Isaiah 34:4

4 All^[a] 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 34:4 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 34:4

And all the hosts of heaven shall be dissolved
"Pine away" ^F9, as with sickness, grow languid, become obscure, lose their light, and be turned into blood and darkness; this figure is used to express the horror of this calamity, as if the very heavens themselves, and the sun, and moon, and stars, were affected with it; see ( Isaiah 13:10 ) and the heavens shall be rolled gether as a scroll;
a book, or volume, which when rolled up, one letter of it could not be read; and it was the manner formerly of making and writing books in the form of a roll; hence the word volume; and here it signifies that there should be such a change in the heavens, as that not a star should be seen, much less the sun or moon; and may signify the utter removal and abolition of all dignities and offices, supreme and subordinate, civil and ecclesiastical, in the whole Roman jurisdiction; thus the destruction of Rome Pagan is described in ( Revelation 6:14 ) as the destruction of Rome Papal is here; from whence the language seems to be borrowed: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from
the vine, and as a falling [fig] from the fig tree;
that is, the stars should fall down: by whom may be meant persons in office, that made a considerable figure; who shall fall from their stations, in which they shone with much splendour and grandeur, as leaves fall from trees in autumn, particularly the vine; or as unripe and rotten figs fall from the fig tree when shaken by a violent wind; the same metaphor is used in ( Revelation 6:13 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F9 (wqmn) "tabescet", Vatablus; "centabescet", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "contabescent", Cocceius, Gataker.

Isaiah 34:4 In-Context

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 with their blood.

4 All 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.

5 When My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens it will then come down on Edom and on the people I have set apart for destruction.

6 The Lord's sword is covered with blood. It drips with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

Footnotes

• [a] DSS read And the valleys will be split, and all