The earth {c} also is defiled under its inhabitants; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.

(c) That is, does not give her fruit for the sin of the people, whom the earth deceived of their nourishment because they deceived God of his honour.

Wesley's Notes

24:5 Defiled - By the wickedness of its people. The laws - The laws of God. Ordinance - God's ordinances concerning his worship and service; the singular being put for the plural. Covenant - The covenant made between God and Abraham, and all his posterity, which was everlasting, both on God's part, who, upon the conditions therein expressed, engaged himself to be a God to them and to their seed forever; and on Israel's part, who were obliged thereby to constant and perpetual obedience thro' all generations.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

5. earth-rather, "the land."

defiled under . inhabitants-namely, with innocent blood (Ge 4:11; Nu 35:33; Ps 106:38).

laws . ordinance . everlasting covenant-The moral laws, positive statutes, and national covenant designed to be for ever between God and them.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

24:1-12 All whose treasures and happiness are laid up on earth, will soon be brought to want and misery. It is good to apply to ourselves what the Scripture says of the vanity and vexation of spirit which attend all things here below. Sin has turned the earth upside down; the earth is become quite different to man, from what it was when God first made it to be his habitation. It is, at the best, like a flower, which withers in the hands of those that please themselves with it, and lay it in their bosoms. The world we live in is a world of disappointment, a vale of tears; the children of men in it are but of few days, and full of trouble, See the power of God's curse, how it makes all empty, and lays waste all ranks and conditions. Sin brings these calamities upon the earth; it is polluted by the sins of men, therefore it is made desolate by God's judgments. Carnal joy will soon be at end, and the end of it is heaviness. God has many ways to imbitter wine and strong drink to those who love them; distemper of body, anguish of mind, and the ruin of the estate, will make strong drink bitter, and the delights of sense tasteless. Let men learn to mourn for sin, and rejoice in God; then no man, no event, can take their joy from them.