Isaiah 24:1–16

¹Behold, the LORD lays waste the earth

and leaves it in ruins.

He will twist its surface

and scatter its inhabitants—

²people and priest alike, servant and master,

maid and mistress, buyer and seller,

lender and borrower, creditor and debtor.

³The earth will be utterly laid waste

and thoroughly plundered.

For the LORD has spoken this word.

⁴The earth mourns and withers;

the world languishes and fades;

the exalted of the earth waste away.

⁵The earth is defiled by its people;

they have transgressed the laws;

they have overstepped the decrees

and broken the everlasting covenant.

⁶Therefore a curse has consumed the earth,

and its inhabitants must bear the guilt;

the earth’s dwellers have been burned,

and only a few survive.

⁷The new wine dries up, the vine withers.

All the merrymakers now groan.

⁸The joyful tambourines have ceased;

the noise of revelers has stopped;

the joyful harp is silent.

⁹They no longer sing and drink wine;

strong drink is bitter to those who consume it.

¹⁰The city of chaos is shattered;

every house is closed to entry.

¹¹In the streets they cry out for wine.

All joy turns to gloom;

rejoicing is exiled from the land.

¹²The city is left in ruins;

its gate is reduced to rubble.

¹³So will it be on the earth

and among the nations,

like a harvested olive tree,

like a gleaning after a grape harvest.

¹⁴They raise their voices, they shout for joy;

from the west^a they proclaim the majesty of the LORD.

¹⁵Therefore glorify the LORD in the east.

Extol the name of the LORD, the God of Israel

in the islands^b of the sea.

¹⁶From the ends of the earth we hear singing:

“Glory to the Righteous One.”

But I said, “I am wasting away! I am wasting away!

Woe is me.”

The treacherous betray;

the treacherous deal in treachery.