Isaiah 24:8

24:1-12 All whose treasures and happiness are laid up on earth, will soon be brought to want and misery. It is good to apply to ourselves what the Scripture says of the vanity and vexation of spirit which attend all things here below. Sin has turned the earth upside down; the earth is become quite different to man, from what it was when God first made it to be his habitation. It is, at the best, like a flower, which withers in the hands of those that please themselves with it, and lay it in their bosoms. The world we live in is a world of disappointment, a vale of tears; the children of men in it are but of few days, and full of trouble, See the power of God's curse, how it makes all empty, and lays waste all ranks and conditions. Sin brings these calamities upon the earth; it is polluted by the sins of men, therefore it is made desolate by God's judgments. Carnal joy will soon be at end, and the end of it is heaviness. God has many ways to imbitter wine and strong drink to those who love them; distemper of body, anguish of mind, and the ruin of the estate, will make strong drink bitter, and the delights of sense tasteless. Let men learn to mourn for sin, and rejoice in God; then no man, no event, can take their joy from them.

The mirth of tabrets ceaseth,.... Or of drums, and such like musical instruments, used at junketings and jovial feasts. So when Babylon is fallen, the voice of harpers and musicians, and of pipers and trumpeters, shall be heard no more therein, Revelation 18:22 , the noise of them that rejoice endeth; the tumultuous noise of revelling persons at feasts and banquets, at marriages, and such like seasons; and so it is said, that when Babylon is destroyed, the voice of the bridegroom and the bride shall be heard no more at all therein, or the joy expressed on such occasions by their friends and companions, Revelation 18:23, the joy of the harp ceaseth; an instrument of music used on joyful occasions; the voice of harpers is particularly mentioned in Revelation 18:22.

Verse 8. - The mirth of tabrets... of the harp ceaseth (comp. Isaiah 5:12 ). The feasting, and the drinking-songs, and the musical accompaniment, common at the vintage season, are discontinued. All is dismay and wretchedness - desolation in the present, worse desolation expected in the future. Isaiah 24:8

(8) The mirth of tabrets . . . —The words point to the processions of women with timbrels (tambourines) and sacred harps or lyres, like those of Exodus 15:20 ; Judges 11:34 ; 1Samuel 18:6 , as was customary in seasons of victory. (Comp. the striking parallel of 1 Maccabees 3:45 .)

That this is the case is evident from Isaiah 24:4-9 , where the accursed state into which the earth is brought is more fully described, and the cause thereof is given. "Smitten down, withered up is the earth; pined away, wasted away is the world; pined away have they, the foremost of the people of the earth. And the earth has become wicked among its inhabitants; for they transgressed revelations, set at nought the ordinance, broke the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they who dwelt in it make expiation: therefore are the inhabitants of the earth withered up, and there are very few mortals left. New wine mourneth, vine is parched, all the merry-hearted groan. The joyous playing of tabrets is silent; the noise of them that rejoice hath ceased; the joyous playing of the guitar is silent. They drink no wine with a song; meth tastes bitter to them that drink it." "The world" (tēbēl) is used here in Isaiah 24:4 , as in Isaiah 26:9 (always in the form of a proper name, and without the article), as a parallel to "the earth" (hâ'âretz), with which it alternates throughout this cycle of prophecies. It is used poetically to signify the globe, and that without limitation (even in Isaiah 13:11 and Isaiah 18:3 ); and therefore "the earth" is also to be understood here in its most comprehensive sense (in a different sense, therefore, from Isaiah 33:9 , which contains the same play upon sounds).

The earth is sunk in mourning, and has become like a faded plant, withered up with heat; the high ones of the people of the earth (merōm; abstr. pro concr., like câbōd in Isaiah 5:13 ; Isaiah 22:24 ) are included (עם is used, as in Isaiah 42:5 ; Isaiah 40:7 , to signify humanity, i.e., man generally). אמללוּ (for the form, see Comm. on Job, at Job 18:16-19 ) stands in half pause, which throws the subjective notion that follows into greater prominence. It is the punishment of the inhabitants of the earth, which the earth has to share, because it has shared in the wickedness of those who live upon it: chânaph (not related to tânaph) signifies to be degenerate, to have decided for what is evil ( Isaiah 9:16 ), to be wicked; and in this intransitive sense it is applied to the land, which is said to be affected with the guilt of wicked, reckless conduct, more especially of blood-guiltiness ( Psalm 106:38 ; Numbers 35:33 ; compare the transitive use in Jeremiah 3:9 ). The wicked conduct of men, which has caused the earth also to become chanēphâh, is described in three short, rapid, involuntarily excited sentences (compare Isaiah 15:6 ; Isaiah 16:4 ; Isaiah 29:20 ; Isaiah 33:8 ; also Isaiah 24:5 ; Isaiah 1:4 , Isaiah 1:6 , Isaiah 1:8 ; out of the book of Isaiah, however, we only meet with this in Joel 1:10 , and possibly Joshua 7:11 ). Understanding "the earth" as we do in a general sense, "the law" cannot signify merely the positive law of Israel.