Isaiah 24:1

The Judgment on the Earth

1 Look! Yahweh [is] about to lay the earth waste and [is] about to devastate it, and he will twist her surface, and he will scatter her inhabitants.

Isaiah 24:1 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 24:1

Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty
Some, by the "earth", only understand the land of Israel or Judea, and interpret the prophecy of the captivity of the ten tribes by Shalmaneser, as Kimchi, and other Jewish writers; and others, of the destruction of the Jews by Nebuchadnezzar; but some take in along with them the neighbouring nations who suffered by the same princes at the same time. Vitringa interprets the whole of the times of the Maccabees, as also the three following chapters ( Isaiah 25:1-27:13 ) ; though it is best to understand it of the Papal world, and all the antichristian states; and there are some things in it, at the close of it, which respect the destruction of the whole world. The Septuagint version uses the word by which Luke intends the whole Roman empire, ( Luke 2:1 ) and the Arabic version here renders it, "the whole world": the "emptying" of it is the removal of the inhabitants of it by wars and slaughters, which will be made when the seven vials of God's wrath will be poured upon all the antichristian states; see ( Revelation 16:1-21 ) and this being a most remarkable and wonderful event, is prefaced with the word "behold": and maketh it waste;
or desolate; the inhabitants and fruits of it being destroyed. R. Joseph Kimchi, from the use of the word in the Arabic language, renders it, "and opened it" ^F14; and explains it of the opening of the gates of a city to the enemy, so as that men may go out of it; to which the Targum inclines paraphrasing it,

``and shall deliver it to the enemy:''

and turneth it upside down;
or, "perverteth the face of it" ^F15; so that it has not the form it had, and does not look like what it was, but is reduced to its original chaos, to be without form and void; cities being demolished, towns ruined, fields laid waste, and the inhabitants slain; particularly what a change of the face of things will there be in the destruction of the city of Rome! see ( Revelation 18:7 Revelation 18:8 Revelation 18:14-17 ) . The Targum is,

``and shall cover with confusion the face of its princes, because they have transgressed the law:''

and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof;
who will be obliged to fly from place to place from the sword of their victorious enemies. All is spoken in the present tense, though future, because of the certainty of it.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F14 So <arabic> "aperuit totam portam", Golius, col. 321.
F15 (hynp hwew) "et pervertet faciem ejus", Piscator.

Isaiah 24:1 In-Context

1 Look! Yahweh [is] about to lay the earth waste and [is] about to devastate it, and he will twist her surface, and he will scatter her inhabitants.

2 And it shall be as [with] the people, so [with] the priest; as [with] the slave, so [with] his master; as [with] the female slave, so [with] her mistress; as [with] the buyer, so [with] the seller; as [with] the lender, so [with] the borrower; as [with] the creditor, so [with] [the one] to whom he lends.

3 The earth shall be utterly laid waste, and it shall be utterly plundered, for Yahweh has spoken this word.

4 The earth dries up, it withers; [the] world languishes, it withers. The elevated of the people of the earth languish,

5 and the earth is defiled beneath its inhabitants. For they have transgressed laws; they have passed by statutes; they have broken [the] everlasting covenant.