Isaiah 34:1

1 Come near, you nations, and give ear; take note, you peoples: let the earth and everything in it give ear; the world and all those living in it.

Isaiah 34:1 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 34:1

Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people,
&c.] Not the people of the Jews, as some, whose utter destruction, after their rejection of the Messiah, is here thought to be prophesied of; and much less are these people called upon to hear the Gospel preached to them, as Cocceius thinks; for not good, but bad news they are called to hearken to, even the account of their utter ruin: let the earth hear, and all that is therein:
not the land of Judea, but all the earth, and the inhabitants of it: the world, and all things that come forth of it;
which may either be understood of those that dwell in it, as the Targum interprets it; of the people that are in it, as the Septuagint and the Oriental versions; and so the phrase may denote the original of them, being of the earth, earthly, and to which they must return again; and may be designed to humble men, and hide pride from them; or else the fruits of the earth, trees, and everything that spring out of it, which are called upon to hear the voice of the Lord, when men would not; and so is designed to rebuke the stupidity and sluggishness of men to hearken to what is said to them, even from the Lord, when upon the brink of destruction.

Isaiah 34:1 In-Context

1 Come near, you nations, and give ear; take note, you peoples: let the earth and everything in it give ear; the world and all those living in it.

2 For the Lord is angry with all the nations, and his wrath is burning against all their armies: he has put them to the curse, he has given them to destruction.

3 Their dead bodies will be thick on the face of the earth, and their smell will come up, and the mountains will be flowing with their blood, and all the hills will come to nothing.

4 And the heavens will be rolled together like the roll of a book: and all their army will be gone, like a dead leaf from the vine, or a dry fruit from the fig-tree.

5 For my sword in heaven is full of wrath: see, it is coming down on Edom, in punishment on the people of my curse.