Isaiah — Chapter 24

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1 Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.
2 And it shall 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 lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.
3 The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the LORD hath spoken this word.
4 The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.
5 The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.
6 Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.
7 The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merryhearted do sigh.
8 The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth.
9 They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it.
10 The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in.
11 There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone.
12 In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction.
13 When thus it shall be in the midst of the land among the people, there shall be as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done.
14 They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the LORD, they shall cry aloud from the sea.
15 Wherefore glorify ye the LORD in the fires, even the name of the LORD God of Israel in the isles of the sea.
16 From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me! the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously.
17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.
18 And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.
19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
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.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.
22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.
23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.
Abrahamic Catechism
Bible Study
Isaiah — Chapter 24
◈ Zohar

• The Zohar (I, 117a) reads "Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty and maketh it waste" (24:1) as the description of a total reset of creation — HaShem clearing the battlefield of all accumulated Klipot before establishing the new order. This is not destruction for its own sake but demolition prerequisite to reconstruction. The "turning upside down" of the earth represents the reversal of the spiritual inversion that has prevailed since Adam's sin, when the Sitra Achra usurped the position of holiness.

• "The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant" (24:5) is taught in Zohar III (125a) as a diagnosis of how the 613 mitzvot, which form Israel's spiritual armor, have been corrupted and thereby rendered ineffective as protection against the Sitra Achra. Each transgressed law is a piece of armor removed; each changed ordinance is a weapon turned against its wielder. The "everlasting covenant" broken is the Brit (covenant of Yesod) whose integrity seals the channel against the Other Side.

• "The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard" (24:20) is interpreted in Zohar II (44a) as the physical world losing its stability when the Sefirotic structure that supports it is shaken by the final convulsions of the war between holiness and the Sitra Achra. The earth "reels" because the spiritual foundations upon which it rests are being reconfigured. This is the birth pang of the new creation.

• "The Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth" (24:21) is identified in the Tikkunei Zohar (Tikkun 69, 115a) as the definitive Zoharic teaching on the two-level nature of the cosmic war: first the angelic princes of the Sitra Achra are defeated in the upper worlds, then their human instruments are judged below. The "host of the high ones" are the Sarim (princes) of the Other Side who have governed the nations from their supernal thrones. Their imprisonment "in the pit" mirrors the fate of their commander, Helel.

• "Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion" (24:23) is explained in Zohar I (33b) as the obsolescence of all secondary luminaries — both the holy ones (sun and moon as Tiferet and Malkhut) and their Klipotic counterparts — when the Ein Sof's own Light fills creation directly. In the fully rectified state, there is no need for mediated light because the Source itself is everywhere present. The Sitra Achra, which can only exist in shadow, has no shadow left to inhabit.

✦ Talmud

• Sanhedrin 97a discusses the conditions of the end times, and Isaiah 24 — often called the "Little Apocalypse" — describes a global judgment that makes no distinction between classes: priest and people, master and servant, lender and borrower. The Sitra Achra's class system, which it uses to divide and control, is irrelevant when God judges the earth itself. The planet becomes the defendant, and every inhabitant is equally implicated.

• Shabbat 33a lists the sins that bring destruction upon the world, and Isaiah's statement that the earth is defiled because its inhabitants have violated the laws, changed the statutes, and broken the everlasting covenant identifies the specific charges. The Sitra Achra's strategy is to normalize transgression until the covenant itself seems archaic. When the everlasting covenant is broken, the earth's operating system crashes.

• Megillah 10b discusses divine restraint in judgment, and Isaiah's vision of the earth utterly broken down, dissolved, and moved exceedingly suggests a dismantling so thorough that the Sitra Achra's entire infrastructure collapses with the physical world it parasitized. The Other Side cannot exist without a material host; apocalyptic destruction is the ultimate exorcism.

• Pesachim 118a discusses the future Hallel and the song of redemption, and Isaiah 24 ends with a hint of this — "from the uttermost part of the earth we have heard songs, even glory to the righteous." Even within the apocalypse, the remnant sings. The Sitra Achra cannot silence the song of the righteous because the song operates on a frequency that destruction cannot reach.

• Sukkah 52b discusses the final binding of the evil inclination, and Isaiah's image of the Lord punishing the host of the high ones on high and the kings of the earth on earth confirms that the judgment is two-tiered — celestial and terrestrial simultaneously. The Sitra Achra's principalities and their human agents are processed in the same courtroom. No severance of liability between the spiritual and material conspirators.