Rhyming Isaiah, Chapter 24

Rhyming Isaiah, Chapter 24

The LORD’s about, now, to, the earth, lay waste,
to twist its surface, make it desolate,
and scatter all of its inhabitants.
For both the priest and people, the same fate;
as with his master, so it’s with the slave;
as with her mistress, so it’s with her maid;
as with the lender, so the borrower;
just like the one who sells, the purchaser;
so with the debtor, too, the creditor.
To waste, completely, how the earth is laid,
and how it will be utterly despoiled,
for he, the LORD, has spoken this, his word.

How it both withers and dries up, the earth;
how it both withers, languishes, the world,
together, earth and heaven, languish, sure.
Polluted under its inhabitants,
the earth lies; for how they have, laws, transgressed,
the statutes, broken, and the covenant,
the everlasting one is not observed.
For that is why a curse consumes the earth,
and its inhabitants, their punishment,
will suffer; therefore, the inhabitants
of earth have dwindled, and few people left.
The wine dries up, the vine, it languishes
and all those who are merry-hearted sigh.
The merry beat of tambourines is hushed,
and silenced, joyful music of the lyre.
It’s songs, without, the way they drink their wine.
It’s bitter, liquor, tastes to him, is how
who drinks it. Chaos, how, it’s broken down,
its city, every house’s gate is barred
so none may enter. In the street’s there’s heard
the people crying out for wine, its dearth.
All joy has vanished and how happiness
is banished from the land, all merriment.
In desolation, how the city’s left
and battered into ruins are its gates.
For, on the earth, then, thus, how it shall be
among its peoples, as an olive tree,
at gleaning time, it’s beaten in that way,
when ended, is, the harvest of the grapes.

They lift their voices up, they sing for joy;
it’s from the west, they, o’er the majesty,
shout for the LORD’s. Therefore, you, in the east,
give glory to the LORD, and of the sea,
its coastlands, through, the glory, you proclaim,
the LORD’s, the God of Is’rael, to his name.
Earth’s ends, from there we’re hearing songs of praise,
of glory, to the Righteous One, conveyed.
But I say, “This ordeal is so depraved!
I pine away. The traitors have betrayed,
the treacherous deal treach’rously, that way.

“The hunter’s snare, both terror and the pit
that face you, all of earth’s inhabitants.
Whoever, at the sound of terror, flees,
shall fall into the pit undoubtedly,
and whosoever climbs out of the pit,
will, in the hunter’s snare, how they’ll be caught.
Yes, opened wide are heaven’s sluice-gates,
and the foundations of the earth will shake.
The earth is cracking, open, how it breaks,
it’s vi’lently, the way the earth will quake.
The earth will lurch like someone who is drunk,
it, to-and-fro, sways like a shanty hut.
Upon it, its transgressions, heavy, lie,
and it falls, and again, it will not rise.”

When that day comes, the LORD will punish them,
all heaven’s hosts, he will, up there in heav’n,
and, on the earth, the kings of earth, them, all.
How all together, gathered, be, they will,
like prisoners locked in a dungeon’s cell.
They’ll in a prison be shut upwardly,
and after many days, they’ll, punished, be.
The moon will be abashed, the sun, ashamed,
for, how it is, the LORD of Hosts will reign
on Zion’s Mount and in Jerusalem,
and there, the place where he will manifest
within his elders’ sight, he’s glorious.