyers and sellers, lenders and borrowers, people who owe money and people who are owed money.

3 The earth shall be completely laid waste, and the earth shall be utterly spoiled: for the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.

Nothing that is worth anything will be left on earth; everything valuable will be destroyed. [That will surely happen because] Yahweh has said it.

4 The earth mourns, and the world is ruined, the lofty ones of the earth are mourning.

[Everything on] the earth will dry up and die [DOU]; its important people will become weak and unimportant.

5 And she has sinned by reason of her inhabitants; because they have transgressed the law, and changed the ordinances, [even] the everlasting covenant.

The earth has become unacceptable to Yahweh because the people who live on it have disobeyed his laws; they have rejected the agreement that he intended to last forever.

6 Therefore a curse shall consume the earth, because the inhabitants thereof have sinned: therefore the dwellers in the earth shall be poor, and few men shall be left.

Therefore, [Yahweh] will curse the earth; the people who live on it must be punished because of the sins that they have committed. They will be destroyed by fire, and [only a] few people will remain [alive].

7 The wine shall mourn, the vine shall mourn, all the merry-hearted shall sigh.

The grapevines will wither, and there will be no [grapes to make] wine. All [the people] who were previously happy will then groan and mourn.

8 The mirth of timbrels has ceased, the sound of the harp has ceased.

People will no longer play cheerful songs with tambourines, people will no longer play joyfully on their harps, and people will no longer shout noisily [during their celebrations].

9 They are ashamed, they have not drunk wine; strong drink has become bitter to them that drink [it].

People will no longer sing while they drink wine, and [all] their alcoholic drinks will taste bitter.

10 All the city has become desolate: one shall shut his house so that none shall enter.

[Towns and] cities will be desolate; every house will be locked to prevent thieves from entering.

11 There is a howling for the wine everywhere; all the mirth of the land has ceased, all the mirth of the land has departed.

[Mobs] will gather in the streets, wanting wine; no one on the earth will be happy [DOU] any more.

12 And cities shall be left desolate, and houses being left shall fall to ruin.

Cities will be ruined and [all] their gates will be battered/broken into pieces.

13 All this shall be in the land in the midst of the nations, as if one should strip an olive tree, so shall they strip them; but when the vintage is done,

It will be like that all over the earth: [there will only be a few people still alive], like what happens when [workers] beat all the olives off a tree [and there are only a few left], [or] when they harvest the grapes and there are only a few left [on the vines].

14 these shall cry aloud; and they that are left on the land shall rejoice together in the glory of the Lord: the water of the sea shall be troubled.

But [those who are left alive] will sing joyfully; people [in nations] to the west [of Israel] will declare that Yahweh is very great;

15 Therefore shall the glory of the Lord be in the isles of the sea; the name of the Lord shall be glorious.

people in nations to the east [of Israel will also] praise Yahweh [MTY]; in countries across the sea, people will praise Yahweh, the God whom we Israelis [worship].

16 O Lord God of Israel, from the ends of the earth we have heard wonderful things, [and there is] hope to the godly: but they shall say, Woe to the despisers, that despise the law.

We will hear [people] in the most distant places on the earth singing praise to [Yahweh], the [truly] righteous one. But [now], I am [SYN] very sad. Weep for me, [because] I have become thin and weak. Terrible things are happening! Treacherous [people still] betray/deceive others everywhere [DOU].

17 Fear, and a pit, and a snare, are upon you that dwell on the earth.

You people all over the earth, you will be terrified, and you will fall into deep pits and traps/snares.

18 And it shall come to pass, [that] he that flees from the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that comes up out of the pit shall be caught by the snare: for windows have been opened in heaven, and the foundations of the earth shall be shaken,

Those who [try to] flee because they are terrified will fall into [deep] pits, and those who climb out of the pits will be caught by traps/snares. The sky will split open and torrents [SIM] [of rain will fall]; the foundations of the earth will shake.

19 the earth shall be utterly confounded, and the earth shall be completely perplexed.

The earth will split apart and be shattered; it will shake violently.

20 It reels as a drunkard and one oppressed with wine, and the earth shall be shaken as a storehouse of fruits; for iniquity has prevailed upon it, and it shall fall, and shall not be able to rise.

[It will be as though] the earth will stagger like [SIM] a drunk; it will shake like [SIM] a hut [shakes in a windstorm]. It will collapse and not [be able to] rise again, [because] the guilt of the people who rebel [against Yahweh] is very great.

21 And God shall bring [his] hand upon the host of heaven, and upon the kings of the earth.

At that time, Yahweh will punish the [wicked] powerful beings in the skies and the wicked kings on the earth.

22 And they shall gather the multitude thereof into prisons, and they shall shut them into a strong hold: after many generations they shall be visited.

They will [all] be gathered together and thrown into a dungeon/pit. They will be shut/locked in that dungeon/pit, and later they will be punished.

23 And the brick shall decay, and the wall shall fall; for the Lord shall reign from out of Sion, and out of Jerusalem, and shall be glorified before [his] elders.

At that time the light of the moon and the sun will be lessened; [it will be as though] they are ashamed [in the presence of] Yahweh, because he, the Commander of the armies of angels, will rule gloriously (on Zion Hill/in Jerusalem), in the presence of the leaders [of his people].