Isaiah 34

1 Come, people of all nations! Gather around and listen. Let the whole earth and everyone living on it come here and listen.

2 The Lord is angry with all the nations and all their armies. He has condemned them to destruction.

3 Their corpses will not be buried, but will lie there rotting and stinking; and the mountains will be red with blood.

4 The sun, moon, and stars will crumble to dust. The sky will disappear like a scroll being rolled up, and the stars will fall like leaves dropping from a vine or a fig tree. ¹

5 The Lord has prepared his sword in heaven, and now it will strike Edom, those people whom he has condemned to destruction. ²

6 His sword will be covered with their blood and fat, like the blood and fat of lambs and goats that are sacrificed. The Lord will offer this sacrifice in the city of Bozrah; he will make this a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

7 The people will fall like wild oxen and young bulls, and the earth will be red with blood and covered with fat.

8 This is the time when the Lord will rescue Zion and take vengeance on her enemies.

9 The rivers of Edom will turn into tar, and the soil will turn into sulfur. The whole country will burn like tar.

10 It will burn day and night, and smoke will rise from it forever. The land will lie waste age after age, and no one will ever travel through it again. ³

11 Owls and ravens will take over the land. The Lord will make it a barren waste again, as it was before the creation.

12 There will be no king to rule the country, and the leaders will all be gone.

13 Thorns and thistles will grow up in all the palaces and walled towns, and jackals and owls will live in them.

14 Wild animals will roam there, and demons will call to each other. The night monster will come there looking for a place to rest.

15 Owls will build their nests, lay eggs, hatch their young, and care for them there. Vultures will gather there, one after another.

16 Search in the Lord's book of living creatures and read what it says. Not one of these creatures will be missing, and not one will be without its mate. The Lord has commanded it to be so; he himself will bring them together.

17 It is the Lord who will divide the land among them and give each of them a share. They will live in the land age after age, and it will belong to them forever.

Isaiah 34 Commentary

Chapter 34

God's vengeance against the enemies of his church. (1-8) Their desolation. (9-17)

Verses 1-8 Here is a prophecy of the wars of the Lord, all which are both righteous and successful. All nations are concerned. And as they have all had the benefit of his patience, so all must expect to feel his resentment. The description of bloodshed suggests tremendous ideas of the Divine judgments. Idumea here denotes the nations at enmity with the church; also the kingdom of antichrist. Our thoughts cannot reach the horrors of that awful season, to those found opposing the church of Christ. There is a time fixed in the Divine counsels for the deliverance of the church, and the destruction of her enemies. We must patiently wait till then, and judge nothing before the time. Through Christ, mercy is exercised to every believer, consistently with justice, and his name is glorified.

Verses 9-17 Those who aim to ruin the church, can never do that, but will ruin themselves. What dismal changes sin can make! It turns a fruitful land into barrenness, a crowded city into a wilderness. Let us compare all we discover in the book of the Lord, with the dealings of providence around us, that we may be more diligent in seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness. What the mouth of the Lord has commanded, his Spirit will perform. And let us observe how the evidences of the truth continually increase, as one prophecy after another is fulfilled, until these awful scenes bring in more happy days. As Israel was a figure of the Christian church, so the Edomites, their bitter enemies, represent the enemies of the kingdom of Christ. God's Jerusalem may be laid in ruins for a time, but the enemies of the church shall be desolate for ever.

Cross References

• 1. 34.4Matthew 24.29;Mark 13.25;Luke 21.26;Revelation 6.13, 14.
• 2. 34.5-17 Is 63.1-6; Jr 49.7-22; Ez 25.12-14; 35.1-15; Am 1.11, 12; Ob 1-14; Ml 1.2-5.
• 3. 34.10Revelation 14.11; 19.3.

Footnotes

• [a]. [Verse 12 in Hebrew begins with a word, the meaning of which is unclear.]
• [b]. night monster: [A female demon, believed to live in desolate places.]

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 34

This chapter is a prophecy of the destruction of all the antichristian nations of the world, and particularly of Rome, signified by Idumea; which is introduced with a call to a general attention to it, it being a very awful and solemn affair, Isa 34:1 utter and universal destruction is declared, as the effect of God's wrath, Isa 34:2 which is expressed by a dreadful scene of blood, to the melting of the mountains with it, and by the dissolution of the heavens, and the hosts of them, Isa 34:3,4 particularly the destruction of Idumea is denounced by the sword of the Lord being on it, and bathed with the blood, both of the common people, and of their princes, signified by various sorts of creatures, Isa 34:5-7 the cause of which is the Lord's vengeance for the controversy of his church and people, injured by Edom or Rome, Isa 34:8 whose desolate and calamitous state is represented as being like that of Sodom, Isa 34:9,10 and should be no more inhabited by men, nor governed by princes, but be the dwelling of wild beasts and unclean birds, Isa 34:11-15 all which is confirmed by the word and Spirit of God, Isa 34:16,17.