Structure and Poetry in Isaiah 24

Isaiah 24:1-6 has an intricate structure, much of it with a numerological thrust. In the opening verse, Yahweh devastates the earth in a fourfold act – emptying ( baqaq ), laying it waste ( balaq ), twisting (’ avah ) its face, and scattering ( putz ) its inhabitants. The four verbs reinforce the totality of the devastation, since it stretches to the four corners.This fourfold structure is overlaid by a heptamerous structure: Yahweh (1) empties (2) earth, (3) lays-waste, (4) twists (5) its-face, (6) scatters (7) its-inhabitants. The devastation goes to the four corners of the earth, and undoes the seven days of creation. We also note here the alliteration in the first two verbs, a poetic device that recurs in various ways throughout these verses.

Verse 2 follows with six paired classes of people: people-priest, servant-master, maid-mistress, buyer-seller, lender-borrower, creditor-debtor. Religious, social, and economic groups are named, and all are alike consumed in the judgment. Of course, six pairs makes a total of 12, and so there’s an Israel numerology at work here.

Verses 3-4 add to the intense alliteration. baqaq is repeated twice in verse 3, as is the verb “spoil” ( bazaz ); this not only creates a soundscape but also onomatopoetically reproduces the crackling and sizzling sounds of destruction. The first clauses come as close to rhyme as Hebrew can: hiboq tiboq ha-aretz; w-hiboz tiboz. Though baqaq (empty) is not the word used in Genesis 1:2, it evokes the formless-voidness of pre-creation, and the “rhymes” reproduce some of the rhythms of Genesis 1:2 as well, the famous tohu-w-bohu . The verse ends with yet another repetition: Yahweh speaks ( dabar ) a word ( dabar ). Three verbal pairs gives us another sixfold structure as well.

In verse four, the land mourns (’ abal ) and fades ( nabel ), and the world ( tebel ) languishes (’ amal ) and fades ( nebel ). Verse four is also a woven thread of repeated words, as this woodenly literal translation indicates:

“Mourns, fades the earth

languishes, fades the world

languish the haughty people of the earth.”

In Hebrew verse 4 contains 10 words, but because of the repetitions, there are only seven unique words. Note too that each clause ends emphatically, rhythmically on “earth/world” ( eretz , tebel , eretz ).

Verse 5 returns to the fourfold numerology of verse 1. Earth is “defiled” because the inhabitants “transgress” and “change ordinances” and “break covenant.” Verse 6 also has a fourfold structure: The curse eats, the inhabitants are desolate, they are burned, and in the end only a few remain. Throughout the verse, the “sh” sound of the letter shin resounds: yashab (inhabitant, 2x), asham (desolate), ’ enosh (men) sha’ar (remain).

Numerological patterns are evident in the section as a whole. eretz , “land” is used six times in the passage, and tebel , a close synonym is used once. References to “earth” thus appear seven times. yashab , inhabitants, appears four times.

Finally, the whole of this intricate web is organized in a fairly neat chiastic structure:

A. Fourfold devastation, v 1

B. Six pairs of inhabitants, v 2

C. Earth wasted and spoiled, v 3a

D. Yah speaks speaking, v 3b

C’. Earth and world fade, mourn, and languish, v 4

B’. Inhabitants pollute and break covenant, v 5

A’. Fourfold devastation, v 6