“Now Yahweh is about
To lay waste the earth.
He will make it desolate.
He will twist its surface.
He will scatter its inhabitants.
It shall be,
As with the people,
So with the priest.
It shall be,
As with the slave,
So with his master.
It shall be,
As with the maid,
So with her mistress.
It shall be,
As with the buyer,
So with the seller.
It shall be,
As with the lender,
So with the borrower.
It shall be
As with the creditor,
So with the debtor.
The earth shall be utterly laid waste
It shall be utterly despoiled.
Yahweh has spoken this word.”
These next few chapters are sometimes referred to as the Isaiah Apocalypse. This section, like the other sections, is a hodgepodge of oracles and ideas, but these oracles are about the judgment at the end of the world. On this apocalyptic judgment day, much like the flood of Noah, destruction was to come upon the whole world, like in later eschatological works. The twisted earth was to be made desolate. All the inhabitants on earth would be wiped out, whether it is regular people, priests, slaves, masters, maids, mistresses, buyers, sellers, lenders, borrowers, debtors, or creditors. No one would be saved. The earth would be utterly ruined, because Yahweh has spoken.
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 