Bible Strands
Isaiah 24:13
So will it be on the earth and among the nations, like a harvested olive tree, like a gleaning after a grape harvest.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The prophet addresses Judah and the surrounding nations during a period of widespread desolation following divine judgment. The declaration marks the transition from localized ruin to a universal assessment of the earth.
The words — The phrase כְּנֹקֶף (ke.noqef) literally means "like the beating of," denoting the agricultural practice of striking olive branches to dislodge fruit. The text uses this term to describe the thorough depletion of the land and the peoples, not a surviving remnant.
The thread — The pattern of devastation followed by a preserved few runs through Isaiah 6:13, where a tenth remains after burning, and Isaiah 10:20, which identifies the survivors of Jacob. The universal scope of the judgment aligns with the warning in Isaiah 1:9 that without divine preservation, the people would have become like Sodom and Gomorrah.
Why it lands — The text declares that judgment will strip the earth and all nations of their abundance, leaving only what divine restraint preserves. It requires the reader to acknowledge that human security is contingent on the LORD's sovereign will rather than national or agricultural prosperity.
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
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.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 1:9 Unless the LORD of Hosts had left us a few survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have resembled Gomorrah.
- Isaiah 6:13 And though a tenth remains in the land, it will be burned again. As the terebinth and oak leave stumps when felled, so the holy seed will be a stump in the land.”
- Isaiah 10:20 On that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no longer depend on him who struck them, but they will truly rely on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.
- Isaiah 17:5 as the reaper gathers the standing grain and harvests the ears with his arm, as one gleans heads of grain in the Valley of Rephaim.
- Jeremiah 44:28 Those who escape the sword will return from Egypt to Judah, few in number, and the whole remnant of Judah who went to dwell in the land of Egypt will know whose word will stand, Mine or theirs!
- Ezekiel 6:8 Yet I will leave a remnant, for some of you will escape the sword when you are scattered among the nations and throughout the lands.
- Ezekiel 7:16 The survivors will escape and live in the mountains, moaning like doves of the valley, each for his own iniquity.
- Ezekiel 9:4 “Go throughout the city of Jerusalem,” said the LORD, “and put a mark on the foreheads of the men sighing and groaning over all the abominations committed there.”
- Ezekiel 11:16 Therefore declare that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Although I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them among the countries, yet for a little while I have been a sanctuary for them in the countries to which they have gone.’
- Ezekiel 14:22 Yet, behold, some survivors will be left in it—sons and daughters who will be brought out. They will come out to you, and when you see their conduct and actions, you will be comforted regarding the disaster I have brought upon Jerusalem—all that I have brought upon it.