Isaiah 24:10

The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(10) The city of confusion.—Better, the city of chaos, the tohu of Genesis 1:2, “without form and void.” The world should be cast back out of its cosmos into its primeval chaos. The word is a favourite one with Isaiah (Isaiah 34:11; Isaiah 59:4, and nine other passages).

Every house is shut up—i.e., to complete the picture, not because its gates are barred, but because its own ruins block up the entrance.

Benson Commentary

Isaiah 24:10-12. The city — Jerusalem, and other cities, for the word may be here taken collectively; of confusion — Hebrew, תהו, which signifies vanity, emptiness, desolation, or confusion. And the city may be thus called, either, 1st, In regard of the judgments of God coming upon it, as if he had termed it a city devoted to desolation and destruction: or, 2d, For its sin, a city of confusion and disorder; breaking all the laws and orders which God had established among them; or a city walking in and after vanity, worshipping vain idols, and pursuing vain things. And this may seem the most proper and suitable, that the sin of the city should be pointed out in this word, as the punishment is expressed in the next; is broken down — Its walls, palaces, and temple battered down and demolished; every house is shut up — Either for fear of the enemy, who have entered the city, or because the inhabitants are either fled or dead, or gone into captivity. This seems to be only applicable to the destruction of the city by the Chaldeans, or by the Romans. There is a crying for wine — For the want or loss of their wine; or for the spoiling of the vintage, whereby they were deprived of the means both of their profit and pleasure. In the city is desolation — In Jerusalem itself, that had been so much frequented, there shall be left nothing but desolation; grass shall grow in the streets. The gate is smitten with destruction — The gates of the city are totally ruined, so that the enemy may enter when and where they please. Or, all that used to pass and repass through the gates are smitten, and all the strength of the city is destroyed. How soon can God make a city of order, a city of confusion; and then it will soon be a city of desolation!

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

24:1-12 All whose treasures and happiness are laid up on earth, will soon be brought to want and misery. It is good to apply to ourselves what the Scripture says of the vanity and vexation of spirit which attend all things here below. Sin has turned the earth upside down; the earth is become quite different to man, from what it was when God first made it to be his habitation. It is, at the best, like a flower, which withers in the hands of those that please themselves with it, and lay it in their bosoms. The world we live in is a world of disappointment, a vale of tears; the children of men in it are but of few days, and full of trouble, See the power of God's curse, how it makes all empty, and lays waste all ranks and conditions. Sin brings these calamities upon the earth; it is polluted by the sins of men, therefore it is made desolate by God's judgments. Carnal joy will soon be at end, and the end of it is heaviness. God has many ways to imbitter wine and strong drink to those who love them; distemper of body, anguish of mind, and the ruin of the estate, will make strong drink bitter, and the delights of sense tasteless. Let men learn to mourn for sin, and rejoice in God; then no man, no event, can take their joy from them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The city of confusion - That Jerusalem is here intended there can be no doubt. The name 'city of confusion.' is probably given to it by anticipation of what it would be; that is, as it appeared in prophetic vision to Isaiah (see the note at Isaiah 1:1). He gave to it a name that would describe its state when these calamities should have come upon it. The word rendered 'confusion' (תהו tôhû) does not denote disorder or anarchy, but is a word expressive of emptiness, vanity, destitution of form, waste. It occurs Genesis 1:2 : 'And the earth was without form.' In Job 26:7, it is rendered 'the empty place;' in 1 Samuel 12:21; Isaiah 45:18-19, 'in vain;' and usually 'emptiness,' 'vanity', 'confusion' (see Isaiah 24:10; Isaiah 40:17; Isaiah 41:29). In Job 12:24; Psalm 107:40, it denotes a wilderness. Here it means that the city would be desolate, empty, and depopulated.

Is broken down - Its walls and dwellings are in ruins.

Every house is shut up - That is, either because every man, fearful of danger, would fasten his doors so that enemies could not enter; or more probably, the entrance to every house would be so obstructed by ruins as to render it impossible to enter it.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

10. city of confusion—rather, "desolation." What Jerusalem would be; by anticipation it is called so. Horsley translates, "The city is broken down; it is a ruin."

shut up—through fear; or rather, "choked up by ruins."

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The city; Jerusalem, and other cities; for the singular word may be here taken collectively.

Of confusion; or, of vanity, or emptiness, or desolation; for this Hebrew word signifies all these things. And the city may be thus called, either,

1. In regard of the judgments of God coming upon it, as if he had said, a city devoted to desolation or destruction, to be emptied of its goods and people; or,

2. For its sin, a city of confusion or disorder, breaking all the laws and orders which God had established among them; or a city that walketh with or after vanity, as the Scripture speaks, Job 31:5 Jeremiah 2:5, that loveth and speaketh vanity, as they did, Psalm 4:2 12:2. And this may seem most convenient, that the sin of the city should be noted in this word, as the punishment is expressed in the next.

Every house is shut up; either for fear of the enemy who have entered the city; or rather, because the inhabitants are either fled, or dead, or gone into captivity, and so there are none to go into it, or come out of it.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The city of confusion is broken down,.... Or "of vanity", as the Vulgate Latin version; or of "emptiness" or "desolation"; the word is "tohu", used in Genesis 1:2 this is to be understood not of Bethel, where one of Jeroboam's calves was, called Bethaven, or "the house of vanity"; nor Samaria, the chief city of the ten tribes; nor Jerusalem; but mystical Babylon, whose name signifies "confusion"; even the city of Rome, in which there is nothing but disorder and irregularity, no truth, justice, or religion; a city of vanity, full of superstition and idolatry, and devoted to ruin and desolation; and will be broke to pieces by the judgments of God, which will come upon it in one hour, Revelation 18:8,

every house is shut up, that no man may come in: or, "from coming in"; not for fear of the enemy, and to keep him out; but because there are no inhabitants in them, being all destroyed by one means or another, by fire or sword, or famine or pestilence, so that there is none to go in or out.

Geneva Study Bible

The city of {f} confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may enter.

(f) Which as it was without order so now should it be brought to desolation and confusion: and this was not only meant of Jerusalem, but of all the other wicked cities.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

10. The city of confusion] (or of chaos, Genesis 1:2) need not mean “the city destined to become a chaos,” still less “the city of idolatry,” which of course would be epithets inapplicable to Jerusalem. It may simply be equivalent to “the wasted city.”

every house … come in] (cf. ch. Isaiah 23:1) i.e. the surviving inhabitants have barred their doors, suspicious of the intrusion of unbidden guests.

10–12. Even the “city,” usually the scene of busy and joyous life, shares in the universal sadness. It is difficult to say whether a particular city is meant, or whether the word is used collectively for cities in general. The fulness of the picture gives the impression that the writer has a particular city before his mind, although it stands as a type of many others throughout the world. If this be so, it is most natural to refer the description to Jerusalem, where the prophecy seems to have been written.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 10. - The city of confusion is broken down. No special city seems to be intended. "Est urbis nomen collective capiendum" (Rosenmüller). Chaos (tohu) reigns in the cities, where there is no civic life, no government, no order, nothing but confusion. Every house is shut up; bolted and barred against intruders. There is no confidence, no friendly intercourse, no visiting. Isaiah 24:10

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The world with its pleasure is judged; the world's city is also judged, in which both the world's power and the world's pleasure were concentrated. "The city of tohu is broken to pieces; every house is shut up, so that no man can come in. There is lamentation for wine in the fields; all rejoicing has set; the delight of the earth is banished. What is left of the city is wilderness, and the gate was shattered to ruins. For so will it be within the earth, in the midst of the nations; as at the olive-beating, as at the gleaning, when the vintage is over." The city of tohu (kiryath tōhu): this cannot be taken collectively, as Rosenmller, Arndt, and Drechsler suppose, on account of the annexation of kiryath to tohu, which is turned into a kind of proper name; for can we understand it as referring to Jerusalem, as the majority of commentators have done, including even Schegg and Stier (according to Isaiah 32:13-14), after we have taken "the earth" (hâ'âretz) in the sense of kosmos (the world). It is rather the central city of the world as estranged from God; and it is here designated according to its end, which end will be tohu, as its nature was tohu. Its true nature was the breaking up of the harmony of all divine order; and so its end will be the breaking up of its own standing, and a hurling back, as it were, into the chaos of its primeval beginning. With a very similar significance Rome is called turbida Roma in Persius (i. 5). The whole is thoroughly Isaiah's, even to the finest points: tohu is the same as in Isaiah 29:21; and for the expression מבּוא (so that you cannot enter; namely, on account of the ruins which block up the doorway) compare Isaiah 23:1; Isaiah 7:8; Isaiah 17:1, also Isaiah 5:9; Isaiah 6:11; Isaiah 32:13. The cry or lamentation for the wine out in the fields (Isaiah 24:11; cf., Job 5:10) is the mourning on account of the destruction of the vineyards; the vine, which is one of Isaiah's most favourite symbols, represents in this instance also all the natural sources of joy. In the term ‛ârbâh (rejoicing) the relation between joy and light is presupposed; the sun of joy is set (compare Micah 3:6). What remains of the city בּעיר is partitive, just as בּו in Isaiah 10:22) is shammâh (desolation), to which the whole city has been brought (compare Isaiah 5:9; Isaiah 32:14). The strong gates, which once swarmed with men, are shattered to ruins (yuccath, like Micah 1:7, for yūcath, Ges. 67, Anm. 8; שׁאיּה, ἁπ λεγ, a predicating noun of sequence, as in Isaiah 37:26, "into desolated heaps;" compare Isaiah 6:11, etc., and other passages). In the whole circuit of the earth (Isaiah 6:12; Isaiah 7:22; hâ'âretz is "the earth" here as in Isaiah 10:23; Isaiah 19:24), and in the midst of what was once a crowd of nations (compare Micah 5:6-7), there is only a small remnant of men left. This is the leading thought, which runs through the book of Isaiah from beginning to end, and is figuratively depicted here in a miniature of Isaiah 17:4-6. The state of things produced by the catastrophe is compared to the olive-beating, which fetches down what fruit was left at the general picking, and to the gleaning of the grapes after the vintage has been fully gathered in (câlâh is used here as in Isaiah 10:25; Isaiah 16:4; Isaiah 21:16, etc., viz., "to be over," whereas in Isaiah 32:10 it means to be hopelessly lost, as in Isaiah 15:6). There are no more men in the whole of the wide world than there are of olives and grapes after the principal gathering has taken place. The persons saved belong chiefly, though not exclusively, to Israel (John 3:5). The place where they assemble is the land of promise.