Bible Strands
Isaiah 24:3
The earth will be utterly laid waste and thoroughly plundered. For the LORD has spoken this word.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The prophet pronounces this declaration to Israel immediately after detailing the identical ruin awaiting every social class in 24:2. The moment shifts from describing universal affliction to anchoring it in divine authority.
The words — תִבּוֹק (ti.Bok) and תִבּוֹז (ti.Boz) from roots H1238 and H962 literally mean "it will be laid waste" and "it will be plundered." These parallel terms stress the completeness of the coming desolation.
The thread — The desolation motif runs to Isaiah 24:1, where Yahweh lays waste the earth, and aligns with the ruined cities of Isaiah 6:11 and the heaped corpses of Leviticus 26:30. The closing clause "For the LORD has spoken" ties the event directly to divine decree rather than natural disaster.
Why it lands — The text states that systemic collapse is a direct result of Yahweh's declared word, not random chance. It requires the reader to accept that judgment is final, universally applied, and grounded solely in God's authoritative speech.
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
The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 24:1 Behold, the LORD lays waste the earth and leaves it in ruins. He will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants—
- Isaiah 6:11 Then I asked: “How long, O Lord?” And He replied: “Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left unoccupied and the land is desolate and ravaged,
- Leviticus 26:30 I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and heap your lifeless bodies on the lifeless remains of your idols; and My soul will despise you.
- Deuteronomy 29:23 All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown and unproductive, with no plant growing on it, just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in His fierce anger.
- Deuteronomy 29:28 The LORD uprooted them from their land in His anger, rage, and great wrath, and He cast them into another land, where they are today.’
- 2 Chronicles 36:21 So the land enjoyed its Sabbath rest all the days of the desolation, until seventy years were completed, in fulfillment of the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah.
- Isaiah 21:17 The remaining archers, the warriors of Kedar, will be few.” For the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.
- Isaiah 22:25 In that day, declares the LORD of Hosts, the peg driven into a firm place will give way; it will be sheared off and fall, and the load upon it will be cut down.” Indeed, the LORD has spoken.
- Ezekiel 36:4 therefore, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD. This is what the Lord GOD says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys, to the desolate ruins and abandoned cities, which have become a spoil and a mockery to the rest of the nations around you.
- Micah 4:4 And each man will sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree, with no one to frighten him. For the mouth of the LORD of Hosts has spoken.