---
title: "Clarke"
description: "The twenty-fourth and the three following chapters seem to have been delivered about the same time: before the destruction of Moab by Shalmaneser; see Isa"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/isaiah/24"
---

The twenty-fourth and the three following chapters seem to have been delivered about the same time: before the destruction of Moab by Shalmaneser; see [Isaiah 25:10](../../../kjv/isaiah/25/10), consequently, before the destruction of Samaria; probably in the beginning of Hezekiah's reign. But concerning the particular subject of the twenty-fourth chapter interpreters are not at all agreed: some refer it to the desolation caused by the invasion of Shalmaneser; others to the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar; and others to the destruction of the city and nation by the Romans. Vitringa is singular in his opinion, who applies it to the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes. Perhaps it may have a view to all of the three great desolations of the country, by Shalmaneser, by Nebuchadnezzar, and by the Romans; especially the last, to which some parts of it may seem more peculiarly applicable. However, the prophet chiefly employs general images; such as set forth the greatness and universality of the ruin and desolation that is to be brought upon the country by these great revolutions, involving all orders and degrees of men, changing entirely the face of things, and destroying the whole polity, both religious and civil; without entering into minute circumstances, or necessarily restraining it by particular marks to one great event, exclusive of others of the same kind.-L.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXIV

Verse [Isaiah 24:4](../../../kjv/isaiah/24/4). ***The world languisheth*** — The world is the same with the land; that is, the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, *orbis* *Israeliticus*. [Isaiah 13:11](../../../kjv/isaiah/13/11).

Verse [Isaiah 24:5](../../../kjv/isaiah/24/5). ***The laws***- "The law"] תורה *torah*, singular: so read the *Septuagint, Syriac*, and *Chaldee*.

Verse [Isaiah 24:6](../../../kjv/isaiah/24/6). ***Are burned***- "Are destroyed"] For חרו *charu*, read חרבו *charebu*. See the *Septuagint, Syriac, Chaldee*, and *Symmachus*.

Verse [Isaiah 24:8](../../../kjv/isaiah/24/8). ***The mirth***, &c.] שאון *sheon, the noise*. גאון geon, *the pride*, is the reading of *three* of *De Rossi's* MSS., with the *Septuagint* and *Arabic*.

Verse [Isaiah 24:9](../../../kjv/isaiah/24/9). ***Strong drink***- "Palm wine"] This is the proper meaning of the word *shechar*, σικερα. [Isaiah 5:11](../../../kjv/isaiah/5/11). All enjoyment shall cease: the sweetest wine shall become bitter to their taste.

Verse [Isaiah 24:11](../../../kjv/isaiah/24/11). ***All joy is darkened***- "All gladness is passed away"] For ערבה *arebah, darkened*, read עברה *aberah, passed away*, transposing a letter. *Houbigant, Secker*. *Five* of Dr. *Kennicott's* and *five* of *De Rossi's* MSS., several ancient, add כל *col, all*, after משוש *mesos*: the *Septuagint* adds the same word before it.

Verse [Isaiah 24:14](../../../kjv/isaiah/24/14). ***They shall lift up their voice*** - "But these shall lift up their voice"] That is, they that escaped out of these calamities. The great distresses brought upon Israel and Judah drove the people away, and dispersed them all over the neighbouring countries: they fled to Egypt, to Asia Minor, to the islands and the coasts of Greece. They were to be found in great numbers in most of the principal cities of these countries. Alexandria was in a great measure peopled by them. They had synagogues for their worship in many places, and were greatly instrumental in propagating the knowledge of the true God among these heathen nations, and preparing them for the reception of Christianity. This is what the prophet seems to mean by the celebration of the name of JEHOVAH in the waters, in the distant coasts, and in the uttermost parts of the land. מים *mayim*, the *waters*; υδωρ, *Sept*.; υδατα, *Theod*.; not מים *miyam* *from the sea*.

Verse [Isaiah 24:15](../../../kjv/isaiah/24/15). ***In the isles of the sea*** - "In the distant coasts of the sea."] For בארים *beurim, in the valleys*, I suppose we ought to read באיים *beiyim, in the isles*, which is in a great degree justified by the repetition of the word in the next member of the sentence, with the addition of הים *haiyam, the sea*, to vary the phrase, exactly in the manner of the prophet. איים *iyim* is a word chiefly applied to any distant countries, especially those lying on the Mediterranean Sea. Others conjecture ביארים *biorim*, בהרים beharim, באמים beummim, בעמים beammim, בחורים bechorim, באורים beurim, a באר *bar*, illustrate - *Le* *Clerc*. *Twenty-three* MSS. of *Kennicott's*, many of *De Rossi's*, and some of my own, read באורים *beorim, in the valleys*. The *Septuagint* do not acknowledge the reading of the text, expressing here only the word איים *iyim*, εν ταις νησοις, *in* *the islands*, and that not repeated. But MSS. Pachom. and I. D. II. supply in this place the defect in the other copies of the *Septuagint* thus,
Δια τουτο ἡ δοξα Κυριου εσται εν ταις νησοις της θαλασσης· εν ταις νησοις το ονομα του Κυριου Θεου Ισραηλ ενδοξον εσται·
"Therefore the glory of the Lord shall be in the isles of the sea: in the islands shall the name of the Lord God of Israel be glorified."
*Kimchi* says, that by באורים *beurim, in the* *valleys*, is meant *the cities*, because they were generally built *in* *valleys*. The *Vulgate* has *in doctrinis*, and so my old MS., *in* *techingis*. *Coverdale* translates, *Praise the name of the Lord God* *of Israel* in the *valleys and in the floodis*. It should not be rendered *in the fires*; none of the ancient Versions understood it thus. According to which the *Septuagint* had in their Hebrew copy באיים *beiyim*, repeated afterwards, not בארים *beurim*.

Verse [Isaiah 24:16](../../../kjv/isaiah/24/16). ***But I said*** — The prophet speaks in the person of the inhabitants of the land still remaining there, who should be pursued by Divine vengeance, and suffer repeated distresses from the inroads and depredations of their powerful enemies. Agreeably to what he said before in a general denunciation of these calamities: -
***The treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously*** - "The plunderers plunder"] [Isaiah 21:2](../../../kjv/isaiah/21/2).

Verse [Isaiah 24:17](../../../kjv/isaiah/24/17). ***Fear, and the pit*** - "The terror, the pit"] If they escape one calamity, another shall overtake them.
For מכול mikkol, a MS. reads מפני *mippeney*, as it is in [Jeremiah 48:44](../../../kjv/jeremiah/48/44), and so the *Vulgate* and *Chaldee*. But perhaps it is only, like the latter, a *Hebraism*, and means no more than the simple preposition מ *mem*. See [Psalms 102:6](../../../kjv/psalms/102/6). For it does not appear that the terror was intended to scare the wild beasts by its noise. The paronomasia is very remarkable; פחד *pachad*, פחת pachath, פך pach: and that it was a common proverbial form, appears from Jeremiah's repeating it in the same words, [Jeremiah 48:43-44](../../../kjv/jeremiah/48/43-44).

Verse [Isaiah 24:18](../../../kjv/isaiah/24/18). ***Out of the midst of the pit***- "From the pit"] For מתוך *mittoch, from the midst of*, a MS. reads מן *min, from*, as it is in [Jeremiah 48:44](../../../kjv/jeremiah/48/44); and so likewise the *Septuagint, Syriac*, and *Vulgate*.

Verse [Isaiah 24:19](../../../kjv/isaiah/24/19). ***The earth***- "The land"] הארץ *haarets, forte delendum* ה he, ut ex praecedente ortum. Vid. seqq. - *Secker*. "Probably the ה *he*, in הארץ *haarets*, should be blotted out, as having arisen from the preceding."

Verse [Isaiah 24:20](../../../kjv/isaiah/24/20). ***Like a cottage***- "Like a lodge for a night"] [Isaiah 1:8](../../../kjv/isaiah/1/8).

Verse [Isaiah 24:21](../../../kjv/isaiah/24/21). ***On high - upon the earth.*** — That is, the ecclesiastical and civil polity of the Jews, which shall be destroyed. The nation shall continue in a state of depression and dereliction for a long time. The image seems to be taken from the practice of the great monarchs of that time; who, when they had thrown their wretched captives into a dungeon, never gave themselves the trouble of inquiring about them; but let them lie a long time in that miserable condition, wholly destitute of relief, and disregarded. God shall at length revisit and restore his people in the last age: and then the kingdom of God shall be established in such perfection, as wholly to obscure and eclipse the glory of the temporary, typical, preparative kingdom now subsisting.

Verse [Isaiah 24:23](../../../kjv/isaiah/24/23). ***Before his ancients gloriously*** — *In the sigt of their* *olde men he schal ben glorified.* Old MS. BIBLE.
"The figurative language of the prophets is taken from the analogy between the *world natural* and an empire or kingdom considered as a *world politic*. Accordingly the whole world natural, consisting of *heaven* and *earth*, signifies the whole world politic, consisting of thrones and people; or so much of it as is considered in prophecy: and the things in that world signify the analogous things in this. For the heavens and the *things therein* signify *thrones* and *dignities*, and those who *enjoy them*; and the earth with the *things thereon*, the *inferior people*; and the *lowest* *parts* of the *earth*, called *hades* or *hell*, the *lowest* or most *miserable part of them*. Great *earthquakes*, and the *shaking of* *heaven* and *earth*, are put for the *shaking of kingdoms*, so as to *distract* and *overthrow* them; the *creating a new heaven* and *earth*, and the *passing away of an old one*, or the *beginning* *and end of a world*, for the *rise* and *ruin* of a *body politic* signified thereby. The *sun*, for the whole species and race of *kings*, in the kingdoms of the world politic; the *moon*, for the body of the common people, considered as the king's wife; the *stars*, for subordinate princes and great men; or for bishops and rulers of the people of God, when the sun is Christ: *setting* of the *sun, moon*, and *stars, darkening* the *sun*, turning the *moon* into *blood*, and *falling* of the *stars*, for the ceasing of a kingdom." Sir *I. Newton's* Observations on the Prophecies, Part I., chap. [Isaiah 2](../../../kjv/isaiah/2).
These observations are of great consequence and use, in explaining the phraseology of the prophets.

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