Bible Strands
Isaiah 24:11
In the streets they cry out for wine. All joy turns to gloom; rejoicing is exiled from the land.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet addresses Judah during a period of divine judgment when urban centers are abandoned and households are sealed shut. The declaration describes the immediate aftermath of societal collapse as normal life is interrupted.
The words — צְוָחָה (tzevaChah) denotes a desperate outcry, and שׂמחה (simChah) signifies communal gladness that has departed (גָּלָה, galah). The text records that streets once filled with wine-fueled revelry now echo only with distress.
The thread — This displacement of joy parallels Isaiah 8:22, where the land yields only darkness and anguish, and contrasts with the temporary relief prescribed in Proverbs 31:6. The motif of exiled rejoicing extends the judgment imagery begun in Isaiah 24:10 and completed in Isaiah 24:12.
Why it lands — The passage demands recognition that human celebration loses its foundation when divine order is withdrawn. It requires the reader to confront the reality that joy cannot be manufactured in the absence of the covenant context that sustains it.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone.
Cross-references
- Hosea 7:14 They do not cry out to Me from their hearts when they wail upon their beds. They slash themselves for grain and new wine, but turn away from Me.
- Proverbs 31:6 Give strong drink to one who is perishing, and wine to the bitter in soul.
- Isaiah 8:22 Then they will look to the earth and see only distress and darkness and the gloom of anguish. And they will be driven into utter darkness.
- Isaiah 9:19 By the wrath of the LORD of Hosts the land is scorched, and the people are fuel for the fire. No man even spares his brother.
- Isaiah 16:10 Joy and gladness are removed from the orchard; no one sings or shouts in the vineyards. No one tramples the grapes in the winepresses; I have put an end to the cheering.
- Isaiah 24:7 The new wine dries up, the vine withers. All the merrymakers now groan.
- Isaiah 32:13 and for the land of my people, overgrown with thorns and briers—even for every house of merriment in this city of revelry.
- Jeremiah 48:33 Joy and gladness are removed from the orchard and from the fields of Moab. I have stopped the flow of wine from the presses; no one treads them with shouts of joy; their shouts are not for joy.
- Lamentations 5:14 The elders have left the city gate; the young men have stopped their music.
- Joel 1:15 Alas for the day! For the Day of the LORD is near, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.