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Isaiah 24 Bible study: The earth made empty

"The confused city" of 24:10 is, in Hebrew, the city of tohu, the word of Genesis 1:2's "formless". And a chapter that empties the earth ends not with its fall but with a reason: the moon and sun are put to shame, "for the LORD of Armies will reign on Mount Zion" (24:23).

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“Then the moon will be confounded, and the sun ashamed; for the LORD of Armies will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem; and glory will be before his elders.”
Isaiah 24:23 · World English Bible

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“Isaiah 24:2 says it will be the same with the priest as with the people.”

Is that in Isaiah 24, or not? Make your call.

What's really going on

"Behold, the LORD makes the earth empty"

In the text

"Behold, the LORD makes the earth empty, makes it waste, turns it upside down, and scatters its inhabitants" (24:1) (tap empty). The burdens that began with Babylon (13:1) have run to Tyre (23:1), and here the book turns, with no heading; its introduction starts a new part at this verse. "It will be as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master" (24:2), and so on through six pairs. No one in them is set apart (the chapter on Psalm 123 sets out the household words). "The earth will be utterly emptied and utterly laid waste; for the LORD has spoken this word" (24:3). Here is what almost everyone misses: in Hebrew earth is erets, and it comes 16 times in these 23 verses. The WEB gives it as earth every time but one, "The mirth of the land is gone" (24:11). The chapter doesn't name Babylon or any of the nations of chapters 13-23. It gives a reason: "The earth also is polluted under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, and broken the everlasting covenant" (24:5) (tap covenant). Then therefore, twice: "Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, and those who dwell therein are found guilty" (24:6) (tap curse), and "Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left" (24:6). These notes apply none of it to any nation, place or event today.

Honest questions

Questions people ask about Isaiah 24

That was a taste

The rest of Isaiah 24 is waiting in Favor

  • The confused city is broken down
  • Songs, and then the snare
  • The LORD of Armies will reign
  • Fear, the pit, and the snare, in Jeremiah too
  • The windows on high
  • The land mourns, in other prophets
  • 16 questions as you read
  • 14 more Hebrew words
  • A short check at the end
  • Your notes, saved as you go
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The Hebrew word behind it

תֹּהוּtohusay TOH-hoo

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "formlessness, confusion, unreality, emptiness". Strong's: "a desolation (of surface), i.e. desert; figuratively, a worthless thing". "The confused city is broken down" (24:10): in Hebrew qiryat tohu, city of tohu, and the Hebrew Bible has the two words together in this verse only. Tohu is the word of "The earth was formless and empty" (Genesis 1:2). The Hebrew Bible has it 20 times, and 11 of them are in Isaiah; this is the first. Later the book sets it beside the earth's inhabitants: the LORD "didn’t create it a waste, who formed it to be inhabited" (Isaiah 45:18), where a waste is tohu. In 24:10 every house is shut up, "that no man may come in".

For your group

Isaiah 24 Bible study questions

  1. 1"It will be as with the people, so with the priest" (24:2). What does it mean to you that the chapter sets no one apart, whatever their place?
  2. 2Songs are heard from the ends of the earth, and then one voice says, "I pine away! I pine away! woe is me!" (24:16). Have you ever found it hard to join in praise because of what you saw around you? What helped?
  3. 3The chapter shakes the earth and ends, "for the LORD of Armies will reign" (24:23). When things around you feel shaken, what helps you remember who reigns?

Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Isaiah 24 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.

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Questions

What is Favor?

Favor is a Bible study app that explains every chapter as you read: the Hebrew and Greek behind the words, the details most readers miss, and how each part of the Bible leads to Jesus. Read on your own, or start a Bible study with friends, family or your church.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home