Isaiah 34:1-6

1 Come close, you nations, and listen. Pay attention, you people. The earth, everyone in it, the world, and everything on it will listen.

2 The LORD is angry with all the nations. He is furious with all their armies. He has claimed them for destruction. He has handed them over to be slaughtered.

3 Their dead bodies will be thrown out. A stench will rise from their corpses. Mountains will be red with their blood.

4 All the stars in the sky will rot. The heavens will be rolled up like a scroll. The stars will fall like leaves from a grapevine, like green figs from a fig tree.

5 When my sword is covered [with blood] in the heavens, it will fall on Edom and on the people I've claimed for destruction.

6 The LORD's sword is covered with blood. It is covered with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of rams' kidneys. The LORD will receive a sacrifice in Bozrah, a huge slaughter in the land of Edom.

Isaiah 34:1-6 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.