Isaiah 24:18
A plain-spoken deep dive on this verse. Read the chapter →
Whoever flees the sound of panic will fall into the pit, and whoever climbs from the pit will be caught in the snare. For the windows of heaven are open, and the foundations of the earth are shaken.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
It is agreed that here begins a new sermon, which is continued to the end of Isa 27:1-13. And in it the prophet, according to the directions he had received, does, in many precious promises, "say to the righteous, It shall be well with them;" and, in many dreadful threatenings, he says, "Woe to the wicked, it shall be ill with them" (Isa 3:10, Isa 3:11); and these are interwoven, that they may illustrate each other. This chapter is mostly threatening; and, as the judgments threatened are very sore and grievous ones, so the people threatened with those judgments are very many. It is not the burden of any particular city or kingdom, as those before, but the burden of the whole earth. The word indeed signifies only the land, because our own land is commonly to us as all the earth. But it is here explained by another word that is not so confined; it is the world (Isa 24:4); so that it must at least take in a whole neighbourhood of nations. 1. Some think (and very probably) that it is a prophecy of the great havoc that Sennacherib and his Assyrian army should now shortly make of many of the nations in that part of the world. 2. Others make it to point at the like devastations which, about 100 years afterwards, Nebuchadnezzar and his armies should make in the same countries, going from one kingdom to another, not only to conquer them, but to ruin them and lay them waste; for that was the method which those eastern nations took in their wars. The promises that are mixed with the threatenings are intended for the support and comfort of the people of God in those very calamitous times. And, since here are no particular nations names either by whom or on whom those desolations should be brought, I see not but it may refer to both these events. Nay, the scripture has many fulfilli…
Open source ↗24:18 No one can escape the day of the Lord (see study note on 2:5-22). • Destruction falls like rain from the heavens (literally the floodgates of heaven are opened): The imagery is like the flood in Noah’s time (see study note on Gen 7:11-12). • the foundations of the earth shake: An earthquake is characteristic of a theophany, a physical manifestation of God’s presence (see also Isa 6:4; 13:13; 19:1).
Open source ↗Cross-references
Other passages the community most often connects to this one. Tap to read.
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month, all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.
Then the earth shook and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains trembled; they were shaken because He burned with anger.
It will be like a man who flees from a lion, only to encounter a bear, or who enters his house and rests his hand against the wall, only to be bitten by a snake.
The channels of the sea appeared, and the foundations of the world were exposed, at Your rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of Your nostrils.
Though he flees from an iron weapon, a bronze-tipped arrow will pierce him.
But the officer on whose arm the king leaned answered the man of God, “Look, even if the LORD were to make windows in heaven, could this really happen?” “You will see it with your own eyes,” replied Elisha, “but you will not eat any of it.”
Then the LORD rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the LORD out of the heavens.