Isaiah 24:4
2 people and priest alike, servant and master, maid and mistress, buyer and seller, lender and borrower, creditor and debtor.
3 The earth will be utterly laid waste and thoroughly plundered. For the LORD has spoken this word.
The earth mourns and withers; the world languishes and fades; the exalted of the earth waste away.
5 The earth is defiled by its people; they have transgressed the laws; they have overstepped the decrees and broken the everlasting covenant.
6 Therefore 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.
This was said to Israel at a particular time, so it is wise to read it together with the surrounding text. Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.
Compare
- BSB
- The earth mourns and withers; the world languishes and fades; the exalted of the earth waste away.
- KJV
- The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.
- WEB
- The earth mourns and fades away. The world languishes and fades away. The lofty people of the earth languish.
- ASV
- The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the lofty people of the earth do languish.
- DARBY
- The land mourneth, it fadeth away; the world languisheth, it fadeth away: the haughty people of the land do languish.
- BLB
- The earth has mourned [and] has faded away; the world has languished [and] has faded away; the haughty have languished people of the earth.
- ÅB
- Jorden sørger og visner bort; jorderike sykner og visner bort; de ypperste av dem som bor på jorden, sykner bort.
- OTB
- Jorden tørker opp og visner, verden vansmekter og smuldrer, de opphøyde på jorden minker.
- B1930
- Jorden sørger og visner bort; jorderike sykner og visner bort; de ypperste av dem som bor på jorden, sykner bort.
Study notes (Tyndale)
Original text and word study
Cross references
Hosea 4:3
Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it will waste away with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air; even the fish of the sea disappear.
Read in contextIsaiah 2:11–12
The proud look of man will be humbled, and the loftiness of men brought low; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.
Read in contextIsaiah 33:9
The land mourns and languishes; Lebanon is ashamed and decayed. Sharon is like a desert; Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.
Read in contextIsaiah 3:26
And the gates of Zion will lament and mourn; destitute, she will sit on the ground.
Read in contextIsaiah 28:1
Woe to the majestic crown of Ephraim’s drunkards, to the fading flower of his glorious splendor, set on the summit above the fertile valley, the pride of those overcome by wine.
Read in contextJeremiah 12:4
How long will the land mourn and the grass of every field be withered? Because of the evil of its residents, the animals and birds have been swept away, for the people have said, “He cannot see what our end will be.”
Read in contextIsaiah 64:6
Each of us has become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.
Read in contextJeremiah 4:28
Therefore the earth will mourn and the heavens above will grow dark. I have spoken, I have planned, and I will not relent or turn back.”
Read in context