13, 14. (a) What are Jehovah’s laws on harvesting? (b) How does Isaiah use the laws on harvesting to illustrate that some will survive Jehovah’s judgment? (c) Although there are dark seasons of trial coming, of what can faithful Judeans be certain?

¹³ In order to harvest olives, the Israelites beat the trees with rods so that the fruit will fall. According to God’s Law, they are forbidden to go over the boughs of the trees to collect the remaining olives. Nor should they gather the leftover grapes after harvesting their vineyards. The remnants of the harvest are to be left for the poor​—“for the alien resident, for the fatherless boy and for the widow”—​to glean. (Deuteronomy 24:19-21) Drawing on these well-known laws, Isaiah illustrates the comforting fact that there will be survivors of Jehovah’s coming judgment: “Thus it will become in the midst of the land, in among the peoples, like the beating off of the olive tree, like the gleaning when the grape gathering has come to an end. They themselves will raise their voice, they will cry out joyfully. In the superiority of Jehovah they will certainly cry out shrilly from the sea. That is why in the region of light they must glorify Jehovah, in the islands of the sea the name of Jehovah, the God of Israel. From the extremity of the land there are melodies that we have heard: ‘Decoration to the Righteous One!’”​—Isaiah 24:13-16a.

¹⁴ Just as some fruit remains on the tree or vine after harvesting, so there will be some who are left over after Jehovah’s execution of judgment​—“the gleaning when the grape gathering has come to an end.” As recorded in Isa 24 verse 6, the prophet has already spoken of these, saying that “very few mortal men have remained over.” Still, few as they are, there are to be survivors of the destruction of Jerusalem and Judah, and later a remnant will return from captivity to repopulate the land. (Isaiah 4:2, 3; 14:1-5) Though righthearted ones will experience dark seasons of trial, they can be sure that there will be deliverance and joy ahead. The survivors will see Jehovah’s prophetic word unfold and will realize that Isaiah has been a true prophet of God. They will be filled with joy as they witness the fulfillment of the restoration prophecies. From wherever they have been scattered​—be it the islands of the Mediterranean in the West, Babylon in “the region of light” (the sunrise, or the East), or any other distant place—​they will praise God because they have been preserved, and they will sing: “Decoration to the Righteous One!”

15, 16. (a) How does Isaiah feel about what will happen to his people? (b) What will befall the unfaithful inhabitants of the land?

¹⁵ For now, though, rejoicing is premature. Isaiah brings his contemporaries back to the present, stating: “But I say: ‘For me there is leanness, for me there is leanness! Woe to me! The treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously. Even with treachery the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously.’ Dread and the hollow and the trap are upon you, you inhabitant of the land. And it must occur that anyone fleeing from the sound of the dreaded thing will fall into the hollow, and anyone coming up from inside the hollow will be caught in the trap. For the very floodgates on high will actually be opened, and the foundations of the land will rock. The land has absolutely burst apart, the land has absolutely been shaken up, the land has absolutely been sent staggering. The land absolutely moves unsteadily like a drunken man, and it has swayed to and fro like a lookout hut. And its transgression has become heavy upon it, and it must fall, so that it will not rise up again.”​—Isaiah 24:16b-20.

¹⁶ Isaiah is filled with grief over what will befall his people. The state of affairs around him causes feelings of sickness and woe. Treacherous ones abound and cause dread to the inhabitants of the land. When Jehovah withdraws his protection, unfaithful inhabitants of Judah will experience terror both day and night. They will be uncertain of their lives. There will be no escaping the disaster that will befall them for forsaking Jehovah’s commandments and ignoring godly wisdom. (Proverbs 1:24-27) Calamity will come even though treacherous ones in the land, trying to convince the people that everything will be all right, use falsehood and deceit to lead them on a course to destruction. (Jeremiah 27:9-15) Enemies from outside will come in and plunder them and carry them away captive. All of this is very distressing to Isaiah.

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Isaiah is filled with grief over what will befall his people