Isaiah 24

New Catholic Bible

¹ Behold how the Lord is preparing
    to lay waste the earth;
he will turn it into a desert
    and scatter its inhabitants,
² with the same fate afflicting both priest and people,
    slave and master,
maid and mistress,
    seller and buyer,
lender and borrower,
    creditor and debtor.
³ The earth will be totally ravaged
    and completely despoiled;
    this has the Lord decreed.
⁴ The earth mourns and fades away;
    the world languishes and withers;
    the exalted of the earth are brought low.
⁵ The earth is defiled
    by those who dwell in it;
for they have transgressed laws,
    violated statutes,
    and broken the everlasting covenant.^[b]
6 Therefore, a curse has consumed the earth,
    and its inhabitants pay the penalty of their guilt;
as a result, the number of its inhabitants dwindles,
    and only a few survive.
⁷ The new wine dries up
    and the vine withers away
    as the revelers groan in their sorrow.
⁸ The cheerful sound of tambourines is stilled;
    the shouts of the revelers fade away;
    the lyre’s joyful melodies are no longer heard.
⁹ The people drink wine but without any singing;
    strong liquor tastes bitter to those who consume it.
¹⁰ The city is shattered and in a state of chaos;
    every house has its entrance barred.^[c]
11 In the streets the people cry out for wine;
    no joy can be observed;
    happiness seems to have been banished from the land.
¹² Only desolation remains in the city;
    its gates have been smashed so badly
    that they are beyond hope of repair.
¹³ This condition will hold true
    among all the nations throughout the world;
as happens to an olive tree after it is beaten
    or to the gleanings that remain
    after the grape harvest.
¹⁴ The people raise their voices in joyful praise,
    proclaiming from the west the majesty of the Lord,
¹⁵ “Let the Lord be glorified in the east;
    in the coastlands of the sea
glorify the name of the Lord,
    the God of Israel.”
¹⁶ From the ends of the earth we hear songs
    that praise the glory of the Righteous One.
But I said, “I am wasting away.
    I am wasting away. Woe is me!
For the traitors continue to betray;
    the traitors have acted with great treachery.
¹⁷ Terror and the pit and the snare
    threaten all of you inhabitants of the earth.
¹⁸ Anyone who flees from the sound of terror
    will fall into the pit,
and whoever climbs out of the pit
    will be caught in the snare.
For the windows of heaven will be opened
    and the foundations of the earth will shake.
¹⁹ The earth will be totally shattered,
    the earth will be torn apart
    the earth will be violently convulsed.
²⁰ The earth will stagger like a drunkard
    and sway like a fragile hut;
its transgressions will weigh heavily upon it,
    and it will fall, never to rise again.”
²¹ On that day the Lord will punish
    in the heavens the host of the heavens,^[d]
    and on the earth the kings of the earth.
²² They will be herded together,
    jammed in like prisoners in a dungeon.
They will be shut up in a pit
    and punished after many years.
²³ Then the moon will seem to fade away
    and the sun will hide in shame.
For the Lord of hosts will reign
    on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
and he will manifest his glory
    to the elders of his people.