Isaiah 24:7 Meaning and Explanation
“The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merryhearted do sigh.”
King James Version (KJV)
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Read Full Chapter →Grief usually gets described in human terms. Here the prophet gives sorrow to a crop and a plant before he mentions people at all, and the effect is startling. Why would a vineyard mourn? Isaiah is showing that when a covenant is broken at the root, the loss reaches every ordinary pleasure that once made life feel warm and secure.
Isaiah pictures a land where even the harvest grieves. The new wine, the vine, and every cheerful heart share one sorrow, since the earth itself suffers under the judgment described in this chapter.
The Context of Isaiah 24:7
Isaiah 24 opens a long section, often called Isaiah's apocalypse, running through chapter 27. The prophet announces that the LORD is emptying the earth and scattering its inhabitants, with no rank exempt: priest and people, master and servant, lender and borrower all share the same fate. Verse 5 gives the reason, naming transgressed laws, a changed ordinance, and a broken everlasting covenant. Verse 6 speaks of a curse devouring the earth. Verse 7 sits inside that verdict, turning from the wide view of nations to the small world of vineyard, table, and music that verses 8 through 11 continue to describe.
What Does Isaiah 24:7 Mean?
Three short clauses fall in sequence, each one a step further into the vineyard. The new wine mourns, meaning the fresh vintage that should have been carried to the table is treated as a mourner at a funeral. The vine languishes, drooping and failing where it stands, so the trouble reaches back from the cup to the root that fed it. Then the merryhearted sigh. Isaiah has been describing a fading earth in verse 4 with the same verbs of mourning and languishing, and now he applies them to the vine, letting the whole landscape and the human heart speak with one voice.
Wine and vineyards carry weight all through Scripture as signs of covenant blessing and settled peace. A people at rest sit under their own vine, and harvest festivals were seasons of thanksgiving before the LORD. Verse 5 has already named the cause of the reversal, so the withered vine of verse 7 reads as the visible shape of an invisible breach. Isaiah is working from the covenant warnings of the law, where obedience brings fruitful fields and rebellion leaves the vineyard planted yet unenjoyed. The sighing of the merryhearted marks the moment when a nation notices that its ordinary joys were gifts held on trust.
The chapter does not end in a silent vineyard. Verses 14 through 16 hear voices lifted again, singing for the majesty of the LORD from the sea and the isles, and verse 23 sets the LORD of hosts reigning in Zion. That arc from mourning wine to restored song runs on into the promise of a feast of wines on the lees in the next chapter. Jesus takes up the same imagery when he calls himself the true vine and when he gives the cup at the last supper with a word about drinking it new in the kingdom. Sorrow over a failed harvest has an answer in him.
Isaiah 24:7 in the Original Language
tirosh (תִּירוֹשׁ), 'new wine' -- the fresh juice of the season's grape harvest, gathered and pressed before long storage. Scripture pairs it with grain and oil as a standard sign of a fruitful land, which is why its mourning here signals the loss of covenant plenty.
Bible Verses Related to Isaiah 24:7
“The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.”
- Isaiah 24:5
“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
“Thou shalt plant vineyards, and dress them, but shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them.”
- Deuteronomy 28:39
“And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.”
- Isaiah 25:6
Where Isaiah 24:7 Echoes in Scripture
Joel 1:12 describes a dried vine and a withered gladness among people, using the same pairing of failed vintage and vanished joy that Isaiah sets here. Joel writes of a locust devastation in Judah and calls the land to fasting and return. Reading the two together shows a settled prophetic pattern: when the land grieves, the grief is a summons, and the summons is toward the LORD who alone restores the years the harvest lost.
How to Apply Isaiah 24:7 Today
Seasons come when the things that usually cheer us go flat. A meal loses its savor, music plays without reaching us, and company feels like effort. Isaiah treats that experience seriously rather than scolding it. We can name the flatness honestly in prayer, and we can also ask the harder question underneath it, whether something in our covenant life with God has quietly slipped. Where our own choices have dried the vine, repentance is the road back. Where the sorrow comes from a broken world, we can hold on until the singing of verse 14 becomes ours.
Reflection & Prayer
Which ordinary gladness have we stopped noticing, and what would it take to receive it again as a gift? Sit with the sighing of this verse for a moment before moving on. Lord, you see the places where our joy has gone quiet. Search us, show us anything that needs mending, and teach us to hold your good gifts with open and grateful hands. Amen.