Isaiah 24

1 Lo! Yahweh emptying the earth and laying it waste, —And he will overturn the face thereof, And scatter them who 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 it shall be—As the people, so, the priest, As the servant, so his lord, As the maid, so, her mistress, —As the buyer, so, the seller, As the lender, so, the borrower, As the debtor, so! 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 Emptied—emptied—shall be the earth yea pillaged—pillaged, —For, Yahweh, hath spoken this word.

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 Mourneth, fadeth, the earth Languisheth, fadeth, the world, —Languished have the lofty of the people of the earth.

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

5 Yea the earth itself is profaned under them who dwell therein, —For they have Set aside laws, Gone beyond statute, Broken an age-abiding 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 For this cause, a curse, hath devoured the earth, And punished are the dwellers therein, —For this cause, are burned the inhabitants of the earth, And the men left remaining—are few.

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 Mourneth the new wine. Withereth the vine, —Sighing are all the merryhearted:

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 Ceased hath the mirth of timbrels, Ended is the noise of the uproarious, —Ceased hath the mirth of the lyre:

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 With a song, they drink not wine, —Bitter is strong drink, to them who drink it:

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

10 Broken down is the city of desolation, —Shut up every house that it cannot be entered.

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

11 There is an outcry concerning wine in the streets, —Darkened is all joy, Departed the gladness of the earth.

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

12 There is left in the city. desolation, —And to ruins, have been broken the gate.

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

13 When, thus, it shall be in the earth in the midst of the peoples, [There shall be] like the shaking of an olive-tree, like the going round to pick when closed is the harvest.

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 They, shall lift up their voice—shall raise a tremulous note, —On account of the splendour of Yahweh, have they made a shrill cry, on the West;

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 For this cause, In the Regions of Light, give ye glory to Yahweh, —In the Coastlands of the Sea, unto the Name of Yahweh. God of Israel,

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 From the uttermost part of the earth, melodies, have we heard—Beauty, to the righteous one! But I had said—Ruin to me! Ruin to me! Woe to me! Traitors, have betrayed, Yea traitorously, have traitors betrayed!

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 Terror and pit and snare, —are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth!

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

18 So shall it be—He that fleeth from the sound of the terror! shall fall into the pit, And, he that getteth up out of the midst of the pit, shall be captured in the snare, —For, the windows on high, have opened, And shaken are the foundations of earth.

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 breaketh, breaketh, —The earth crasheth, crasheth, The earth tottereth, tottereth;

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

20 The earth staggereth—staggereth like a drunken man, And rocketh to and fro like a night-hut, —So shall be heavy upon her, her transgression, And she shall fall and not again 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 it shall be in that day, That Yahweh will bring punishment Upon the host of the height in the height, —And upon the kings of the ground on the ground.

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

22 And they shall be swept together in a crowd, fettered for a pit, And shall be lowered into a dungeon, —And, after many days, shall they be punished.

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 Then shall blush the silvery moon, Then turn pale the glowing sun, —Because Yahweh of hosts hath become king In Mount Zion And in Jerusalem, And before his Elders in glory,

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].