Priests and laypeople, servants and masters, maids and mistresses, buyers and sellers, lenders and borrowers, bankers and debtors—none will be spared.
Parallel translations
- WEB It will be as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the creditor, so with the debtor; as with the taker of interest, so with the giver of interest.
- KJV And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.
- BSB people and priest alike, servant and master, maid and mistress, buyer and seller, lender and borrower, creditor and debtor.
- NKJV And it shall be: As with the people, so with the priest; As with the servant, so with his master; As with the maid, so with her mistress; As with the buyer, so with the seller; As with the lender, so with the borrower; As with the creditor, so with the debtor.
- NASB And the people will be like the priest, the servant like his master, the female servant like her mistress, the buyer like the seller, the lender like the borrower, the creditor like the debtor.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The coming judgment falls on everyone alike, priest and people, master and servant, lender and borrower. No rank or status grants exemption.
Overview
By pairing every social class, the verse stresses that judgment levels all distinctions. Wealth, office, and position offer no immunity before God. It humbles human hierarchies and reminds all people that they stand equally accountable to their Maker.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 22
- Hos 4:9It will be, like people, like priest; and I will punish them for their ways, and will repay them for their deeds.
- Lam 5:12–14Princes were hanged up by their hand: The faces of elders were not honored.
- Ezek 7:12–13The time has come! The day draws near. Don’t let the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn; for wrath is on all its multitude.
- 2 Chr 36:20He carried those who had escaped from the sword away to Babylon, and they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia,
- Jer 5:3–6O Yahweh, don’t your eyes look on truth? You have stricken them, but they were not grieved. You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock. They have refused to return.
- Lam 4:13It is because of the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, That have shed the blood of the just in the middle of her.
- Jer 52:24–30The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the threshold:
- Isa 2:9Man is brought low, and mankind is humbled; therefore don’t forgive them.
- Ezek 14:8–10I will set my face against that man, and will make him an astonishment, for a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from among my people; and you will know that I am Yahweh.
- Jer 42:18For Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘As my anger and my wrath has been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so shall my wrath be poured out on you, when you shall enter into Egypt; and you shall be an object of horror, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach; and you shall see this place no more.’
- Isa 3:2–8the mighty man, the man of war, the judge, the prophet, the diviner, the elder,
- Gen 41:50To Joseph were born two sons before the year of famine came, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On, bore to him.
- Dan 9:5–8we have sinned, and have dealt perversely, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even turning aside from your precepts and from your ordinances;
- Isa 9:14–17Therefore Yahweh will cut off from Israel head and tail, palm branch and reed, in one day.
- Isa 5:15So man is brought low, mankind is humbled, and the eyes of the arrogant ones are humbled;
- Jer 23:11–13for both prophet and priest are profane; yes, in my house I have found their wickedness,” says Yahweh.
- Lev 25:36–37Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God; that your brother may live among you.
- Deut 23:19–20You shall not lend on interest to your brother; interest of money, interest of food, interest of anything that is lent on interest.
- Eph 6:8–9knowing that whatever good thing each one does, he will receive the same again from the Lord, whether he is bound or free.
- 2 Chr 36:14–17Moreover all the chiefs of the priests, and the people, trespassed very greatly after all the abominations of the nations; and they polluted Yahweh’s house which he had made holy in Jerusalem.
- Jer 41:2Then Ishmael the son of Nethaniah arose, and the ten men who were with him, and struck Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan with the sword, and killed him, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land.
- Jer 44:11–13“Therefore Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Behold, I will set my face against you for evil, even to cut off all Judah.
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 24:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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