Isaiah 34:4

4 And all the host of heavens shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll; and all their host shall fall down as the leaf falls off from the vine and as the leaf falls from 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 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

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

Isaiah 34:4 In-Context

2 For the indignation of the LORD is upon all the Gentiles, and his fury upon the entire army of them; he shall destroy them and deliver them to the slaughter.
3 Their slain shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcasses, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood.
4 And all the host of heavens shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll; and all their host shall fall down as the leaf falls off from the vine and as the leaf falls from the fig tree.
5 For in the heavens my sword shall become drunk; behold, it shall come down in judgment upon Idumea or Edom and upon the people of my anathema.
6 The sword of the LORD is filled with blood; it is made fat with fatness and with the blood of lambs and goats with the fat of the kidneys of rams, for the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea.
The Jubilee Bible (from the Scriptures of the Reformation), edited by Russell M. Stendal, Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2010