Isaiah24chapter 24

Chapter summary

Judgment now widens from single nations to the whole earth: Jehovah empties it, wastes it, turns it upside down, and scatters its inhabitants, leveling every social pair — priest with people, master with servant, buyer with seller, creditor with debtor. The cause is stated: the earth is polluted because its dwellers "have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant," so the curse devours and few men are left. Wine, tabret, and harp fall silent; the waste city is shut up; survivors are as gleanings after an olive-tree is shaken, though some lift songs of "Glory to the righteous" from the sea and the isles. Fear, pit, and snare chase the fleeing; the windows on high open and the earth staggers like a drunkard, falling not to rise. In that day Jehovah punishes "the host of the high ones on high" and the kings of the earth, imprisoning them in the pit to be visited after many days, while sun and moon are shamed because Jehovah of hosts reigns in mount Zion and Jerusalem.

Drafted from Matthew Henry, Calvin, Gill, Clarke, JFB, and Barnes.