What Does Isaiah 24:11 Mean in the King James?

There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone.

Isaiah 24:11 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

Joy here is public life: the streets cry for wine as shared gladness reaches its stopping point and departs.

THE MEANING

A cry for wine rises in the streets, and joy comes to a stop; gladness leaves the land. The loss is shared and audible, not only a private feeling.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The belief that joy remains untouched by the loss of shared provision dissolves here: the cry for wine stands beside the disappearance of communal gladness.

THE ROOT

חָדַל

ḥādal

GROWS FROM

חדל

ḥ-d-l: to cease, stop, or leave off.

The word rendered “darkened” carries the root ⁨חדל⁩ (ḥ-d-l, “cease”), adding the sense of joy reaching a stopping point. The next clause uses ⁨גָּלָה⁩ (gālāh, “has gone away”), so the verse gives two movements of loss: joy ceases, and mirth departs from the land.

ALSO GROWS

yeḥdal: will cease

יֶחְדַּל

Deuteronomy 15:11 uses this form to say the poor will not cease from the land; the same root links joy that stops here with need that persists there.

ḥidlū: cease; stop

חִדְלוּ

Isaiah 2:22 uses this form to call for a stopping point, showing how the root names cessation directly.

גָּלָה

gālāh

GROWS FROM

גלה

g-l-h: to uncover or reveal; in other forms, to go away or carry away.

Here ⁨גָּלָה⁩ (gālāh, “has gone away”) makes gladness’s absence something located: it is gone from the land. The same consonants appear in forms meaning revealed or carried away, holding exposure and departure within the root’s range.

ALSO GROWS

niglâ: is revealed; is uncovered

נִגְלָה

Isaiah 40:5 uses this form for the LORD’s glory being revealed, showing the root’s range of exposure alongside departure.

higlâ: carried away into exile

הִגְלָה

This causative form names being carried from one’s place, echoing the verse’s image of mirth gone from the land.

THE PATTERN

When shared sources of sustenance fail, public joy and sound fall silent.

And gladness is taken away, and joy out of the plentiful field; and in the vineyards there shall be no singing, neither shall there be shouting: the treaders shall tread out no wine in their presses; I have made their vintage shouting to cease.

Isaiah 16:10 · KJVThe absence of wine from the vineyards coincides with gladness, singing, and shouting falling away.

The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.

Joel 1:12 · KJVAs fruit withers across the land, joy withers among its people.

And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee;

Revelation 18:22 · KJVThe city’s music, work, and mill sound disappear together, leaving its shared life silent.

THE THREAD

For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.

Deuteronomy 15:11 · KJV

Isaiah uses ⁨חדל⁩ (ḥ-d-l, “cease”) for joy’s stopping; Deuteronomy uses the same root to say the poor never cease from the land. The shared root links a community’s vanished gladness with need that remains within its common life.

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