Yesaya 24:1-5

The Lord Will Judge the Earth

24:1 Look, the Lord is ready to devastate the earth

and leave it in ruins;

he will mar its surface

and scatter its inhabitants.

24:2 Everyone will suffer – the priest as well as the people, ¹ 

the master as well as the servant, ² 

the elegant lady as well as the female attendant, ³ 

the seller as well as the buyer, ⁴ 

the borrower as well as the lender, ⁵ 

the creditor as well as the debtor. ⁶ 

24:3 The earth will be completely devastated

and thoroughly ransacked.

For the Lord has decreed this judgment. ⁷ 

24:4 The earth ⁸  dries up ⁹  and withers,

the world shrivels up and withers;

the prominent people of the earth ¹⁰  fade away.

24:5 The earth is defiled by ¹¹  its inhabitants, ¹² 

for they have violated laws,

disregarded the regulation, ¹³ 

and broken the permanent treaty. ¹⁴ 

[24:2]  ¹ tn Heb “and it will be like the people, like the priest.”

[24:2]  ² tn Heb “like the servant, like his master.”

[24:2]  ³ tn Heb “like the female servant, like her mistress.”

[24:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “like the buyer, like the seller.”

[24:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “like the lender, like the borrower.”

[24:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “like the creditor, just as the one to whom he lends.”

[24:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “for the Lord has spoken this word.”

[24:4]  ⁸ tn Some prefer to read “land” here, but the word pair אֶרֶץ/תֵּבֵל (erets/tevel [see the corresponding term in the parallel line]) elsewhere clearly designates the earth/world (see 1 Sam 2:8; 1 Chr 16:30; Job 37;12; Pss 19:4; 24:1; 33:8; 89:11; 90:2; 96:13; 98:9; Prov 8:26, 31; Isa 14:16-17; 34:1; Jer 10:12; 51:15; Lam 4:12). According to L. Stadelmann, תבל designates “the habitable part of the world” (The Hebrew Conception of the World [AnBib], 130).

[24:4]  ⁹ tn Or “mourns” (BDB 5 s.v. אָבַל). HALOT 6-7 lists the homonyms I אבל (“mourn”) and II אבל (“dry up”). They propose the second here on the basis of parallelism.

[24:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the height of the people of the earth.” The translation assumes an emendation of the singular form מְרוֹם (mÿrom, “height of”) to the plural construct מְרֹמֵי (mÿrome, “high ones of”; note the plural verb at the beginning of the line), and understands the latter as referring to the prominent people of human society.

[24:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “beneath”; cf. KJV, ASV, NRSV “under”; NAB “because of.”

[24:5]  ¹² sn Isa 26:21 suggests that the earth’s inhabitants defiled the earth by shedding the blood of their fellow human beings. See also Num 35:33-34, which assumes that bloodshed defiles a land.

[24:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “moved past [the?] regulation.”

[24:5]  ¹⁴ tn Or “everlasting covenant” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “the ancient covenant”; CEV “their agreement that was to last forever.”

[24:5]  sn For a lengthy discussion of the identity of this covenant/treaty, see R. Chisholm, “The ‘Everlasting Covenant’ and the ‘City of Chaos’: Intentional Ambiguity and Irony in Isaiah 24,” CTR 6 (1993): 237-53. In this context, where judgment comes upon both the pagan nations and God’s covenant community, the phrase “permanent treaty” is intentionally ambiguous. For the nations this treaty is the Noahic mandate of Gen 9:1-7 with its specific stipulations and central regulation (Gen 9:7). By shedding blood, the warlike nations violated this treaty, which promotes population growth and prohibits murder. For Israel, which was also guilty of bloodshed (see Isa 1:15, 21; 4:4), this “permanent treaty” would refer more specifically to the Mosaic Law and its regulations prohibiting murder (Exod 20:13; Num 35:6-34), which are an extension of the Noahic mandate.