Isaiah 24:21-23

People in the ancient world considered that the ‘powers in the heavens’ (sun, moon, stars) were gods. But it was God himself who created them in the first place! (see Genesis 1:14-19). They are still under his control. If he chooses, he can reduce their light. Or, he can turn off their heat.

• The sun, moon and stars are just objects that God created. But the devil and his armies are real. So there are mysterious forces that oppose God. But, on ‘that day’, the day that God chooses, he will punish them.

• When God made the original *covenant with the nation called Israel, he allowed their leaders to see something of his *glory (see Exodus 24:9-11). Now, when ‘that day’ comes, the day of God’s choice, the leaders of Israel will again see God’s *glory.

Lord ~ God’s name in the Bible. In the original language, it means ‘head over all’ and ‘God always’.
curse ~ when God declares that terrible things will happen to people because of their evil deeds.
vine ~ plant whose fruit makes wine.
wine ~ a drink which people make from the juice of grapes.
grape ~ small sweet fruit of the vine; its juice makes wine.
wine ~ a drink which people make from the juice of grapes.
grape ~ small sweet fruit of the vine; its juice makes wine.
vine ~ plant whose fruit makes wine.
covenant ~ special agreement that God made with Israel (see Exodus chapter 24).
woe ~ a very sad cry because there is much pain to come.'Mount Zion ~ the mountain in Jerusalem where God’s holy Temple was.
Jerusalem ~ at the time of David and Solomon, the capital of the country called Israel. During the time of Isaiah, Jerusalem was the capital of the country called Judah. But the ‘New Jerusalem’ is God’s future, perfect home for his people.
Temple ~ special building in Jerusalem where Jews praised God and offered him prayers and gifts.
Jews ~ people who belong to the countries called Judah and Israel; people who belong to the 12 tribes (large families) of Israel.
Jerusalem ~ at the time of David and Solomon, the capital of the country called Israel. During the time of Isaiah, Jerusalem was the capital of the country called Judah. But the ‘New Jerusalem’ is God’s future, perfect home for his people.
glory ~ the splendid beauty and wonderful light of God’s most holy character.

Isaiah: New *Heavens and a New Earth

The Little *Apocalypse

Isaiah Chapter s 24 to 27

Gordon Churchyard

The words in brackets, […], are not in the *Hebrew Bible. They make the book easier to understand in English. Isaiah wrote his book in the *Hebrew language.

Isaiah Chapter s 7 to 40: God’s king rules God’s people

Section 3 (Isaiah Chapter s 24 to 27):The Little *Apocalypse

Notes

Many Bible students agree that we should read Isaiah Chapter s 24 to 27 together. They form a unit. These Chapter s are about how ‘the country’ will end. They also contain songs to praise God.

We may wonder what Isaiah means by ‘the country’. That word ‘country’ appears many times in these Chapter s. It meant something for the people that listened to Isaiah. But there are different ideas about what it meant for them. Some Bible students think that it probably meant this. It was ‘the country’ that God gave to Abraham. When Isaiah wrote his book, ‘the country’ had belonged to various different nations. Parts of it had belonged to Judah, Israel, Philistia, Egypt, Edom, Moab and other nations. And between 750 and 550 B.C., God used Assyria and Babylon to destroy ‘the country’. ‘B.C.’ means ‘years Before Christ came to the Earth’. Isaiah 24:1-13 describes the future state of ‘the country’ after Assyria and Babylon have destroyed it. In verses 14-23, the people that remain praise God. Those verses make a psalm, which is a special song to praise God.

However, other Bible students think that ‘the country’ also meant places like Assyria and Babylon. Babylon destroyed ‘the country’ called Assyria. And then God would use other armies to destroy ‘the country’ called Babylon. The people that remain may be the people in Assyria and Babylon. They may also be foreign people that lived in those places.

Some Bible students call Isaiah Chapter s 24 to 27 ‘the little apocalypse’. ‘Apocalypse’ is the *Greek name of the last book in the Bible. Most English translations call it Revelation. ‘Revelation’ means ‘the truth that somebody shows to us’. Here, it is the truth about the end of the present world. Therefore, some Bible students say that Isaiah Chapter s 24 to 27 also describe the end of the world. They are called the ‘little apocalypse’ because they are shorter than Revelation. But they contain a description of the future. In Chapter s 24 to 27, we read what happened to ‘the country’. But that will also happen to the whole Earth.

So, for the *Jews, ‘the country’ meant their country. It was the country that consisted of Judah and Israel. It was where the *Jews lived. But it may also mean the countries called Assyria and Babylon. For us, it may mean the whole Earth. One important thing that Isaiah tells us is this. When ‘the country’ ends, there will still be people to praise God. That is a good reason for us to praise God, too!

Chapter 24

v1 Understand [this]! The *LORD will make the country empty. He will destroy it. He will ruin its surface. And he will scatter the people that live in it.

v2 It will be the same for [all these people]:

• the people and the priest

• the servant and his master

• the maid and her mistress (female boss)

• the buyer and the seller

• the lender and the borrower (person to whom the lender lends)

• the person that lends [money] and the person that owes [money].

v3 [Enemies] will completely destroy the country. [They] will take everything from it. [That will happen.] Because the *LORD says [that it will happen].

Notes

Verse 1 ‘LORD’ is a name for God. He used that name for himself in his *covenant. A ‘covenant’ is a special serious agreement. In God’s covenant with his people, his people agreed to love him. They also agreed to obey him. God agreed to be their God and he agreed to help them. There is another note about ‘LORD’ after Isaiah 1:1.

Verse 2 Here Isaiah mentioned 6 groups of people in society. He did that to tell us that he really meant ‘everybody’! The priests were the leaders of religion. The masters were the servants’ male bosses. And the mistresses were the maids’ female bosses. The buyer bought things from the seller. ‘Borrow’ means the opposite of ‘lend’. The lender lent things to the borrower. People that lent money charged for it. Therefore, the person who owed money had to pay even more money back. Here Isaiah was writing about both rich and poor people.

Verse 3 Isaiah does not say who the enemies are.

v4 The land is dry and it dies. The world becomes weak and it dies. The important people in the country become weak.

v5 The people that live in this country have made it dirty. [That has happened] for these reasons:

• The people have not obeyed [God’s] laws.

• They have changed [God’s] rules.

• They have decided to forget [God’s] *covenant, which will always last.

v6 Therefore a *curse is destroying the country. And the people that live in it are suffering. That is because they are guilty. [Something] burns the people that live in this country. Only a few [people] remain from among them.

v7 The wine dries up [and] the *vine dies. The people that want to drink [the wine] become unhappy.

v8 The happy sound of the tambourine (musical instrument for rhythm) stops. The noise from parties is over. The harp (instrument with strings) makes no happy music.

v9 People do not drink wine and they do not sing. Beer has an unpleasant taste to the people that drink it.

v10 [Enemies] destroyed the city [so that] it is without structure. [People] locked every house so that [the enemy] could not get in.

v11 People call out for wine in the streets. All joy turns into darkness. The happiness in this country has gone.

v12 [Enemies] destroyed the city. [They] knocked down the gates [of the city] and [they] ruined them.

v13 That will happen all over the country and it will happen among the [other] nations. They will be empty like an *olive tree that people beat. Or [they will be empty like a *vine] with [only] a few *grapes. [Those are the *grapes that people have] not picked.

Notes

Verse 4 In verses 1-3 God says what will happen. Now Isaiah describes it as if it has happened. The words ‘land’ and ‘world’ here mean the plants and animals in that country.

Verse 5 Today, we know that many things make our world dirty. When we use petrol in our cars, it makes the air dirty. When we throw our rubbish away, it spoils the land with bad substances. When we empty our toilets into the rivers, it makes the sea dirty. But when we do not obey God, that also spoils our country with bad things. The laws, rules and *covenant are God’s. That is why we have added the word ‘God’ in square brackets, […]. In the *Hebrew text, the country is ‘under the people’. That means that it is under their rule. What the people have decided to do has spoiled the country. They have decided these things:

• The people do not obey God’s laws. ‘Laws’ here means the things that God has taught to the people. He has taught those things in the Bible and he has taught them in other ways.

• The people have changed God’s rules. That means that people have their own moral ideas. They do not follow God’s ideas.
• The people have decided to forget the *covenant. In other words, they refuse to obey God.

Verse 6 A ‘curse’ is something bad that happens to people. They cannot stop it. This curse means bad things that God allows to happen. Here are some verses from Deuteronomy chapter 11.

v26 Look. I put a *blessing and a *curse in front of you today.

v27 A *blessing [will happen] if you obey the commands of the *LORD, your God. [These are the rules] that I am telling you to obey today.

v28 And a *curse [will happen] if you do not obey the commands of the *LORD, your God…

There we read about the *curse that God mentioned in his *covenant. The *curse will happen if people refuse to obey God. A ‘blessing’ is a good thing that happens. It happens when people obey God.

In the *Hebrew Bible, Isaiah says that the *curse is ‘eating the country’. That is a *Hebrew way to say that it is ‘destroying the country’. Isaiah wrote his book in the *Hebrew language. Here the people are suffering from the bad things that the curse causes to happen. Isaiah does not say what burns the people. It may be fire or it may be heat from the sun. Some Bible students think that the *Hebrew word does not mean ‘burn’. They think that it means ‘become less’. So, the people that live in the country become less.

Verse 7 Here is another special description. In it, Isaiah uses two words, ‘dries’ and ‘dies’, which are also in verse 4. The *vine is a plant. The fruit from which people make wine grows on *vines. The poetry here means this. There is not much wine, because the *vines are dying. That makes the people that want to drink wine unhappy! Alcohol causes many troubles in our world. But here, Isaiah is not saying that it is wrong to drink alcohol. He is saying that we should depend on God. We should not depend on the things that we make.

Verse 8 People use the ‘tambourine’ and ‘harp’ to make music. They make rhythm with the tambourine. They can hit it or they can shake it. The harp has strings, which people pull slightly to make a sound. The *Hebrew word for ‘stops’ here is the same as the *Hebrew word for *Sabbath. The ‘Sabbath’ was the day when the *Jews stopped their work. It was the 7^th day in their week. In this verse, there is no music and there are no parties. That is because there is no wine.

Verse 9 The *Hebrew word for ‘beer’ here may be another *Hebrew word that means ‘wine’. The wine tastes bad! It does not satisfy the people any longer. Isaiah spoke the *Hebrew language and he wrote in that language.

Verses 10-12 These verses are not about the country. They are about a city in that country. The people had built a wonderful city. But the enemy destroyed it. Isaiah does not say who the enemy was. Nor does he say the name of the city. The city became ‘without structure’. That is the same *Hebrew word that the writer in Genesis 1:2 uses. There it describes the state of the world before God made anything in it. At that time, the world had no structure and it had no shape. The people here that lived in the city had locked themselves into their houses. They locked their houses in order to try to keep the enemy out. Perhaps those people were the few people that remained (verse 6). And maybe they were also like the few *grapes that people had not picked (verse 13).

Verse 11 There is no wine. (Look at the notes about verses 7 and 9.) And so people are unhappy. The things on which they depend are not available. Here we read ‘turns into darkness’. The *Hebrew words for that phrase mean ‘like evening comes’. The people used to feel joy. But now they feel as if it will soon be night.

Verse 12 Again, Isaiah does not say who the enemy was. There was no wine (verse 7), so people would not have any satisfaction from that. And now, without gates, the city would not be safe. So probably it would not even be possible for its people to live!

Verse 13 This is what the description of the ‘olive’ and ‘grape’ trees means. Olives and grapes are fruits. People used olives to make oil, and they used grapes to make wine. To pick the olives, they hit the trees. Most of the olives fell off, but a few olives remained. When people picked grapes, they left a few grapes on the plant. That was a rule for them. It was among God’s rules in the Book of Leviticus (Leviticus 19:9-10). Then the poorer people could ‘*glean’ (collect) what the richer people left. But even farmers who did not obey God’s law left a few grapes. They left the grapes that were too small to be useful. So the word ‘empty’ here means ‘nearly empty’. A few people remain (verse 6).

v14 These [are the people] that use their voices to shout aloud! From the west they say that the *LORD is magnificent!

v15 Therefore, in the east give honour to the *LORD. [Give honour] to the *LORD God of Israel. [Give him honour] from the islands in the sea.

v16 From every part of the country, we hear songs. [People are singing to praise] the honour of the One that is Completely Good. But I said, ‘I have become thin and weak! I have become thin and weak! I am very sad! People that are not loyal are definitely not loyal. People that are not loyal are absolutely not loyal!

v17 People in this country, [I say this to you]. Terror, a deep hole and a trap [wait] for you!

v18 A person will run away from the sound [that fills him with] terror. [But then he] will fall into the deep hole. [And a] trap will catch the person that climbs out of the deep hole. [All that will happen because someone has] opened the windows of the sky. And [he has] shaken the *foundations of the country.

v19 [What happened] has completely broken the country. It has torn the country apart. It has shaken the country very much.

v20 The Earth moves about; it shakes like a drunk. It swings about like a hut [in the wind]. [The country’s people] are guilty [because] of [the wrong things that they] have done. [And that guilty feeling] is [like] a heavy [load] upon [their] country. So [their] country will fall down and it will never get up again.

v21 On that day the *LORD will punish the powerful [spirits] in the skies above. And [he will punish] the kings on the land below.

v22 [The *LORD] will gather them together like prisoners in a deep hole. He will lock them in a prison, and after a long time he will punish them.

v23 The white [light of the moon] will be ashamed. And so will the heat [of the sun]. [They will seem pale] because the *LORD of Everything will be king on the hill called Zion and in Jerusalem. Then, his leaders will see his *glory.

Notes

Verse 14 The people here are probably the few people that remained (verse 6). They are probably the ones like the few *grapes that people had not picked (verse 13). ‘Shout aloud’ may mean ‘sing because [they are] so happy’. The *Hebrew word for ‘the west’ means ‘the sea’. That is the Mediterranean Sea, which is west from Judah.

Verse 15 The *Hebrew word for ‘the east’ means ‘in fires’. That probably means where the sun rises, in the east. It can look like a ball of fire. In verse 23, the sun is called ‘the hot thing’ in *Hebrew. The ‘islands in the sea’ means those in the Mediterranean Sea. They were a long way from Judah.

Verse 16 The word ‘country’ here may not mean just Judah. (Look at the note before chapter 24.) It probably means ‘every part of the Earth’. Therefore it means the west, the east and the islands in the sea (verses 14 and 15). The ‘One that is Completely Good’ is a name for God. Here he is called completely good because he has done the right things. He has punished people because they have done wrong things (verse 5). There is a sudden change in the middle of verse 16. People have praised God, but Isaiah feels very, very sad. He is so sad because he has seen the results of the things in verse 5. He has seen how they will affect the people in that country. God has done what was right. But for many people, it means that something awful has happened. Some people are ‘not loyal’. Isaiah does not say who those people are. He probably means the people in verse 5. That is, everybody that is not loyal to God. They are the ‘people in this country’ (verse 17).

Verse 17 This is the language of people that are hunting. People hunted wild animals. The animals became very afraid. Some animals fell into deep holes in the ground. Other animals ran into traps, which people had hidden there to catch them. The ‘people in this country’ were like wild animals. God was like the hunter; and that filled them with terror. It made Isaiah very sad (verse 16).

Verse 18 There is a sound that fills the person with terror. But if he runs away from that, he falls into a deep hole. If he climbs out of the deep hole, a trap will catch him. There is no escape from God’s punishments. They seem to come from above the Earth. And they shake the country. ‘The country’ may mean the whole Earth. ‘Foundations’ are the firm bases that people build houses on. Similarly, the foundations of the Earth are what God built the Earth on. At that time, people still thought that the Earth was flat. This verse describes a great storm and a bad earthquake. An ‘earthquake’ means that the earth shakes. And also many buildings may fall down. In many places in the Bible, those things are special evidence. They show that God is near. He is doing something special. Examples of that are in 2 Samuel 22:8; Judges 5:4 and Psalms 68:8.

Verse 19 ‘The country’ appears three times in this verse. Today, we could say ‘the Earth’. That is, the whole Earth. The country (or Earth) is becoming ‘without structure or shape’, as in verse 10 and Genesis 1:2.

Verse 20 A drunk walks as if he might soon fall over. A hut is a building that might easily swing about. Then it may fall over. These are two special descriptions of a world ‘without structure or shape’. Verse 5 has a list of wrong things that the people have done. They are guilty because of those wrong things. And that responsibility for their wrong deeds is like a heavy load. It is so heavy that the country (in other words, the people in it) falls down. The people will never get up again. Again, for Isaiah ‘the country’ was the country called Judah. However, for us, it can be the whole world. In this chapter, there are many links to Genesis Chapter s 1 to 11. One such link is here. The *Hebrew word for ‘swings about’ sounds like the name ‘Noah’. And Noah saw the windows of the sky open. Then the floods came. But once, later, he became a drunk!

Verse 21 ‘That day’ means the day when God is near. It means the day when he will do something special. It is the day when the things in verse 18 will happen. However, there is another meaning for the future. It means the day when God will be the judge over the world’s people. That will happen when the present world ends. The ‘powerful [spirits] in the skies’ are the powerful bad spirits. At the time when the world ends, ‘the country’ will probably mean the whole Earth.

Verse 22 Isaiah does not say who will do this. But only the *LORD is strong enough to do it. In this verse and verse 21, the *Hebrew word for ‘punish’ means ‘visit’. When God ‘visits’ people, he does something. When people are loyal to him, he acts to help them. But when people are against him, he acts against them. So, ‘punish’ is a good translation.

Verse 23 ‘*Glory’ is more than honour. *Glory means something that is beautiful and magnificent. God’s *glory shines so brightly that he makes the sun and moon seem pale. When God has punished his enemies, his leaders will see that *glory. Zion is a hill in Jerusalem.

This publication is in EasyEnglish Level B (2800 words).

Heaven ~ the home of God.
Apocalypse ~ another name for the last book in the Bible, called Revelation. The Little Apocalypse (Isaiah Chapter s 24 to 27) is like Revelation. It is about the end of time.
Hebrew ~ the language that the Jews spoke when Isaiah wrote his book.
Jews ~ God’s people that lived in Judah and Israel.
Greek ~ the language that people spoke in Greece.
Jews ~ God’s people that lived in Judah and Israel.
lord ~ someone with authority. With a capital L, it can be a name for God.
LORD ~ the covenant name for God. It probably means ‘always alive’.
covenant ~ people make a covenant when they agree together. God agreed to protect his people called the Jews. They agreed to be his servants.
Jews ~ God’s people that lived in Judah and Israel.
covenant ~ people make a covenant when they agree together. God agreed to protect his people called the Jews. They agreed to be his servants.
Jews ~ God’s people that lived in Judah and Israel.
curse ~ words that ask for something bad to happen to somebody.
vine ~ a plant on which grapes grow.
grape ~ a fruit that grows on a vine. People use grapes to make wine.
olive ~ a fruit.
grape ~ a fruit that grows on a vine. People use grapes to make wine.
vine ~ a plant on which grapes grow.
blessing ~ something good that God does for you.
Sabbath ~ the 7^th day of the week. This day was a special day for rest and worship, for the Jews.
worship ~ to tell God (or a false god) that he is wonderful; and also, to tell him that you love him.
Jews ~ God’s people that lived in Judah and Israel.
glean ~ when poor people pick a little bit of fruit that the farmer has not picked.
foundations ~ the ground on which people build houses.
glory ~ great honour and magnificent beauty.
glory ~ great honour and magnificent beauty.