< Isaiah 24 >

1 Behold, YHWH is emptying the earth, And is making it desolate, And has overturned [it on] its face, And has scattered its inhabitants. 2 And it has been—as a people so a priest, As the servant so his master, As the maidservant so her mistress, As the buyer so the seller, As the lender so the borrower, As the usurer so he who is lifting [it] on himself. 3 The earth is utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled, For YHWH has spoken this word: 4 The earth has mourned, faded, The world has languished, faded, They have languished—the high place of the people of the earth. 5 And the earth has been defiled under its inhabitants, Because they have transgressed laws, They have changed a statute, They have made void a perpetual covenant. 6 Therefore a curse has consumed the earth, And the inhabitants in it become desolate, Therefore inhabitants of the earth have been consumed, And few men have been left. 7 The new wine has mourned, the vine languished, All the joyful of heart have sighed. 8 The joy of tambourines has ceased, The noise of exulting ones has ceased, The joy of a harp has ceased. 9 They do not drink wine with a song, Strong drink is bitter to those drinking it. 10 It was broken down—a city of emptiness, Every house has been shut from [its] entrance. 11 In out-places [is] a cry over the wine, All joy has been darkened, The joy of the land has been removed. 12 Desolation [is] left in the city, And the gate is struck [with] ruin. 13 When thus it is in the heart of the land, In the midst of the peoples, As the surrounding of the olive, As gleanings when harvest has been finished, 14 They lift up their voice, They sing of the excellence of YHWH, They have cried aloud from the sea. 15 Therefore honor YHWH in prosperity, In islands of the sea, the Name of YHWH, God of Israel. 16 From the skirt of the earth we heard songs, The desire of the righteous. And I say, “Leanness [is] to me, Leanness [is] to me, woe [is] to me.” Treacherous dealers dealt treacherously, Indeed, treachery, treacherous dealers dealt treacherously. 17 Fear, and a snare, and a trap, [Are] on you, O inhabitant of the earth. 18 And it has come to pass, He who is fleeing from the noise of the fear falls into the snare, And he who is coming up from the midst of the snare, Is captured by the trap, For windows have been opened on high, And foundations of the earth are shaken. 19 The earth has been utterly broken down, The earth has been utterly broken, The earth has been utterly moved. 20 The earth staggers greatly as a drunkard, And it has been moved as a lodge, And its transgression has been heavy on it, And it has fallen, and does not add to rise. 21 And it has come to pass in that day, YHWH lays a charge on the host of the high place in the high place, And on the kings of the earth on the earth. 22 And they have been gathered—A gathering of bound ones in a pit, And they have been shut up in a prison, And after a multitude of days are inspected. 23 And the moon has been confounded, And the sun has been ashamed, For YHWH of Hosts has reigned In Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, And before His elderly—glory!

< Isaiah 24 >