The 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.
Parallel Translations
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The 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.
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The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
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The earth reeleth to and fro like a drunken man, and swayeth to and fro as a lodge; and the transgression thereof is heavy upon it, and it shall fall, and not rise again.
Cross-references (18)
Passages linked to Isaiah 24:20 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Isaiah 19:14 Yahweh has mixed a spirit of perverseness in the middle of her; and they have caused Egypt to go astray in all of its works, like a drunken man staggers in his vomit.
- Isaiah 29:9 Pause and wonder! Blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.
- Daniel 11:19 Then he will turn his face toward the fortresses of his own land; but he will stumble and fall, and won’t be found.
- Hosea 4:1-5 Hear Yahweh’s word, you children of Israel; for Yahweh has a charge against the inhabitants of the land: “Indeed there is no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land. There is cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break boundaries, and bloodshed causes bloodshed. Therefore the land will mourn, and everyone who dwells in it will waste away, with all living things in her, even the animals of the field and the birds of the sky, yes, the fish of the sea also die. “Yet let no man bring a charge, neither let any man accuse; for your people are like those who bring charges against a priest. You will stumble in the day, and the prophet will also stumble with you in the night; and I will destroy your mother.
- Amos 8:14 Those who swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, ‘As your god, Dan, lives;’ and, ‘As the way of Beersheba lives;’ they will fall, and never rise up again.”
- Revelation 18:21 A mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying, “Thus with violence will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down, and will be found no more at all.
- Lamentations 1:14 “The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand. They are knit together. They have come up on my neck. He made my strength fail. The Lord has delivered me into their hands, against whom I am not able to stand.
- Zechariah 5:5-8 Then the angel who talked with me came forward, and said to me, “Lift up now your eyes, and see what this is that is appearing.” I said, “What is it?” He said, “This is the ephah basket that is appearing.” He said moreover, “This is their appearance in all the land (and behold, a talent of lead was lifted up); and this is a woman sitting in the middle of the ephah basket.” He said, “This is Wickedness;” and he threw her down into the middle of the ephah basket; and he threw the weight of lead on its mouth.
- Psalms 38:4 For my iniquities have gone over my head. As a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.
- Psalms 107:27 They reel back and forth, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.
- Isaiah 1:8 The daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a field of melons, like a besieged city.
- Isaiah 1:28 But the destruction of transgressors and sinners shall be together, and those who forsake Yahweh shall be consumed.
- Isaiah 5:7-30 For the vineyard of Yahweh of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for justice, but, behold, oppression; for righteousness, but, behold, a cry of distress. Woe to those who join house to house, who lay field to field, until there is no room, and you are made to dwell alone in the middle of the land! In my ears, Yahweh of Armies says: “Surely many houses will be desolate, even great and beautiful, unoccupied. For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield an ephah.” Woe to those who rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink, who stay late into the night, until wine inflames them! The harp, lyre, tambourine, and flute, with wine, are at their feasts; but they don’t respect the work of Yahweh, neither have they considered the operation of his hands. Therefore my people go into captivity for lack of knowledge. Their honorable men are famished, and their multitudes are parched with thirst. Therefore Sheol has enlarged its desire, and opened its mouth without measure; and their glory, their multitude, their pomp, and he who rejoices among them, descend into it. So man is brought low, mankind is humbled, and the eyes of the arrogant ones are humbled; but Yahweh of Armies is exalted in justice, and God the Holy One is sanctified in righteousness. Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture, and strangers will eat the ruins of the rich. Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, and wickedness as with cart rope, who say, “Let him make haste, let him hasten his work, that we may see it; let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, that we may know it!” Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! Woe to those who are mighty to drink wine, and champions at mixing strong drink; who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice for the innocent! Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as the dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust, because they have rejected the law of Yahweh of Armies, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore Yahweh’s anger burns against his people, and he has stretched out his hand against them and has struck them. The mountains tremble, and their dead bodies are as refuse in the middle of the streets. For all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is still stretched out. He will lift up a banner to the nations from far away, and he will whistle for them from the end of the earth. Behold, they will come speedily and swiftly. No one shall be weary nor stumble among them; no one shall slumber nor sleep, neither shall the belt of their waist be untied, nor the strap of their sandals be broken, whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent. Their horses’ hoofs will be like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind. Their roaring will be like a lioness. They will roar like young lions. Yes, they shall roar, and seize their prey and carry it off, and there will be no one to deliver. They will roar against them in that day like the roaring of the sea. If one looks to the land, behold, darkness and distress. The light is darkened in its clouds.
- Isaiah 38:12 My dwelling is removed, and is carried away from me like a shepherd’s tent. I have rolled up my life like a weaver. He will cut me off from the loom. From day even to night you will make an end of me.
- Isaiah 43:27 Your first father sinned, and your teachers have transgressed against me.
- Jeremiah 8:4 “Moreover you shall tell them, ‘Yahweh says: “ ‘Do men fall, and not rise up again? Does one turn away, and not return?
- Jeremiah 25:27 “You shall tell them, ‘Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says: “Drink, and be drunk, vomit, fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you.” ’
- Matthew 23:35-36 that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar. Most certainly I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (11 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Isa 24:20 The earth shall reel to and fro…
Isa 24:20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
Ver. 20. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard.] As the inhabitants thereof had drunk in iniquity like water; {Job 15:16} so they should now drink and be drunk with the cup of God’s wrath.
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And shall be removed like a cottage.] Or, Lodge, hut, or tent; so shall they be tossed and tumbled from one place to another.
And the transgression,] i.e., The punishment of your transgression. Observe here the wages and the weight of sin.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain The earth; the people of the earth.
The earth; the people of the earth.
Shall reel to and fro like a drunkard; shall be sorely perplexed and distressed, not knowing whither to go, nor what to do. Like a cottage; or like a lodge in a garden, of which this word is used, Isa 1:8, which is soon taken down, and set up ill another place, as occasion requires. Or, as others render it, like a tent, which is easily and commonly carried from place to place.
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The transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; those sins which they formerly esteemed light and pleasant shall now be most burdensome and grievous to them, because of the dreadful punishments which shall follow them.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And it shall come to pass in that day,....…
And it shall come to pass in that day,.... Not at the precise exact time the earth shall be dissolved, but previous to it, within that dispensation that is called the last day:
that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high; which is not to be understood of the darkening of the sun, moon, and stars in the heavens, as some; nor of the visiting of angels, as Aben Ezra; nor of the punishment of Satan, and his principalities and powers, who are reserved to the judgment of the great day; much less of the people of the Jews, their kings and rulers; nor the great monarchs of the earth, the Assyrian, Chaldean, and others; but of antichrist and, his dignified clergy, cardinals, archbishops, bishops, &c. who are the "host or army of that high one" (z), as it may be rendered; of him that exalts himself above all that is called God, sitting in the high place in the temple of God, as if he was God; him, with all his mighty ones, will Christ, who is the true Jehovah, destroy with the breath of his mouth and the brightness of his coming; see Th2 2:4,
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and the kings of the earth upon the earth; the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication with the whore of Rome; and who will make war with the Lamb, and shall be overcome by him, Rev 17:2 or, "the kings of he earth" with "their earth" (a); both they and their land shall be visited.
(z) "super exercitum excelsi", Pagninus, Montanus, So Cocceius. (a) "cum terra ipsorum", Junius & Tremellius.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain A tent - Which is easily and commonly carried…
A tent - Which is easily and commonly carried from place to place.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 20. Like a cottage - "Like a lodge…
Verse 20. Like a cottage - "Like a lodge for a night"] See Clarke on Isa 1:8.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain The earth shall reel to and fro like a…
The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard - This is descriptive of the agitation that occurs in an earthquake when everything is shaken from its foundation, and when trees and towers are shaken by the mighty concussion. The same figure is used in Isa 29:9. See also the description of a tempest at sea, in Psa 107:27 :
They reel to and fro,
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And stagger like a drunken man,
And are at their wit’s end.
And shall be removed like a cottage - Or rather, shall move or vacillate (התנודדה hitenôdedâh) like a cottage. The word “cottage” (מלוּנה melûnâh from לין lı̂yn, “to pass the night, to lodge for a night”) means properly a temporary shed or lodge for the watchman of a garden or vineyard (see the note at Isa 1:8). Sometimes these cottages were erected in the form of a hut; and sometimes they were a species of hanging bed or couch, that was suspended from the limbs of trees. They were made either by interweaving the limbs of a tree, or by suspending them by cords from the branches of trees, or by extending a cord or cords from one tree to another, and laying a couch or bed on the cords. They were thus made to afford a convenient place for observation, and also to afford security from the access of wild beasts. Travelers in the East even now resort to such a temporary lodge for security (see Niebuhr’s Description of Arabia). These lodges were easily moved to and fro, and swung about by the wind - and this is the idea in the verse before us. The whole land was agitated as with an earthquake; it reeled like a drunkard; it moved, and was unsettled, as the hanging couch on the trees was driven to and fro by the wind.
And the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it - Like a vast incumbent weight on a dwelling which it cannot sustain, and beneath which it is crushed.
And it shall fall, and not rise again - This does not mean, as I apprehend, that the nation should never be restored to its former dignity and rank as a people, for the prophet immediately Isa 24:23 speaks of such a restoration, and of the re-establishment of the theocracy; but it must mean that in those convulsions it would not rise. It would not be able to recover itself; it would certainly be prostrated. As we say of a drunkard, he may stumble often, and partially recover himself, yet he will certainly fall so as not then to be able to recover himself, so it would be with that agitated and convulsed land. They would make many efforts to recover themselves, and they would partially succeed, yet they would ultimately be completely prostrate in the dust.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Night, unexpectedly, (Haydock) and with the utmost speed. (Calmet)
Night, unexpectedly, (Haydock) and with the utmost speed. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain removed like a cottage--(See on Isa 1:8). Here, a…
removed like a cottage--(See on Isa 1:8). Here, a hanging couch, suspended from the trees by cords, such as NIEBUHR describes the Arab keepers of lands as having, to enable them to keep watch, and at the same time to be secure from wild beasts. Translate, "Shall wave to and fro like a hammock" swung about by the wind.
heavy upon it--like an overwhelming burden.
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not rise again--not meaning, that it never would rise (Isa 24:23), but in those convulsions it would not rise, it would surely fall.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 20. reel to and fro like a drunkard] Cf.…
20. reel to and fro like a drunkard] Cf. Psa_107:27.
shall be removed like a cottage] Better as in R.V. shall be moved to and fro like a hut. The word for “hut” is that used in ch. Isa_1:8 of the watchman’s frail shelter in the cucumber-field. It might here be fitly rendered “hammock.”
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the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it] The material fabric of the earth is as it were crushed beneath the accumulated guilt of its inhabitants (cf. Isa_24:5, Isa_26:21).
it shall fall, and not rise again] Apparently a citation from Amo_5:2.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (20) The earth shall reel to and fro .…
(20) The earth shall reel to and fro . . .—The point of the first comparison is obvious. (Comp. the like illustration of a ship tossed by the waves in Psa_107:27.) The second becomes clearer if we render hammock instead of cottage, a hanging mat, suspended from a tree, in which the keeper of the vineyard slept, moving with every breath of wind; the very type of instability. In the words that follow the prophet traces the destruction to its source. The physical catastrophe is not the result of merely physical causes. The earth totters under the weight of its iniquity, and falls (we must remember the Hebrew idea of the world as resting upon pillars, 1Sa_2:8), never to rise again. In its vision of the last things the picture finds a parallel, though under different imagery, in 2Pe_3:10-13.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain The earth... shall be removed like a cottage; rather,…
The earth... shall be removed like a cottage; rather, sways to and fro like a hammock, Rosenm observes, "Alludit ad pensiles lectos, quos, metu ferrarum, in arboribus sibi parare solent, istis in terris, non custodes solum hortorum camporumve, sed et iter facientes." The transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; i.e. the earth perishes on account of men"s sins. It shall fall, and not rise again. The present earth is to disappear altogether, and to be superseded by "a new heaven and a new earth". (Rev_21:1)
The burden of earth"s transgressions.
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"And the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it." Sin on man is often figured as a burden. Bunyan"s picture of Graceless with the load on his back is familiar enough to be understood by all. Prophets picture God"s impending judgments as a burden ready to fall and crush. We will he retake the term as referring to the transgressions rather than to the direct judgments.
I The BURDEN THAT CRUSHES MEN. It is transgression, which is precisely thiswillful sin. "Sin is a burden to the whole creation; it is a heavy burden, a burden under which it groans now and will sink at last. Sin is the ruin of states and kingdoms and families; they fall under the weight of that talent of lead". (Zec_5:7, Zec_5:8) Illustrative cases may be given of the crushing of health, position, success, friendship, family, by the burden of willful sin. Pressed down by it, humanity cries as did St. Paul, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
II DELIVERANCE FROM THIS BURDEN IS BEYOND MAN"S POWER. All kinds of purely human forces have been tried self-struggles, strong will, education, philosophy, religious systems, legal enactments, watching of one another, refinements of art, etc.; but none have succeeded yet in doing away with the sin of the individual, and so none have even reached the fringe of the world"s misery. Have we any better reason to hope for the success of the modern panacea of scientific knowledge, than our fathers had of the nostrums they tried? Before God intervened, there was "no eye to pity, and no arm to save." For "sin" man has never been able to find "balm in Gilead;" there is no adequate "physician" there.
III MAN"S HELPLESSNESS SHOULD MAKE HIM CRY MIGHTILY UNTO GOD. "Thou canst save, and thou alone." Yet precisely in this men fail. They will die rather than turn to God for pardon and life. And why? Because they do not "know and believe the love which God hath unto them." False and unworthy notions of the God of love, and Father of Jesus: have long prevailed, and they keep men away from God. So our work is to preach the gospel of the grace of God, which alone can lift the burden of transgression that now presses so heavily, so crushingly, on men"s shoulders, that they "fall, and cannot rise again. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.