---
title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible -  Isaiah 24"
description: "CHAPTER 24   :-. THE LAST
TIMES OF THE WORLD
IN GENERAL, AND OF
JUDAH AND THE CHURCH
IN PARTICULAR. The four chapters (the
twenty-fourth through the twent"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/isaiah/24"
---

CHAPTER 24

. THE LAST
TIMES OF THE WORLD
IN GENERAL, AND OF
JUDAH AND THE CHURCH
IN PARTICULAR.
The four chapters (the
twenty-fourth through the twenty-seventh) form one continuous
poetical prophecy: descriptive of the dispersion and successive
calamities of the Jews (); the preaching of the Gospel by the first Hebrew
converts throughout the world (); the judgments on the adversaries of the Church and its
final triumph (); thanksgiving for the overthrow of the apostate faction
([Isaiah 25:1-12](../../../kjv/isaiah/25/1-12)), and
establishment of the righteous in lasting peace ([Isaiah 25:1-23](../../../kjv/isaiah/25/1-23)); judgment on leviathan and entire purgation of the
Church ([Isaiah 27:1-13](../../../kjv/isaiah/27/1-13)).
Having treated of the *several nations in particular*—Babylon,
Philistia, Moab, Syria, Israel, Egypt, Edom, and Tyre (the miniature
representative of all, as all kingdoms flocked into it)—he passes
to the last times of *the world at large* and of Judah the
representative and future head of the churches.

**1. the earth**—rather, "the
land" of Judah (so in [Isaiah 24:3](../../../kjv/isaiah/24/3);
[Isaiah 24:5](../../../kjv/isaiah/24/5); [Isaiah 24:6](../../../kjv/isaiah/24/6);
[Joel 1:2](../../../kjv/joel/1/2)). The desolation under
Nebuchadnezzar prefigured that under Titus.

**2. as with the people, so with the
priest**—All alike shall share the same calamity: no favored
class shall escape (compare [Ezekiel 7:12](../../../kjv/ezekiel/7/12);
[Ezekiel 7:13](../../../kjv/ezekiel/7/13); [Hosea 4:9](../../../kjv/hosea/4/9);
[Revelation 6:15](../../../kjv/revelation/6/15)).

**4. world**—the kingdom of
Israel; as in [Isaiah 13:11](../../../kjv/isaiah/13/11),
Babylon.
**haughty**—literally, "the
height" of the people: abstract for concrete, that is, the high
people; even the nobles share the general distress.

**5. earth**—rather, "the
land."
**defiled under . . .
inhabitants**—namely, with innocent blood ([Genesis 4:11](../../../kjv/genesis/4/11);
[Numbers 35:33](../../../kjv/numbers/35/33); [Psalms 106:38](../../../kjv/psalms/106/38)).
**laws . . . ordinance . . .
everlasting covenant**—The *moral* laws, *positive*
statutes, and *national* covenant designed to be for ever
between God and them.

**6. earth**—the land.
**burned**—namely, with the
consuming wrath of heaven: either internally, as in [ROSENMULLER];
or externally, the prophet has before his eyes the people being
consumed with the withering dryness of their doomed land (so [Joel 1:10](../../../kjv/joel/1/10);
[Joel 1:12](../../../kjv/joel/1/12)), [MAURER].

**7. mourneth**—because there are
none to drink it [BARNES].
Rather, "is become vapid" [HORSLEY].
**languisheth**—because
there are none to cultivate it now.

**8.** ().

**9. with a song**—the usual
accompaniment of feasts.
**strong drink**—(See on
[Isaiah 5:11](../../../kjv/isaiah/5/11)). "Date wine"
[HORSLEY].
**bitter**—in consequence
of the national calamities.

**10. city of confusion**—rather,
"desolation." What *Jerusalem* would be; by
anticipation it is called so. HORSLEY
translates, "The city is broken down; it is a ruin."
**shut up**—through fear;
or rather, "choked up by ruins."

**11. crying for wine**—to drown
their sorrows in drink ([Isaiah 16:9](../../../kjv/isaiah/16/9));
[Joel 1:5](../../../kjv/joel/1/5), written about the same
time, resembles this.

**12. with destruction**—rather
"crash" [GESENIUS].
"With a great tumult the gate is battered down" [HORSLEY].

**13. the land**—Judea. Put the
comma after "land," not after "people." "There
shall be among the people (a remnant left), as the shaking (the
after-picking) of an olive tree"; as in gathering olives, a few
remain on the highest boughs ([Isaiah 17:5](../../../kjv/isaiah/17/5);
[Isaiah 17:6](../../../kjv/isaiah/17/6)).

**14. They**—those who are left:
the remnant.
**sing for the majesty of the
Lord**—sing a thanksgiving for the goodness of the Lord, who has
so mercifully preserved them.
**from the sea**—from the
distant lands beyond the sea, whither they have escaped.

**15. in the fires**—VITRINGA
translates, "in the *caves.*" Could it mean *the
fires of affliction* ([1 Peter 1:7](../../../kjv/1-peter/1/7))?
They were exiles at the time. The fires only loose the carnal bonds
off the soul, without injuring a hair, as in the case of Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abed-nego. LOWTH
reads, in the *islands* ([1 Peter 1:7](../../../kjv/1-peter/1/7)). Rather translate for "fires," "in the
regions of morning light," that is, the east, in antithesis to
the "isles of the sea," that is, the west [MAURER].
Wheresoever ye be scattered, east or west, still glorify the Lord
([Malachi 1:11](../../../kjv/malachi/1/11)).

**16.** Songs to God come in
together to Palestine from distant lands, as a grand chorus.
**glory to the righteous**—the
burden of the songs ([Isaiah 26:2](../../../kjv/isaiah/26/2);
[Isaiah 26:7](../../../kjv/isaiah/26/7)). Amidst exile, the loss
of their temple, and all that is dear to man, their confidence in God
is unshaken. These songs recall the joy of other times and draw from
Jerusalem in her present calamities, the cry, "My leanness."
HORSLEY translates, "glory
to *the Just One*"; then My leanness expresses his sense of
man's corruption, which led the Jews, "the treacherous dealers"
([Jeremiah 5:11](../../../kjv/jeremiah/5/11)), to crucify the Just
One; and his deficiency of righteousness which made him need to be
clothed with the righteousness of the Just One ([Jeremiah 5:11](../../../kjv/jeremiah/5/11)).
**treacherous dealers**—the
foreign nations that oppress Jerusalem, and overcome it by stratagem
(so in [Isaiah 21:2](../../../kjv/isaiah/21/2)) [BARNES].

**17.** This verse explains the
wretchedness spoken of in . Jeremiah ([Jeremiah 48:43](../../../kjv/jeremiah/48/43);
[Jeremiah 48:44](../../../kjv/jeremiah/48/44)) uses the same words.
They are proverbial; [Isaiah 24:18](../../../kjv/isaiah/24/18)
expressing that the inhabitants were nowhere safe; if they escaped
one danger, they fell into another, and worse, on the opposite side
([Amos 5:19](../../../kjv/amos/5/19)). "Fear" is
the term applied to the cords with feathers of all colors which, when
fluttered in the air, scare beasts into the pitfall, or birds into
the snare. HORSLEY makes
the connection. Indignant at the treatment which the Just One
received, the prophet threatens the guilty land with instant
vengeance.

**18. noise of . . . fear**—the
shout designed to rouse the game and drive it into the pitfall.
**windows . . . open**—taken
from the account of the deluge (); *the flood-gates.* So the final judgments of fire on
the apostate world are compared to the deluge ().

**19. earth**—the land: image from
an earthquake.

**20. removed like a cottage**—(See
on [Isaiah 1:8](../../../kjv/isaiah/1/8)). Here, *a hanging
couch,* suspended from the trees by cords, such as NIEBUHR
describes the Arab keepers of lands as having, to enable them to keep
watch, and at the same time to be secure from wild beasts. Translate,
"Shall wave to and fro like a hammock" swung about by the
wind.
**heavy upon it**—like an
overwhelming burden.
**not rise again**—not
meaning, that it *never* would rise ([Isaiah 1:8](../../../kjv/isaiah/1/8)), but *in those convulsions* it would not rise, it
would surely fall.

**21. host of . . . high ones**—the
heavenly host, that is, either *the visible host of heaven* (the
present economy of nature, affected by the sun, moon, and stars, the
objects of idolatry, being abolished, [Isaiah 65:17](../../../kjv/isaiah/65/17);
[Isaiah 60:19](../../../kjv/isaiah/60/19), simultaneously with
the corrupt polity of men); or rather, "the *invisible*
rulers of the darkness of this world," as the antithesis to
"kings of the earth" shows. Angels, moreover, preside, as
it were, over kingdoms of the world ([Daniel 10:13](../../../kjv/daniel/10/13);
[Daniel 10:20](../../../kjv/daniel/10/20); [Daniel 10:21](../../../kjv/daniel/10/21)).

**22. in the pit**—rather, "for
the pit" [HORSLEY].
"In the *dungeon*" [MAURER].
Image from captives thrust together into a dungeon.
**prison**—that is, as in a
prison. This sheds light on the disputed passage, , where also the *prison* is figurative: The "shutting
up" of the Jews in Jerusalem under Nebuchadnezzar, and again
under Titus, was to be followed by a *visitation* of mercy
"after many days"—seventy years in the case of the
former—the time is not yet elapsed in the case of the latter.
HORSLEY takes "visited"
in a bad sense, namely, in wrath, as in ; compare [Isaiah 29:6](../../../kjv/isaiah/29/6);
the punishment being the heavier in the fact of the delay. Probably a
double visitation is intended, deliverance to the elect, wrath to
hardened unbelievers; as [Isaiah 24:23](../../../kjv/isaiah/24/23)
plainly contemplates judgments on proud sinners, symbolized by the
"sun" and "moon."

**23.** (). Still future: of which Jesus' triumphal entry into
Jerusalem amidst hosannas was a pledge.
**his ancients**—the elders
of His people; or in general, His ancient people, the Jews. After the
overthrow of the world kingdoms. Jehovah's shall be set up with a
splendor exceeding the light of the sun and moon under the previous
order of things ([Isaiah 60:19](../../../kjv/isaiah/60/19);
[Isaiah 60:20](../../../kjv/isaiah/60/20)).

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