Isaiah 24:2-4 New English Translation

²Everyone will suffer—the priest as well as the people,^[a]
the master as well as the servant,^[b]
the elegant lady as well as the female attendant,^[c]
the seller as well as the buyer,^[d]
the borrower as well as the lender,^[e]
the creditor as well as the debtor.^[f]
³The earth will be completely devastated
and thoroughly ransacked.
For the Lord has decreed this judgment.^[g]
⁴The earth^[h] dries up^[i] and withers,
the world shrivels up and withers;
the prominent people of the earth^[j] fade away.

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Footnotes

Isaiah 24:2 tn Heb “and it will be like the people, like the priest.”
Isaiah 24:2 tn Heb “like the servant, like his master.”
Isaiah 24:2 tn Heb “like the female servant, like her mistress.”
Isaiah 24:2 tn Heb “like the buyer, like the seller.”
Isaiah 24:2 tn Heb “like the lender, like the borrower.”
Isaiah 24:2 tn Heb “like the creditor, just as the one to whom he lends.”
Isaiah 24:3 tn Heb “for the Lord has spoken this word.”
Isaiah 24:4 tn Some prefer to read “land” here, but the word pair אֶרֶץ/תֵּבֵל (ʾerets/tevel [see the corresponding term in the parallel line]) elsewhere clearly designates the earth/world (see 1 Sam 2:8; 1 Chr 16:30; Job 37; 12; Pss 19:4; 24:1; 33:8; 89:11; 90:2; 96:13; 98:9; Prov 8:26, 31; Isa 14:16-17; 34:1; Jer 10:12; 51:15; Lam 4:12). According to L. Stadelmann, תבל designates “the habitable part of the world” (The Hebrew Conception of the World [AnBib], 130).
Isaiah 24:4 tn Or “mourns” (BDB 5 s.v. אָבַל). HALOT 6-7 lists the homonyms I אבל (“mourn”) and II אבל (“dry up”). They propose the second here on the basis of parallelism.
Isaiah 24:4 tn Heb “the height of the people of the earth.” The translation assumes an emendation of the singular form מְרוֹם (m^erom, “height of”) to the plural construct מְרֹמֵי (m^erome, “high ones of”; note the plural verb at the beginning of the line), and understands the latter as referring to the prominent people of human society.

New English Translation (NET)