Albert Barnes Commentary Isaiah 24:16

"From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs: Glory to the righteous. But I said, I pine away, I pine away, woe is me! the treacherous have dealt treacherously; yea, the treacherous have dealt very treacherously." — Isaiah 24:16 (ASV)

From the farthest part of the earth—The word ‘earth’ here seems to be taken in its usual sense, denoting countries outside the borders of Palestine, and the phrase is equivalent to remote regions or distant countries (see the note at Isaiah 11:12). The prophet here represents himself as hearing those songs from distant lands as a grand chorus, the sound of which entered and pervaded Palestine. The worship of God would still be continued, even if the temple were destroyed, the inhabitants of the land dispersed, and the land of Judea were a widespread desolation. Amid the general ruin and woe, it was some consolation that the worship of Yahweh was celebrated anywhere.

Have we heard songs—Or, we do hear songs. The distant celebrations of the goodness of God break on the ear, and amid the general calamity these songs of the scattered people of God comfort the heart.

Glory to the righteous—This is the main theme and substance of those songs. Their general meaning and purpose is to show that there will be honor for the people of God. They are now afflicted and scattered. Their temple is destroyed, their land is desolate, and ruin spreads over the graves of their fathers. Yet amid these desolations, their confidence in God is unshaken; their reliance on him is firm. They still believe that there will be honor and glory for the righteous, and that God will be their protector and avenger. These assurances served to sustain them in their afflictions and to shed a mild and cheering influence on their saddened hearts.

But I said—But I, the prophet, am compelled to say. The prophet says this concerning himself, seeing himself as left in the land of Canaan; or more probably he personifies, in this declaration, Jerusalem and the inhabitants of the land who still remained there. The songs that came from distant lands—the echoing praises from the exiles in the east and the west seeming to meet and mingle over Judea—only served to make the widespread desolation more apparent and distressing. Those distant praises recalled the solemn services of the temple and the happiness of other times, and led each one of those remaining, who witnessed the desolations, to exclaim, ‘My leanness.’

My leanness, my leanness—This is the language of Jerusalem and the land of Judea. This language expresses calamity. The loss of flesh is emblematic of a condition of poverty, want, and wretchedness—as sickness and affliction waste away the flesh and take away strength (Psalms 109:24):

My knees are weak through fasting,
And my flesh faileth of fatness.

(Psalms 102:5):

By reason of the voice of my groaning
My bones cleave to my flesh.

See also Job 6:12, Job 19:20, and Lamentations 3:4. Leanness is also used to denote the displeasure of God, as in Psalm 106:15:

And he gave them their request;
But sent leanness into their soul.

Compare Isaiah 10:16.

The treacherous dealers—These are the foreign nations that disregard covenants and laws, that pursue their objective by deceit, stratagem, and fraud. Most conquests are made by what are called the stratagems of war, that is, by a course of perfidy and deception. There can be no doubt that the usual mode of conquest was pursued in regard to Jerusalem. This whole clause is exceedingly emphatic. The word implying treachery (בגד bâgad) is repeated no less than five times in various forms in this single clause and shows how strongly the idea had taken possession of the prophet's mind. The passage provides one of the most remarkable examples of “paronomasia” occurring in the Bible: בגדוּ בגדים בגדוּ וּבגד בוגדים bâgâdû bogidiym bâgâdû ûbeged bôg^ediym.

In fact, this figure is so abundant in this chapter that Gesenius contends that it is not the production of Isaiah but a composition belonging to a later and less elegant period of Hebrew literature.