The judgments of God upon all the sinners of the world. A remnant shall
joyfully praise him.
24:1. Behold the Lord shall lay waste the earth, and shall strip it,
and shall afflict the face thereof, and scatter abroad the inhabitants
thereof.
24:2. And it shall be as with the people, so with the priest: and as
with the servant so with his master: as with the handmaid, so with her
mistress: as with the buyer, so with the seller: as with the lender, so
with the borrower: as with him that calleth for his money, so with him
that oweth.
24:3. With desolation shall the earth be laid waste, and it shall be
utterly spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word.
24:4. The earth mourned, and faded away, and is weakened: the world
faded away, the height of the people of the earth is weakened.
24:5. And the earth is infected by the inhabitants thereof: because
they have transgressed the laws, they have changed the ordinance, they
have broken the everlasting covenant.
24:6. Therefore shall a curse devour the earth, and the inhabitants
thereof shall sin: and therefore they that dwell therein shall be mad,
and few men shall be left.
24:7. The vintage hath mourned, the vine hath languished away, all the
merry have sighed.
24:8. The mirth of timbrels hath ceased, the noise of them that rejoice
is ended, the melody of the harp is silent.
24:9. They shall not drink wine with a song: the drink shall be bitter
to them that drink it.
24:10. The city of vanity is broken down, every house is shut up, no
man cometh in.
24:11. There shall be a crying for wine in the streets: all mirth is
forsaken: the joy of the earth is gone away.
24:12. Desolation is left in the city, and calamity shall oppress the
gates.
24:13. For it shall be thus in the midst of the earth, in the midst of
the people, as if a few olives, that remain, should be shaken out of
the olive tree: or grapes, when the vintage is ended.
24:14. These shall lift up their voice, and shall give praise: when the
Lord shall be glorified, they shall make a joyful noise from the sea.
24:15. Therefore glorify ye the Lord in instruction: the name of the
Lord God of Israel in the islands of the sea.
24:16. From the ends of the earth we have heard praises, the glory of
the just one. And I said: My secret to myself, my secret to myself, woe
is me: the prevaricators have prevaricated, and with the prevarication
of transgressors they have prevaricated.
24:17. Fear, and the pit, and the snare are upon thee, O thou
inhabitant of the earth.
24:18. And it shall come to pass, that he that shall flee from the
noise of the fear, shall fall into the pit: and he that shall rid
himself out of the pit, shall be taken in the snare: for the
flood-gates from on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth
shall be shaken.
24:19. With breaking shall the earth be broken, with crushing shall the
earth be crushed, with trembling shall the earth be moved.
24:20. With shaking shall the earth be shaken as a drunken man, and
shall be removed as the tent of one night: and the iniquity thereof
shall be heavy upon it, and it shall fall, and not rise again.
24:21. And it shall come to pass, that in that day the Lord shall visit
upon the host of heaven on high, and upon the kings of the earth, on
the earth.
The host of heaven on high. . .The stars, which in many places of the
Scripture are so called. Some commentators explain that these words
here signify the demons of the air.
24:22. And they shall be gathered together as in the gathering of one
bundle into the pit, and they shall be shut up there in prison: and
after many days they shall be visited.
24:23. And the moon shall blush, and the sun shall be ashamed, when the
Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Sion, and in Jerusalem, and shall be
glorified in the sight of his ancients.