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

ISAIAH 24:11KJV
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Isaiah 24:11 (KJV)

What does Isaiah 24:11 mean?

Isaiah 24:11 pictures a community whose ordinary celebrations have been overtaken by distress. The cry for wine comes from the streets, while the verse describes joy as darkened and the land’s mirth as gone.

After verse 10 describes a ruined city, Isaiah gives the scene a human sound: people crying out in public. The image of joy becoming dark treats happiness like a light that has faded.

The Hebrew behind Isaiah 24:11

  • “crying” — צְוָחָה (tsevachah): This word can mean an outcry or a loud cry of distress. Isaiah’s choice gives the public scene the sound of anguish rather than celebration.
  • “darkened” — עָרַב (ʿarav): This word can carry the sense of becoming dark, as at evening. Used with “joy,” the image suggests light fading from something once bright.
  • “gone” — גָּלָה (galah): This word can mean to depart or be carried away. The KJV’s “mirth of the land is gone” presents gladness as something that has left the scene.

Why Isaiah 24:11 matters

  • Wine has a place in the picture of lost celebration. In the nearby verses, wine and strong drink are linked with singing and festivity; here, the cry is for wine.
  • The grief reaches beyond individual homes. The KJV moves from “the streets” to “the land,” giving the loss a public and widespread setting.
  • Isaiah’s picture joins human sorrow with physical ruin. Verse 12 follows the loss of mirth with an image of the city left desolate and its gate broken down.

Where else these words appear

“darkened” Hebrew H6150 · used in 3 verses

  • Judges 19:9 And when the man rose up to depart, he, and his concubine, and his servant, his father in law, the damsel's father, said unto him, Behold, now the day draweth toward evening, I pray you tarry all night: behold, the day groweth to an end, lodge here, that thine heart may be merry; and to morrow get you early on your way, that thou mayest go home.
  • 1 Samuel 17:16 And the Philistine drew near morning and evening, and presented himself forty days.

“crying” Hebrew H6682 · used in 4 verses

  • Psalms 144:14 That our oxen may be strong to labour; that there be no breaking in, nor going out; that there be no complaining in our streets.
  • Jeremiah 14:2 Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.
  • Jeremiah 46:12 The nations have heard of thy shame, and thy cry hath filled the land: for the mighty man hath stumbled against the mighty, and they are fallen both together.

“mirth” Hebrew H4885 · used in 16 verses

  • Job 8:19 Behold, this is the joy of his way, and out of the earth shall others grow.
  • Isaiah 32:14 Because the palaces shall be forsaken; the multitude of the city shall be left; the forts and towers shall be for dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks;
  • Jeremiah 49:25 How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!

“joy” Hebrew H8057 · used in 89 verses

  • Genesis 31:27 Wherefore didst thou flee away secretly, and steal away from me; and didst not tell me, that I might have sent thee away with mirth, and with songs, with tabret, and with harp?
  • Esther 9:17 On the thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the fourteenth day of the same rested they, and made it a day of feasting and gladness.
  • Ecclesiastes 2:26 For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.