Ecclesiasticus 24:20

Jerome's Latin Vulgate

agitatione agitabitur terra sicut ebrius,
et auferetur quasi tabernaculum unius noctis;
et gravabit eam iniquitas sua,
et corruet, et non adjiciet ut resurgat.

Parallel Translations

Clementine Latin Vulgate (1592)
agitatione agitabitur terra sicut ebrius, et auferetur quasi tabernaculum unius noctis ; et gravabit eam iniquitas sua, et corruet, et non adjiciet ut resurgat.

Nova Vulgata (1979)
agitatione agitabitur terra sicut ebrius et fluctuabit quasi tabernaculum; et gravis erit super eam iniquitas eius, et corruet et non adiciet ut resurgat.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

reel: Isaiah 19:14, Isaiah 29:9, Psalms 107:27

removed: Isaiah 1:8, Isaiah 38:12

the transgression: Isaiah 5:7-30, Psalms 38:4, Lamentations 1:14, Hosea 4:1-5, Matthew 23:35, Matthew 23:36

and it: Jeremiah 8:4, Jeremiah 25:27, Daniel 11:19, Amos 8:14, Zechariah 5:5-8, Revelation 18:21

Reciprocal: Genesis 41:31 - grievous Deuteronomy 32:22 - shall consume Job 9:6 - shaketh Job 12:25 - maketh Psalms 97:5 - hills Psalms 99:1 - be moved Isaiah 33:9 - earth Ezekiel 14:13 - when Amos 5:2 - she shall Amos 8:8 - the land Mark 13:24 - General

Gill's Notes on the Bible

The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard,.... When it shall be moved and agitated to and fro, and dissolved; or this may be meant of the inhabitants, who shall be at their wits' end, and in the utmost confusion, not knowing what to do, nor where to go, having no more thought, nor sense, nor command of themselves, than a drunken man; and this is in just retaliation, that as they have been drunk with sin, having drank up iniquity like water, they shall now be drunk with punishment, which being heavy upon them, will make them stagger like a drunken man:

and shall be removed like a cottage; or, "a tent" x; either of soldiers or shepherds, which are easily taken down and moved; or like "a lodge" y, as the word is rendered Isaiah 1:8. The Septuagint render it a "fruit watch"; and, according to the Jewish writers, it signifies a booth or tent, in which the keepers of gardens or vineyards watched in the night; which Jarchi says was built on the top of a tree, and Kimchi on a hill; and, being made of light wood, was easily moved to and fro with the wind. The Targum is,

"and it goes and comes as a bed;''

that is, rocks as a cradle:

and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; that is, the punishment of transgression, which, like a talent of lead, in Zechariah 5:8 shall crush it, and the inhabitants of it, to pieces:

and it shall fall, and not rise again; in the form it now is; for there will be new heavens and a new earth, in which the righteous, who will share the first resurrection, will dwell; for as for the first earth, or present one, it shall pass away, and no place be found for it, Revelation 20:11.

x כמלונה "quasi tabernaculum", V. L. y "Ut diversoriolum", Piscator.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard - This is descriptive of the agitation that occurs in an earthquake when everything is shaken from its foundation, and when trees and towers are shaken by the mighty concussion. The same figure is used in Isaiah 29:9. See also the description of a tempest at sea, in Psalms 107:27 :

They reel to and fro,

And stagger like a drunken man,

And are at their wit’s end.

And shall be removed like a cottage - Or rather, shall move or vacillate (התנודדה hit^enôd^edâh) like a cottage. The word “cottage” (מלוּנה melûnâh from לין lı̂yn, “to pass the night, to lodge for a night”) means properly a temporary shed or lodge for the watchman of a garden or vineyard (see the note at Isaiah 1:8). Sometimes these cottages were erected in the form of a hut; and sometimes they were a species of hanging bed or couch, that was suspended from the limbs of trees. They were made either by interweaving the limbs of a tree, or by suspending them by cords from the branches of trees, or by extending a cord or cords from one tree to another, and laying a couch or bed on the cords. They were thus made to afford a convenient place for observation, and also to afford security from the access of wild beasts. Travelers in the East even now resort to such a temporary lodge for security (see Niebuhr’s Description of Arabia). These lodges were easily moved to and fro, and swung about by the wind - and this is the idea in the verse before us. The whole land was agitated as with an earthquake; it reeled like a drunkard; it moved, and was unsettled, as the hanging couch on the trees was driven to and fro by the wind.

And the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it - Like a vast incumbent weight on a dwelling which it cannot sustain, and beneath which it is crushed.

And it shall fall, and not rise again - This does not mean, as I apprehend, that the nation should never be restored to its former dignity and rank as a people, for the prophet immediately Isaiah 24:23 speaks of such a restoration, and of the re-establishment of the theocracy; but it must mean that in those convulsions it would not rise. It would not be able to recover itself; it would certainly be prostrated. As we say of a drunkard, he may stumble often, and partially recover himself, yet he will certainly fall so as not then to be able to recover himself, so it would be with that agitated and convulsed land. They would make many efforts to recover themselves, and they would partially succeed, yet they would ultimately be completely prostrate in the dust.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 24:20. Like a cottage - "Like a lodge for a night"] Isaiah 1:8.