maketh the earth empty. In Isaiah 24-27, the prophetic vision leaps ahead to the judgments of the great tribulation of the end time, more or less covering the same events as Revelation 6-20. The devastating earthquakes and other calamities of those days will leave the earth's surface disheveled and almost empty of inhabitants. This first verse summarizes the end result of that awful time that is sure to come.

the curse. The primeval curse on the earth because of sin (Genesis 3:17-19) will have reached its climax, just as human sin and rebellion reach their climax, during the closing years of the tribulation period, and the earth is left scorched and desolate. The few ungodly men still living will be consigned to “everlasting fire” (Matthew 25:41), and there will be “few men left” to continue in their human flesh entering the millennial age.

city of confusion. Rebuilt Babylon will have been destroyed in the closing weeks of the tribulation (Revelation 18).

clean dissolved. The terrible earthquakes (Revelation 6:12-14; 16:18-20; Haggai 2:6-7), the great heat and falling water levels (Revelation 16:8-9, 12; Joel 1:20), and other geophysical catastrophes will completely change the face of the earth, preparing it for the restored antediluvian conditions that will prevail in the following kingdom age.

the high ones. Satan, presumably with his angels, as well as all the unsaved dead, will be confined in Hades after the tribulation, while the Beast will be cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 19:20; 20:1-3).

after many days. “After many days,” the period of confinement in the great prison pit, probably is the “thousand years” of the kingdom age (Revelation 20:3, 7).

the sun ashamed. Although the sun and moon will endure forever (Psalm 148:3, 6), the New Jerusalem will have no need of them, where “the Lamb is the light thereof” (Revelation 21:23).