Isaiah 24-27, Part 4: The Mourning Earth (Isa. 24:4)
By Robert E. Cruickshank, Jr., and Daniel E. Harden
Daniel E. Harden (Editor)
Copyright © Robert E. Cruickshank, Jr. (September 7, 2025)
All Rights Reserved
“The earth mourns and withers; the world languishes and withers; the highest people of the earth languish” (Isaiah 24:4).
We opened this series of articles[1] by noting how most older commentators saw Isaiah 24-27 in light of God’s past judgments in Old Testament times.[2] In stark contrast, numerous modern commentators view it as an apocalyptic prophecy about the end of time. True to form, the Enduring Word Commentary explains Isaiah 24:4 this way: “The earth mourns and fades away: Why does the earth mourn? Because in the Great Tribulation, the earth will be terribly afflicted by the judgments of the LORD.”[3]
The modern approach tends to treat Isaiah like a divine codebreaker, embedding hidden messages about the end of the world in his prophecy to the “Judah and Jerusalem” (Isa. 1:1) of his day.[4]
But the mourning earth of Isaiah 24:4 has nothing to do with the end of earth history, and Isaiah’s words aren’t some secret code language for solving an end-times mystery. Isaiah is delivering a timely message, in real time, to the people of his own time. And the concept of the mourning earth speaks to the covenant lawsuit being prosecuted against the people of that time and not a cryptic countdown to the end of time.
Isaiah Echoes Hosea
In our previous installment, we noted how Isaiah’s phrase “the people will be like the priest” (Isa. 24:2) echoes the words of the prophet Hosea, who said, “And it will be, like the people, like the priest” (Hos. 4:9).[5] In like manner, Isaiah’s phrase “the earth/land (e’rets) mourns (a’val)” (Isa. 24:4) echoes Hosea’s phrase “therefore the land (e’rets) mourns (a’val)” (Hos. 4:3).[6] It’s widely recognized that Isaiah’s use of Hosea in Isaiah 24-27 is purposeful, intentional, and deliberate.[7] As one writer puts it, “The use of Hosea in Isa 24–27 is overt and programmatic.”[8] In short, Isaiah connects with Hosea. This connection deepens when we consider how Isaiah reverses the order from the Hosea text:
Isaiah: 1) the people will be like the priest (Isa. 24:2), and 2) the land mourns (Isa. 24:4)
Hosea: 1) the land mourns (Hos. 4:3), and 2) the people will be like the priest (Hos. 4:9)
Inverting the order of a text like this is a technique that the Biblical writers sometimes used to reflect back to a previous Biblical writer.[9] By using these terms and flipping their order, Isaiah is calling on his readers to reflect back to Hosea’s writings.[10] It’s as if Isaiah is saying, “If you want to know what I’m talking about, if you want to know what’s going on here, read Hosea!” By referencing Hosea, Isaiah was telegraphing to his readers that his carefully chosen words were meant to evoke a covenant lawsuit in a legal framework.
Judah on Trial
Hosea’s statements about the land mourning (Hos. 4:3) and the people being as the priest (Hos. 4:9) are part of Yahweh’s “case (riv) against the inhabitants of the land” (Hos. 4:1). The Hebrew word riv carries legal overtones and can connote “a case at law.”[11] For example, it is used in Lamentations 3:13 for defrauding a man in his “lawsuit (riv).” Hosea brought this “case” (riv) or “lawsuit” against the northern tribes of Israel,[12] and now Isaiah is bringing this same “case” or “lawsuit” against Judah.[13]
Hosea and Isaiah were prophetic prosecutors. While there is some overlap between both houses in both prophets, for the most part Hosea was Israel’s prosecutor, and Isaiah was Judah’s. In short, Isaiah is citing past case law and appealing to prior legal precedent by citing Hosea. Accordingly, he opens his new case by naming the defendant.
Isaiah begins his prophecy by targeting “Judah and Jerusalem” (Isa. 1:1), charging them with spiritual treason (Isa. 1:2-31), and announcing that “the Lord will arise to contend (riv)” and “stand to judge” His people (Isa. 3:13).[14] The language of the lawsuit, therefore, is clear early on in Isaiah’s prophetic proceeding. Just as Hosea framed the structure of his lawsuit against Israel, Isaiah adopts the same legal framework in his “contention/case (riv)” against Judah. This being so, he summons witnesses to validate the charges being brought – and once again follows the footsteps of another former prosecutor.
In the course of this lawsuit, Isaiah calls upon heaven and earth to “listen” and “hear” the charges (Isa. 1:2). In so doing, he is echoing the rhetorical style of Moses himself – who called upon “heaven and earth” to “witness against” the people of Israel (Deut. 30:19). Calling upon the physical creation as a witness in legally binding matters was commonplace in the Hebrew Scriptures.
For example, Abraham calls seven ewe lambs as a witness to his covenant with Abimelech (Gen. 21:30). Jacob calls a heap and a pillar as witness to his covenant with Laban at Mizpah (Gen. 31:52). And Joshua calls a large stone as a witness to the covenant that he made with the people at Shechem before his death (Josh. 24:25-27).[15] On a grander scale, the entire creation – heaven and earth – are the witnesses called upon by prophets like Isaiah and Moses to testify against Israel and Judah for their covenant violations. Accordingly, one of the witnesses takes the stand in Isaiah’s lawsuit.
A Witness Speaks
The mourning earth (or land) of Isaiah 24:4 serves a poetic, rhetorical purpose in Isaiah’s prophetic lawsuit. One of the two witnesses from Isaiah 1:2 is now testifying. The mourning earth (e’rets) testifies to the gravity of Judah’s sin, and Jeremiah later records this testimony as Judah’s judgment is closing in:
“For this the earth (e’rets) shall mourn (a’val), and the heavens above be dark; for I have spoken; I have purposed; I have not relented, nor will I turn back” (Jer. 4:28).
“How long will the land (e’rets) mourn (a’val), and the grass of every field wither? For the evil of those who dwell in it the beasts and the birds are swept away, because they said, ‘He will not see our latter end’” (Jer. 12:4).
“They have made it a desolation; desolate, it mourns (a’val), to me. The whole land (e’rets) is made desolate, but no man lays it to heart” (Jer. 12:11).
“Judah mourns (a’val), and her gates languish; her people lament on the ground, and the cry of Jerusalem goes up” (Jer. 14:2).
“For the land (e’rets) is full of adulterers; because of the curse the land (e’rets) mourns (a’val), and the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. Their course is evil, and their might is not right” (Jer. 23:10).
Like Moses, Hosea, and Isaiah before him, Jeremiah was likewise a covenant enforcer. This being the case, the declaration that “the earth mourns” is not apocalyptic, but judicial – and deeply rooted in the prophets’ legal tradition. As Isaiah prosecutes his case, the land itself becomes a witness against Judah, testifying to their breach of covenant, their spiritual corruption, and the coming consequences.[16]
But Isaiah doesn’t stop there. He intensifies the imagery with another powerful rhetorical punch. The land not only “mourns,” it “withers.” Understanding the full weight of this metaphor again takes us to Israel’s past and, more specifically, to the apostate practices that got them in this situation in the first place.
Withering Away
After announcing that the “land (e’rets) mourns (a’val),” Isaiah then says it “withers (na’vel).” The use of this word is polemical and satirical in nature, and Isaiah is tracking on an earlier theme. To understand what he is doing here, we need to go back in his prophecy to the opening chapter. Chapter 1 is Isaiah’s opening argument in his covenant lawsuit, and he lays down his indictment with these words:
“But rebels and sinners shall be broken together, and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed. For they shall be ashamed of the oaks that you desired; and you shall blush for the gardens that you have chosen. For you shall be like an oak whose leaf withers (na’vel), and like a garden without water” (Isaiah 1:29-30).
The lawsuit being brought against the people of Judah involved their breach of covenant through the worship of false gods and pagan rituals in oak-filled gardens.[17] Hosea likewise indicted the people of Israel, in his lawsuit, for having “played the harlot” and “departing from their God” (Hos. 4:12), under every “oak, poplar, and terebinth” (Hos. 4:13). Isaiah’s polemical point? Like the “withering (na’vel)” leaves of the “oaks” under which they worshiped their false gods, their land (the e’rets of Judah) would “wither (na’vel)” away under the true God’s judgment.
The Withering World of Judah
Next, Isaiah says, “the world (te’vel) languishes (a’mal) and withers (na’vel ). The modern approach tends to see “the world (te’vel)” as referring to the entire planet. But this is not necessarily the case, especially considering Isaiah’s use of the term up to this point.[18]
For example, Isaiah13 is “Isaiah’s oracle concerning Babylon,” which includes its eventual fall to “the Medes” in 539 BC (Isa. 13:1, 17).[19] In this context, Isaiah says that God will “punish the world (te’vel) for its evil” (Isa. 13:11). Clearly, the entire “world” (as we think of it today) wasn’t “punished” in the events leading up to and including ancient Baylon’s demise.
In the next chapter, judgment is pronounced on “the king of Babylon” (Isa. 14:4), who had “made the world (te’vel) like a wilderness,” “overthrew its cities,” and “did not allow his prisoners to go home” (Isa. 14:17). Obviously, this is only the “world (te’vel)” that Babylon itself conquered in Old Testament times and not the complete globe.[20]
In these cases, the usage of “world (te’vel)” is similar to how we’ve seen the word “land (e’rets)” used repeatedly in the Old Testament.[21] In fact, in Isaiah 18:3, both “world (te’vel)” and “land (e’rets)” are used as well. Whether this refers to Cush[22] specifically (Isa. 18:1) or to Judah,[23] it is clear that the words are not intended in any global sense. In other words, these terms are geographically limited by the context of the text in which they are being used. Taken in context, then, Isaiah 24:4 would be referring to the “world (te’vel)” of Judah.
The Languishing World and Its People
Isaiah then says that “the world (te’vel)” of Judah “languishes (a’mal).” This is precisely the description of Jerusalem (Judah’s capital city) that Jeremiah gives both before and after the Babylonian exile:
“Judah mourns, and her gates languish (a’mal); her people lament on the ground, and the cry of Jerusalem goes up” (Jer. 14:2).
“The Lord determined to lay in ruins the wall of the daughter of Zion; he stretched out the measuring line; he did not restrain his hand from destroying; he caused rampart and wall to lament; they languished (a’mal) together” (Lam. 2:8).
As the world of Judah languishes, along with its walls and ramparts, so do the prominent people of Judah as well. Isaiah says, “the highest (ma’rom) people (am) of the land (e’rets) languish (a’mal)” (Isa. 24:4c) Typically, ma’rom refers to a height, an elevation, or an elevated place.[24] For example, “she takes a seat on the highest places (ma’rom) of the town” (Prov. 9:14). “Folly is set in many high places (ma’rom), and the rich sit in a low place” (Eccl. 10:16). Isaiah himself uses the word this way when he speaks of Shebna, who was in charge of the royal household (Isa. 22:15), hewing a tomb for himself “on the height (ma’rom)” (Isa. 22:16). In 24:4, Isaiah takes this term, ma’rom, and applies it to the “people (am)” themselves who held these lofty positions. This comports with other passages of Scripture which use this word in a similar manner.
In the Psalms, for example, ma’rom is used of those who act proudly and arrogantly. [25] For instance, David says, “my enemies trample on me all day long, for many attack me proudly (ma’rom)” (Ps. 56:2). Likewise, Asaph says, “They scoff and speak with malice; loftily (ma’rom) they threaten oppression” (Ps. 73:8). Accordingly, the word can refer to nobles and those holding high-ranking positions who would have reason to be proud, arrogant, or boastful.[26] Shebna (Isa. 22:16), mentioned above, would be a good example of someone holding such a position in Judah. He saw to the affairs of the “royal household,” he is called “the secretary,” and he is listed alongside the “senior priests” and “recorders” (2 Kg. 18:18, 37; 19:2; Isa. 22:15; 36:3, 22; 37:2).
Secretaries (so’pher) like Shebna were officers, scribes, and learned men.[27] Like the senior priests and recorders mentioned in the passages above, they were people who held positions of rank and stature within the land. These are all examples of “the highest (ma’rom) people (am) of the land (e’rets)” of Judah (Isa. 24:4).
Isaiah says in 24:4 that these men of nobility and prominence would languish along with their land. He is reinforcing what he had just said in verse 2. The people will be like the priest, the servant like the master, the maid like the mistress (Isa. 24:2). No one would be exempt from the coming calamity. It would be the great equalizer, affluence wouldn’t matter, and Status would offer no sanctuary.[28] In short, nobility and prominence would be of no consequence. The rich and the poor, the exalted and the lowly, would all languish along with their land.
At this stage in the prophetic prosecution, Isaiah has named the people as the defendant, and he has made it clear that the nobles and elite – those in high places – are not above the charges being leveled. They too would languish with the land they’ve corrupted. When Judah goes down, all of Judah will go down. He has named the defendants, summoned the witnesses, and he is about to issue the sentence.
Recap
In this installment, we saw that Isaiah 24:4 echoes the verses that precede it. This isn’t a prophecy about the end of the world; it’s part of Isaiah’s covenant lawsuit brought against Judah – in real time. Isaiah intentionally echoes back to the structure of Hosea’s lawsuit to make the legal connection clear. Like Hosea, Isaiah frames his prophecy as a courtroom proceeding, calling heaven and earth as witnesses, just as Moses once did.
In this courtroom drama, the land itself becomes a witness in the case – mourning and withering in response to Judah’s covenant-breaking behavior. Jeremiah later confirms this by repeating the language of a mourning earth as Judah’s day of reckoning closes in.
Isaiah then sharpens the metaphor by describing the land and people as withering – tying their physical desolation to their spiritual corruption, especially through the idolatry introduced in Isaiah 1:29-30.
This was God’s chosen nation – a people set apart, a people exalted, a people uniquely privileged – making their downfall all the more tragic. Next time, we’ll see how the curse unfolds in full legal force in the verses that follow.
Takeaways
When we read the Old Testament prophets, we need to slow down and read them carefully. The use of certain words and phrases in English can conjure up all sorts of images that seem to fit modern end-times doomsday scenarios. But the prophets were prosecutors in a covenant lawsuit against God’s disobedient people, not soothsayers concerned with the end of the world. They were covenant enforcers.
Allowing the prophets to build one upon another shows us how the language they used is legal terminology to build their case, and this helps us build a better understanding of their message.
In the same way, their words still speak to us today – as well as believers of every day and age. The prophets remind us that we are in a relationship that entails faithfulness, and God holds people accountable for breaching that relationship. This was true in the prophets’ age, it’s true in our age, and it will be true in the “ages to come” (Eph. 2:7).
In Isaiah, the land “mourned” and “withered” because God’s Old Testament people were not walking in obedience to the Lord. In the New Testament, Paul reminds us that God’s displeasure still comes upon the children of disobedience (Eph. 5:6). Today, our unfaithfulness to the Lord can corrode our lives in real and damaging ways, often resulting in tangible consequences on those around us. We are called to be salt and light – flavoring and illuminating the world that we encounter (Matt. 5:13-16).
As children of the light, we need to walk in the light, and bear the fruit of the light – discerning what is pleasing to the Lord (Eph. 5:8-10). Paul and Isaiah were on the same page, and their words are united by their timeless call to believing loyalty in every age. And reading the Bible in its proper context sheds applicable light on its every page!
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[1] Robert E. Cruickshank, Jr. and Daniel E. Harden, Isaiah 24-27 ( Part 1): The City of Chaos and the Chaos of Modern Interpretations https://bit.ly/3UeaHk7
[2] For example, R.C. Sproul noted: “Chapter 24 of Isaiah often is referred to as an apocalypse, and many believe that Isaiah was prophesying about the Last Judgment. John Calvin, however, takes an opposing position and maintains that this chapter and the ones following are a conclusive summary of all the previous chapters. Calvin argues that Isaiah was speaking about the destruction, not of the whole earth in the Last Judgment, but of all the nations known to the Jews—Moab, Assyria, Egypt, and other nations in their vicinity, as well as many that were far off. These nations would be judged by the Lord—judgments that are recorded in detail in earlier chapters” (Judgment on “the Earth” | Reformed Bible Studies & Devotionals at Ligonier.org https://bit.ly/3HZG1jY ).
[3] Enduring Word Bible Commentary Isaiah Chapter 24 https://bit.ly/45HU0nR
[4] The End Times According To Isaiah, Part 6 – Grace thru faith https://bit.ly/4p5cyWx
[5] As Christopher B. Hays notes, “…Isa 24:2 spins out the same formulation in much more detail…” (The Origins of Isaiah 24–27: Josiah’s Festival Scroll for the Fall of Assyria [New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2019], 218).
[6] The transliterations in this series of articles are taken from STEP Bible (by Tyndale house), which transliterates the Hebrew word רִיב as riv, while other sources will transliterate as rib. This is merely a matter of preference based on how the Hebrew consonant is vocalized. In this series, Hebrew transliterations follow the STEP Bible method, for the most part.
[7] John Day notes considerable and striking parallels between Isaiah 26 and Hosea 13 in Craig C. Broyles and Craig A. Evans, Writing and Reading the Scroll of Isaiah: Studies of an Interpretive Tradition, Volume 1 (New York, NY: Brill, 1997), 357-368.
[8] Christopher B. Hays, Isaiah 24-27, 217.
[9] Robert E. Cruickshank, Jr., Mordecai or the Millennium? Ancient History, Pop-Prophecy, and the Meaning of Zechariah 8:23 (Part 2: The Words of Peace and Truth) – The Burros of Berea https://bit.ly/3JEGXuG
[10] It’s important to keep in mind that the Biblical writers didn’t have tools such as footnotes or chapter and verse divisions at their disposal like we do today. They had to develop other ways of referencing previous materials. As modern readers, we need to keep this in mind and look for their “footnotes.”
[11] STEP Bible entry for רִיב (riv). As mentioned above, this Hebrew word can also be transliterated as rib.
[12] As Gale A. Lee writes, “…a number of scholars characterize 4:1-3 in its present form as a lawsuit (rib) introducing the rest of the oracles” (Gale A. Yee, Composition and Tradition in the Book of Hosea: A Redaction Critical Investigation, SBSLDS 102 [Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1987], 143).
[13] For more on the covenant lawsuit in Isaiah, see: Robert E. Cruickshank, Jr. and Daniel E. Harden, Isaiah’s New Heavens and New Earth (Part 8): Trying the Case – Isaiah’s Opening and Closing Arguments – The Burros of Berea https://bit.ly/4mEpAbP ; Robert E. Cruickshank, Jr. and Daniel E. Harden, Isaiah 24-27 ( Part 1): The City of Chaos and the Chaos of Modern Interpretations – The Burros of Berea https://bit.ly/3JE0snf
[14] As Susan Ackerman writes, “the entire nation is on trial for what the prophet considers cultic abuse” (Under Every Green Tree, 169).
[15] The word in Genesis 21:30, 31:52 and Joshua is e’dah, which means to be a witness in a legal proceeding. The word in Deuteronomy 30:19 is ud, which means to testify or bear witness in a legal proceeding. In either case, the connotation is the same.
[16] As Joel’s prophecy bears out, the locust swarm on the land (Joel 1:1-4) was a testimony of God’s displeasure with the “elders” (Joel 1:2) and the priests (Joel 1:13), whom Joel characterizes as worthless drunks (Joel 1:5). It was also a portent of the invasion of a foreign nation (Joel 1:6), and a sign that “the day of the Lord” was “near” (Joel 1:15). The fig trees splintered, and their branches became white (Joel 1:7). The fields were trampled, the grain was ruined, and the wine and oil dried up (Joel 1:10). The wheat, the barley, and all the fruit trees dried up, as the rejoicing of men dried up (Joel 1:11-12). Echoing the other prophets, Joel said the ground itself mourns (Joel 1:10).
[17] See: Susan Ackerman, Under Every Green Tree: Popular Religion in Sixth-Century Judah – Harvard Semitic Monographs 46 (Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1992), 168-169.
[18] For a more in-depth treatment of the Hebrew word te’vel, or te’bel, see: Daniel E. Harden, The Resurrection of the Dead [Kindle Direct Publishing, 2021], 126-128 – available here https://amzn.to/4nkCyeV
[19] Fall of Babylon | Research Starters | EBSCO Research https://bit.ly/4g6Mk1O
[20] For a brief look at Isaiah chapters 13 and 14, see: Harden, The Resurrection of the Dead, 172-175.
[21] On the usage of these terms elsewhere in Isaiah in conjunction with Isaiah 24-27. John Watts observes, “In chap. 13, the announcement that armies from distant lands will come to ‘destroy the whole land’ fulfills the prediction of 10:23 of a decreed destruction upon the entire land. The sun, moon, and stars join the battle to
make the land desolate (v 10). Human beings ( אדם ) will be more scarce than gold (v 12), and the land ( ארץ ) will be shaken from its place (v 13). This burden then comes to focus upon Babylon (v 19) and upon the king of Babylon (chap. 14). At his death witnesses will ask: ‘Is this the man who terrorized the earth?’ Then the account brings in a synonymous term: ‘who made the world ( תבל ) like a desert.’ It goes on to speak about the destruction of cities. This is enough to show that the Vision’s use of ארץ invokes a meaning of ‘land’
that covers the historical nations of the ancient Near East. Even תבל , ‘world,’ is used in this extended meaning. The prophecy of the destruction of the whole land occurred in 10:23 and 13:5. There is no reason to see the meaning in chaps. 24-27 in any other way” (John D.W. Watts, Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 24: Isaiah 1-33 [Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2004], 368).
[22] Cush is another name for Ethiopia.
[23] According to Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible on Isa. 24:4, “[Campegius] Vitringa interprets this of the mountains of Judea, where the Assyrians would set up their banners, and blow their trumpets” – often used “to gather people to war”.
[24] Entry for מָרוֹם (ma’rom) ‘height’ (H4791) in STEP Bible (Tyndale House), 1a.
[25] Entry for מָרוֹם (ma’rom) ‘height’ (H4791) in STEP Bible (Tyndale House), 1c.
[26] Entry for מָרוֹם (ma’rom) ‘height’ (H4791) in STEP Bible (Tyndale House), 1d.
[27] Entry for סֹפֵר (so.pher) ‘secretary’ (H5608B) in STEP Bible (Tyndale House), 1, 1a, 1b.
[28] See: Robert E. Cruickshank, Jr. and Daniel E. Harden, Isaiah 24-27 (Part 3): Isaiah 24:2-3 – Isaiah’s Timely Warnings to His Time https://tinyurl.com/49dphac4