of the earth for their iniquity : the earth also shall disclose her blood , and shall no more cover her slain .” Isaiah 26:21 . “ And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem ; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet , and their eyes shall consume away in their holes , and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth . And it shall come to pass in that day , that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them ; and they shall lay hold everyone on the hand of his neighbor , and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbor .” Zechariah 14:12 , 13 . In the mad strife of their own fierce passions , and by the awful outpouring of God ’ s unmingled wrath , fall the wicked inhabitants of the earth — priests , rulers , and people , rich and poor , high and low . “ And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth : they shall not be lamented , neither gathered , nor buried .” Jeremiah 25:33 .
At the coming of Christ the wicked are blotted from the face of the whole earth — consumed with the spirit of His mouth and destroyed by the brightness of His glory . Christ takes His people to the City of God , and the earth is emptied of its inhabitants . “ Behold , the Lord maketh the earth empty , and maketh it waste , and turneth it upside down , and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof .” “ The land shall be utterly emptied , and utterly spoiled : for the Lord hath spoken this word .” “ Because they have transgressed the laws , changed the ordinance , broken the everlasting covenant . Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth , and they that dwell therein are desolate : therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned .” Isaiah 24:1 , 3 , 5 , 6 .
The whole earth appears like a desolate wilderness . The ruins of cities and villages destroyed by the earthquake , uprooted trees , ragged rocks thrown out by the sea or torn out of the earth itself , are scattered over its surface , while vast caverns mark the spot where the mountains have been rent from their foundations .
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