Isaiah 34:1-4

The Judgment of the Nations

1 You nations, come here and listen; you peoples, pay attention! Let the earth hear, and all that fills it, the world and all that comes from it.

2 The Lord is angry with all the nations- furious with all their armies. He will set them apart for destruction, giving them over to slaughter.

3 Their slain will be thrown out, and the stench of their corpses will rise; the mountains flow^[a] with their blood.

4 All^[b] the heavenly bodies will dissolve. The skies will roll up like a scroll, and their stars will all wither as leaves wither on the vine, and foliage on the fig tree.

Isaiah 34:1-4 Meaning and Commentary

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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or melt, or dissolve
• [b]. DSS read And the valleys will be split, and all