Isaiah 34:1-9

1 Nigh, ye heathen men, to hear; ye peoples, perceive; the earth, and the fullness thereof, the world, and all burgeoning thereof, hear ye. (Come near, or come close, ye heathen, to listen; ye peoples, understand; let the earth, and its fullness, the world, and all its burgeoning, listen.)

2 For why [the] indignation of the Lord is on all folks, and strong vengeance on all the chivalry of them; he killed them, and gave them into slaying. (For the anger of the Lord is against all the nations, and his strong vengeance is against all their cavalry, or all their armies; he killed them, and gave them unto destruction.)

3 The slain men of them shall be cast forth, and stink shall ascend of the carrions of them; [the] hills shall flow of the blood of them. (Their dead shall be thrown forth, and the stink shall go up from their corpses; the hills shall flow with their blood.)

4 And all the chivalry of (the) heavens shall fail, and (the) heavens shall be folded together as a book, and all the knighthood of those shall float down, as the leaf of a vinery and of a fig tree falleth down. (And all the host of heaven shall fail, and the heavens shall be folded up like a book, and all their host shall float down like the leaf of a vine, and like the fig of a fig tree, that falleth down.)

5 For my sword is filled in heaven; lo! it shall come down on Idumea, and on the people of my slaying, to doom. (For my sword is made ready in heaven; lo! it shall come down upon Edom, and upon the people whom I will kill, for their doom/in judgement.)

6 The sword of the Lord is filled of blood, it is made fat of the inner fatness of the blood of lambs and of bucks of goats, of the blood of rams full of marrow (The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, and it is made fat with inner fatness, yea, with the blood of lambs and of goat bucks, and with the fat from the kidneys of rams); for why the slain sacrifice of the Lord is in Bozrah, and great slaying is in the land of Edom.

7 And unicorns shall go down with them, and bulls with them that be mighty (And wild oxen shall go down with them, and bulls with other mighty beasts); the land of them shall be filled with blood, and the earth of them with [the] inner fatness of fat beasts;

8 for it is a day of vengeance of the Lord, a year of yielding of the doom of Zion. (for it is a day of the vengeance of the Lord, a year of yielding the justice, or the judgement, of Zion.)

9 And the strands thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the earth thereof into brimstone; and the land thereof shall be into burning pitch, night and day. (And its streams shall be turned into pitch, and its land into brimstone; yea, its land shall become burning pitch, day and night.)

Isaiah 34:1-9 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.