See, the LORD is going to lay waste the earth
and devastate it;
he will ruin its face
and scatter its inhabitants—
2 it will be the same
for priest as for people,
for the master as for his servant,
for the mistress as for her servant,
for seller as for buyer,
for borrower as for lender,
for debtor as for creditor.
3 The earth will be completely laid waste
and totally plundered.
The LORD has spoken this word.
4 The earth dries up and withers,
the world languishes and withers,
the heavens languish with the earth.
5 The earth is defiled by its people;
they have disobeyed the laws,
violated the statutes
and broken the everlasting covenant.
6 Therefore a curse consumes the earth;
its people must bear their guilt.
Therefore earth’s inhabitants are burned up,
and very few are left. (Isaiah 24:1-6)

This particular passage from Isaiah is a good illustration of the importance of both a proper translation and the importance of paying attention to the context.

The word that the NIV has here translated as “earth” is perhaps the primary source of the problem, along with the header that it’s translators “helpfully” but at the head of the chapter: The LORD’s Devastation of the Earth.

The impression created upon reading the passage, for a modern reader in the United States is that God has predicted that aliens are going to invade the world and scatter its inhabitants through the galaxy while burning the world and killing many of them:

This is definitely not what Isaiah had in mind.

The correction of this misconception could have been handled easily had the word translated “earth” been translated as “land” as it often is as in “land of Israel” or “land of Egypt.” And the context makes this obvious: Isaiah is prophesying about the coming invasion of Judah by the Babylonians. Not the coming invasion of Earth by the Romulans.

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