Scripture Daily

Context No. 103 of 4322 · Isaiah

Context · Reflection

Isaiah 24:14-23: in context

14These shall lift up their voice. They will shout for the majesty of the LORD. They cry aloud from the sea. 15Therefore glorify the LORD in the east, even the name of the LORD, the God of Israel, in the islands of the sea! 16From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs. Glory to the righteous! But I said, “I pine away! I pine away! woe is me!” The treacherous have dealt treacherously. Yes, the treacherous have dealt very treacherously. 17Fear, the pit, and the snare are on you who inhabit the earth. 18It will happen that he who flees from the noise of the fear will fall into the pit; and he who comes up out of the middle of the pit will be taken in the snare; for the windows on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble. 19The earth is utterly broken. The earth is torn apart. The earth is shaken violently. 20The earth will stagger like a drunken man, and will sway back and forth like a hammock. Its disobedience will be heavy on it, and it will fall and not rise again. 21It will happen in that day that the LORD will punish the army of the high ones on high, and the kings of the earth on the earth. 22They 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. 23Then 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 to 27 is sometimes called the Isaiah Apocalypse, a section that widens from oracles about particular nations to the whole earth. This passage sits inside it, and its structure is a collision of two voices.

The first is singing. Voices lift from the west, from the sea, from the coastlands and the ends of the earth, glory to the Righteous One. Then the prophet interrupts his own text: but I said, I waste away, I waste away, woe is me. The treacherous deal treacherously. He cannot join the singing yet, because he is still looking at what is in front of him.

Then a line that turns on sound. Terror and the pit and the snare are upon you, and whoever flees the sound of terror will fall into the pit, and whoever climbs out of the pit will be caught in the snare. The escape route runs into the next trap. The earth is described breaking apart, staggering like a drunkard, swaying like a hut. And at the end, the moon confounded and the sun ashamed, because the LORD reigns. The chapter holds the singing and the wasting away at the same time, without resolving them. Which of those two voices am I pretending is the only one I have right now?

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