complete verse (Isaiah 24:20)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Isaiah 24:20:

  • Kupsabiny: “The land/earth shall stagger like a drunkard,
    and sway like a hut/shelter which the wind blows on.
    Sins are pulling down the land,
    it shall be destroyed never to rise again.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “The earth moves like a drunkard staggers going down the road,
    and like a shelter shakes [when] a whirlwind comes.
    And the guilt of their own rebellion they have committed
    is like a great heavy load that is impossible to lift
    because of which [they] have fallen down and will never be able to get up [again].” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “As-if-like it will-stagger like a drunkard. It will-shake like a small-hut being-blown by the wind. It will-be-over-loaded because of sin, and (it) will-be-destroyed and no-longer can-rise-up again.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Isaiah 24:20

The description of the earthquake continues here through the use of two similes.

The earth staggers like a drunken man: This first simile compares the shaking earth to someone who is drunk. The verb staggers renders two forms of the same Hebrew verb, so it is emphatic. The Hebrew word rendered a drunken man is masculine, but it has a general sense here, so it may be translated “a drunk person.”

It sways like a hut: This second simile is parallel to the first one. It compares the shaking earth to a hut swaying in a powerful wind. The Hebrew noun rendered hut refers to a temporary shelter, something without a foundation and quite unstable. See the comments on 1.8, where the same word is translated “lodge.” Since a hut does not sway by itself, Good News Translation adds “in a storm.” New International Version is similar with “in the wind.”

Its transgression lies heavy upon it: The earth is unstable because the sins of its people weigh it down. Its transgression refers to the sinfulness of the people on earth. The phrase lies heavy upon it means the people’s sins are a heavy load for the earth. For this whole line Revised English Bible has “the sins of its inhabitants weigh heavy on it,” and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh says “Its iniquity shall weigh it down.”

It falls, and will not rise again: Because of the heavy load of sins, the earth will fall and not be able to rise again. This imagery here connects with the similes referring to the instability of the earth at the beginning of the verse. This line and the previous one describe the earth as if it were a human being. Some languages will not be able to use such personification. If so, the third example below offers an alternative.

Translation examples for this verse are:

• The earth staggers like a drunkard,
it sways like a hut.
Because the burden of its sin is so heavy,
when it falls, it cannot get up again.

• The earth staggers like a drunk person,
it sways like a shelter in the wind.
Its burden of guilt is so heavy it weighs it down,
and when it falls it can never get up again.

• The world is about to fall like a drunk person,
it is unstable like a shelter.
Its sin is like a heavy burden on the world,
like a burden so heavy that if a person falls under it,
the person cannot get up.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .