World English Bible · Under Assyria
Isaiah 24
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Behold, makes the earth empty, makes it waste, turns it upside down, and scatters its inhabitants. It will be as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the creditor, so with the debtor; as with the taker of interest, so with the giver of interest. The earth will be utterly emptied and utterly laid waste; for has spoken this word. The earth mourns and fades away. The world languishes and fades away. The lofty people of the earth languish. The earth also is polluted under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, violated the , and broken the . Therefore the has devoured the earth, and those who therein are found guilty. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left. The mourns. languishes. All the merry-hearted sigh. The mirth of tambourines ceases. The sound of those who rejoice ends. The joy of the harp ceases. They will not drink with a song. will be bitter to those who drink it. The confused city is broken down. Every house is shut up, that no man may come in. There is a crying in the streets because of the . All joy is darkened. The mirth of the land is gone. The city is left in desolation, and the is struck with . For it will be so within the earth among the peoples, as the shaking of an olive tree, as the when the vintage is done. These shall lift up their voice. They will shout for the majesty of . They cry aloud from the sea. Therefore in the east, even the name of , the of Israel, in the islands of the sea! From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs. to ! But I said, "I pine away! I pine away! woe is me!" The treacherous have dealt treacherously. Yes, the treacherous have dealt very treacherously. Fear, , and the snare are on you who inhabit the earth. It will happen that he who flees from the noise of the fear will fall into ; and he who comes up out of the middle of will be taken in the snare; for the windows on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble. The earth is utterly broken. The earth is torn apart. The earth is shaken violently. The earth will stagger like a drunken man, and will sway back and forth like a hammock. Its will be heavy on it, and it will fall and not . It will happen in that day that will punish the army of the high ones on high, and the kings of the earth on the earth. They will be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in , and will be shut up in the prison; and after many days they will be visited. Then the moon will be confounded, and the sun ; for of Armies will reign on Mount and in ; and will be before his .
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · Under Assyria, 745 BC to 612 BC ›
Assyria at full stretch, deporting whole populations as policy. The northern kingdom is destroyed in 722 BC and Judah survives as a tribute-paying vassal.
- Assyria
- The first empire to run mass deportation as ordinary administration: move the leadership somewhere else, settle strangers in their place, and the province stops being a nation. It worked. Samaria fell in 722 BC and the northern tribes did not come back. Assyria also advertised its cruelty deliberately, carving flayings and impalements on palace walls where envoys would see them, because terror is cheaper than garrisons.
- Judah
- Survives by paying. Hezekiah rebels, Sennacherib takes forty-six Judean towns and besieges Jerusalem in 701 BC, and the city holds. The Assyrian account boasts of shutting Hezekiah up like a bird in a cage and pointedly does not claim to have taken the city, which is one of the more interesting silences in ancient records.
- Egypt
- The splintered reed of a staff that Assyria's field commander mocks Judah for leaning on. It promises help and cannot deliver, and Isaiah spends decades saying so. Assyria eventually invades and sacks Thebes.
- Further afield
- Greece is in its archaic period, founding colonies from Spain to the Black Sea. Rome is under kings. Assyria's own libraries are collecting the literature of Mesopotamia, which is how Gilgamesh survived to be read again in the nineteenth century.
All of Isaiah