Fluent Translation · Read & Reflect
Isaiah 24
The Earth Laid Waste
Look! The LORD is emptying the earth, laying it waste,
twisting its surface and scattering its people.
It will be the same for people and priest,
slave and master, slave woman and mistress,
buyer and seller, lender and borrower,
creditor and debtor.
The earth will be utterly emptied,
utterly plundered,
for the LORD has spoken this word.
The earth mourns and withers;
the world droops and withers;
the earth’s highest people droop.
The earth is defiled beneath its inhabitants,
for they have crossed the boundaries of instruction,
violated the statute, broken the everlasting covenant.
So a curse devours the earth,
and its inhabitants bear their guilt.
So earth’s inhabitants are scorched,
and few people remain.
New wine mourns, the vine droops;
all the lighthearted sigh.
The tambourines’ joy has stopped,
the revelers’ noise has ceased,
the lyre’s joy has stopped.
They no longer drink wine with a song;
strong drink tastes bitter to those who drink it.
The city of emptiness is shattered;
every house is shut against entry.
In the streets people cry out for wine.
All gladness has darkened;
earth’s joy has gone into exile.
Only desolation remains in the city;
its gate is battered into ruins.
So it will be within the earth, among the peoples:
as when an olive tree is beaten,
as with gleanings when the grape harvest ends.
They lift their voices and sing for joy;
from the west they shout at the LORD’s majesty.
So honor the LORD in the east,
the name of the LORD, Israel’s God,
in the islands of the sea.
From earth’s edge we hear songs: “Splendor to the righteous!”
But I say, “I waste away! I waste away! Woe to me!
The treacherous betray;
the treacherous betray with treachery!”
Terror, pit, and trap await you,
inhabitant of the earth.
Whoever flees the sound of terror will fall into the pit;
whoever climbs from the pit will be caught in the trap.
The windows on high have opened,
and earth’s foundations shake.
The earth breaks apart,
the earth splits open,
the earth shakes violently.
The earth reels like a drunkard,
sways like a shelter.
Its rebellion weighs heavily upon it;
it falls and will not rise again.
On that day the LORD will call to account
the host on high, on high,
and earth’s kings, on earth.
They will be gathered like prisoners into a pit,
shut away in a prison,
and after many days they will be visited.
The moon will be abashed and the sun ashamed,
for the LORD of hosts will reign
on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
and glory will be before his elders.