Bible Commentaries
Isaiah 24

Verses 1-23

THE AGE TO COME

Isaiah 24:1—27:13

Chapters 24-27 are a short collection of materials referring to the great age to come when the alienation of the world will have been done away and God will have brought about the new age of peace and security in the earth. At that time there will be no more death (25:8), and the dead shall have been raised from the underworld to share in the joys of the new time in which God’s purposes in his original creation of the world will have been fulfilled (26:19). These chapters seem to be an appendix to the earlier prophecies of Isaiah, just as chapters 34-35 are appendices to material mainly from the latter part of Isaiah’s minishy (chs. 28-33). The date of the variety of passages contained in the appendix cannot be established with any certainty.

The Earth Made Desolate (24:1-23)

The first prophecy in 24:1-23 pictures the desolation of the whole earth. It employs the elements of the “return to chaos” theme, that is, a reversion to the situation before creation. The whole earth will be laid waste and all society completely disrupted because it is polluted and has violated “the everlasting covenant,” presumably the covenant with Noah (vs. 5; see Genesis 9:1-17). In verse 10 the “city of chaos” refers to the city of Jerusalem, which has become a chaos.

Following this is a hymn of praise to the Lord, and a call upon the peoples of the whole earth to sing praise to the “Righteous One” (vss. 14-16). Yet at the end of verse 16 the prophet inserts a note of sorrow for the treachery that is in the earth. This portion of chapter 24 was surely drawn from a source different from that of the first thirteen verses.

In verses 17-20 the language of the “return to chaos” motif is used again, including the opening of the windows of heaven to allow the waters of the great deep to fill the space between heaven and earth (see Genesis 7:11). Even the sun and the moon (vs. 23) will be “confounded” and “ashamed,” as though they were persons responsible for the corruption of the whole creation. The angels in heaven and the kings of the earth all will be punished for their part in the corruption (vs. 21). In other words, there is nothing in man’s hope for earth that can be considered reliable or permanent, for there has to be a great purification of the whole of creation and the whole of society. This can be brought about only by God himself. Man’s hope, therefore, must center only in the manifestation of the glory of God (vs. 23).