Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Isaiah 24:16-23
The Word of Judgment Continues But Yahweh Will Triumph With His People (Isaiah 24:16).
Analysis.
a ‘From the uttermost part of the earth we have heard songs, “Glory to the Righteous One” (Isaiah 24:16 a).
b But I said, “Leanness to me, (i.e. ‘I waste away'), leanness to me, woe is me for betrayers betray, yes, with betrayal the betrayers betray”. Fear and the pit and the snare are on you, O inhabitant of the earth (Isaiah 24:16).
c And it will come about that he who flees from the noise of the fear, will fall into the pit, and he who comes up from the body of the pit, will be taken in the snare, for the windows on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth shake' (Isaiah 24:18).
c The earth is utterly broken, the earth is utterly shattered, the earth is moved exceedingly, the earth will stagger like a drunken man, and will be moved to and fro like a hut, and its rebellion will be heavy on it, and it will fall and not rise again (Isaiah 24:19).
b And it will come about in that day, that Yahweh will punish the host of the height in the height, and the kings of the earth on the earth. And they will be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and will be shut up in the prison, and after many days they will be visited (Isaiah 24:21).
a Then the moon will be confounded, and the sun ashamed, for Yahweh of hosts will reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before His elders, glory (Isaiah 24:23).
In ‘a' we hear songs of ‘glory to the Righteous One' and in the parallel He reigns in Mount Zion among His people in such glory that moon and sun are ashamed by their own dimness. In ‘b' there is in contrast leanness and betrayal, and fear and the pit snare the inhabitant of the earth, and in the parallel Yahweh punishes all sin in earth and heaven and they are shut up in a pit and eventually visited for judgment. In ‘c' we have a picture of worldwide devastation based on descriptions from the Flood narrative, and in the parallel the earth broken, shattered and staggering, with its rebellion heavy on it so that it will not rise again.
‘From the uttermost part of the earth we have heard songs, “Glory to the righteous one.” '
In contrast with the death of song for the world (Isaiah 24:7), the holy remnant from the whole earth will sing loudly, and their song will be ‘Glory to the Righteous One'. Out of hopelessness has sprung hope, out of joylessness, joy, out of judgment, deliverance. For ‘the Righteous One' has delivered His chosen. Note their emphasis on His righteousness (compare Psalms 112:4; Exodus 9:27). They exult in what He is and this emphasises the moral goodness that is theirs through Him. They rejoice in Him because they love His righteous covenant.
Others see ‘the righteous one' as representing Israel as God's representative among the nations, as the redeemed of the nations give thanks for what God has done through them, but that does not tie in with Isaiah's continual view of the uniqueness and separateness of God over against the world.
So we have here the assurance that out of the sorrows and sufferings and misery of ‘the last days' will come joy for the people of God, made up of people from every nation, as they rejoice in the Righteous One (compare Isaiah 41:2; Isaiah 53:11).
‘But I said, “Leanness to me, (i.e. ‘I waste away'),
Leanness to me, woe is me.
For betrayers betray.
Yes, with betrayal the betrayers betray.” '
But the picture of the world's sufferings and betrayal of each other is almost too much for Isaiah. Even while he calls on God's people to glorify Him, he is conscious of those who suffer and those who betray each other, and it causes him to feel ill. Even while the cry goes up ‘glory to the Righteous One', Isaiah cries, ‘leanness to me, leanness to me' (‘I am wasting away, I am wasting away'). He who felt for his own sin and cried ‘woe is me' (Isaiah 6:5), now cries in the same way because of his awareness of the sinfulness and destiny of others even in the moment of glory. He is distressed. The burdens that the prophets bore were not easy to bear. Nor should we forget in our rejoicing the world's need.
There is no word that brings coldness to the heart like that of betrayal, and here Isaiah multiplies the idea. The leanness in Isaiah's soul expresses itself because he sees himself to be in a world of betrayal. Men betray each other, and they betray God. It is so treacherous that it is even seen as treacherously betraying itself. But it cannot escape the pit and snare of the Hunter.
‘Fear and the pit and the snare are on you,
O inhabitant of the earth.
And it will come about that he who flees from the noise of the fear,
Will fall into the pit,
And he who comes up from the body of the pit,
Will be taken in the snare,
For the windows on high are opened,
And the foundations of the earth shake.'
The picture here is taken from hunting. The hunters use fear as a weapon by yelling and by the waving of spears, in order to drive frightened and bewildered animals towards their pits, and of those who fall in some manage to struggle from the pits, but they do not escape. They are caught in their further, carefully laid, cunning traps. Here Yahweh is the Hunter and the world the hunted. None will escape of those who are under His judgment. Note the singular ‘inhabitant of the earth'. Every individual person is involved as well as the whole.
These words are later taken by Jeremiah and applied to Moab (Jeremiah 48:43), who clearly saw chapter 24 of Isaiah as applying to all the nations described in Chapter s 13-23.
The windows on high and the shaking of the foundations of the earth are reminiscent of the flood narrative (Genesis 7:11). Judgment falls on the world like a flood. The foundations of the earth shaking is evidence of the wrath of God (Psalms 18:7), and are a reminder of earthquakes which are regularly seen as signs and judgments from God. Judgment also comes from below. It is God's flood and God's earthquake, His all encompassing judgments from above and below, that cause the fear and panic that drive men to their final doom in His pits and traps. Man cannot escape God's judgments, flee as they will. The foundations of the earth shaking and the floods from heaven are regular pictures used elsewhere of the approach of Yahweh (2 Samuel 22:8; 2 Samuel 22:12; Judges 5:4; Psalms 68:8).
‘The earth is utterly broken,
The earth is utterly shattered,
The earth is moved exceedingly,
The earth will stagger like a drunken man,
And will be moved to and fro like a hut,
And its rebellion will be heavy on it,
And it will fall and not rise again.'
Compare Isaiah 24:1; Isaiah 24:3. Isaiah ends as he began, with ‘world' disaster. The picture is of a huge and disastrous earthquake shaking the very foundations of mankind and flattening all around. The earth (along with mankind, for the rebellion is man's) breaks up, things begin to fall all around, the earth shakes even more, it staggers like a drunken man who staggers along the road, having lost his ability to go straight. It moves to and fro like a building prior to it collapsing. And because of the weight of its sin and rebellion it will collapse and fall, never to rise again. God's judgment will be final. Man has chosen to manage without God and so His support has been withdrawn.
The vivid pictures are a deliberate attempt to portray eschatological judgments in terms of known experiences, the invading armies, the earthquakes, the blight, but all magnified. How they will interconnect is not described. Whether they will mainly be in the Mediterranean world (the world of the prophet) or in the wider world is also not made clear. The prophets knew little of the wider world. We should feel the impact without being dogmatic about the content. The point is that God will come in final judgment, as He regularly comes in judgments through the ages. Every disaster is pointing to the final disaster, and is pointing us towards the need to trust in Him.
In spite of many attempts it has actually been impossible to piece together all the pictures of God's final judgments in the end days. The descriptions are so many and varied that they do not fit into a pattern except by ignoring what does not fit into particular schemes. And this is what we would expect. For as the end approaches different parts of the world will be affected in detail in different ways. And many of the final events themselves will be of a heavenly nature, thus defying human description. So the descriptions are not to be simply literalised. They are to be taken for what they are. Isaiah taking devastating earthly happenings and using them to depict the undepictable.
‘And it will come about in that day,
That Yahweh will punish the host of the height in the height,
And the kings of the earth on the earth.
And they will be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in the pit,
And will be shut up in the prison,
And after many days they will be visited.'
And that day will affect all both in the heavens and on earth. All creation, and beyond creation, is to be affected. For this is the final summing up of all things in preparation for everlasting perfection (1 Corinthians 15:24; Ephesians 1:10; Revelation 21-22).
‘In that day' simply means whenever what is being described happens. Here the thought is of ‘the end times' because that is what the previous verses have had in mind. But ‘in that day' is not specific as to time. It is simply referring to any time in Isaiah's future when God acts.
‘Yahweh will punish the host of heaven (‘the height') in heaven (‘the height'), and the kings of the earth on the earth.' For the first time we learn that heaven will be affected as well as the earth. The idea is probably that the kings are seen as having been driven on by these heavenly powers, ‘the host of the height in the height'. They had worshipped ‘the host of heaven', so the host of heaven must also be punished. This startling idea reminds us of Genesis 3 where a shadowy heavenly figure lay behind the activities of the snake, and Genesis 6:1 where further heavenly figures, ‘the sons of God' (only ever used of angels in the Old Testament), brought the world into sin of such an extreme kind that it warranted the judgment of the Flood. Compare also Job 1-2; Deuteronomy 32:16.
That they are seen as princely here (in the New Testament they are called ‘thrones, principalities and powers' - Ephesians 6:12; Romans 8:38; Ephesians 1:21; and see also Daniel 10) comes out in the fact that they are paralleled with the kings of the earth. But note that each will be punished within their own sphere, ‘in the height' and ‘in the earth'.
‘And they will be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and will be shut up in the prison, and after many days they will be visited.' The idea here is of their ignominious treatment, and utter inability to prevent it. Just as they had herded others into pits they too will be herded into pits. As they have done to others so will be done to them. They will be shut up in a dark, gloomy prison, kept waiting in suspense, until the time of their judgment is decided, when they will be visited by their executioners. All his readers would be aware of the darkness and dankness of ancient prisons, and how prisoners were kept waiting in them whether guilty or not. All this is in direct contrast with the picture of glory that follows (compare Jude 1:6).
‘Then the moon will be confounded,
And the sun ashamed,
For Yahweh of hosts will reign in Mount Zion,
And in Jerusalem, and before His elders, glory.'
In contrast with the fate of the host of heaven and of the kings of earth imprisoned in darkness and gloominess is the glorious exaltation of Yahweh and the people over Whom He reigns. Before His glory the moon and the sun will be as nothing (Revelation 21:23; Revelation 22:5). Though brilliant to us their comparatively dim light will be revealed in its paucity. They will hide themselves in shame. The words used for moon and sun are ones used in poetry which tend to bring out their glory (‘the white one' and ‘the burning one'), but here that glory is dimmed. They cannot compete with the glory of Yahweh.
And He will reign in Mount Zion, His heavenly dwellingplace (see end note on Isaiah 2:4; and compare Hebrews 12:22), in contrast with the host of heaven, and in the new Jerusalem (Galatians 4:26; Hebrews 12:22), through His Davidic king, in contrast with the kings of earth. His wonderful reigning glory will be revealed to the elders as it was so long before (Exodus 24:9). Revelation 4-5 interprets this of heavenly elders who represent the people of God in heaven, where God is on His throne, a throne which is shared by the Lamb.
This picture need not be interpreted literally, any more than the destiny of the host of heaven and the kings is to be taken literally. It is the ideas that are important, not the detail. The thought is that He will rule over heaven and earth, and as he later tells us, it is a new heaven and a new earth (Isaiah 66:22). In the New Testament the Jerusalem that counts is always the heavenly Jerusalem (Galatians 4:26; Hebrews 12:22 compare John 4:21). If anything is clear about this verse it is that it is the final glorious state that is being spoken of, when God reigns in His glory, a glory that will outshine all known light, (compare Revelation 21:23; Revelation 22:5). It is not describing some temporary millennial kingdom. Here earth has merged with Heaven. The full glory of God is being revealed before His ‘elders', as previously His glory had been revealed before the elders of Israel on behalf of the whole of Israel (Exodus 24:9). See also Revelation 4:4; Revelation 4:10, where the ‘elders' in Heaven are the representatives of both the Old and New Testament saints in the congregation of God's true people (twenty four representing the twelve patriatrchs and the twelve Apostles - Revelation 21:12; Revelation 21:14).