Old Testament Commentary - Isaiah 34

by Don R. Hender

Scriptural Text [& Editorial]
Commentary & Explanation
Footnotes ~ References ~ JST
                   CHAPTER 34                    

The Second Coming shall be a day of vengeance and judgment—The indignation of the Lord shall be upon all nations—His sword shall fall upon the world.

  1 COME near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it.
  2 For the indignation of the LORD is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter.
  3 Their slain also shall be cast out, and their astink shall come up out of their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood.
  4 And all the host of heaven shall be adissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a bscroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as ca falling fig from the fig tree.
  5 For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon aIdumeaa, and upon the people of my bcurse, to judgment.
  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 hath a asacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea.
 5a it shall come down upon Idumea That is the sword of the Lord's destruction shall come upon Edom, the entire nation thereof. While all nations shall be destroyed no longer being a national organization, some particular nations will be utterly destroyed and left uninhabitable. Edom is one such nation and the rest of this chapter for the most part describes it. What is of interest is such teachings of some false Christian sects. One such teaching is that in the last days when destruction comes upon Jerusalem the people are to flee unto 'Petra' for their protection and survival. Since Petra is located in the midst of Edom one ought to clearly see the falsity of this prescription as all of Edom is to be layed totally to waste and that would place those who have fled Jerusalem right in the middle of that total destruction.
  7 And the aunicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.
  8 For it is the day of the LORD's avengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.
  9 And the streams athereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.
  10 It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.
  11 ¶ But the acormorant and the bbittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the cstones of emptiness.
  12 They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing.
  13 And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be aan habitation of dragons, and a court for owls.
  14 The awild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest.
  15 There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate.
  16 ¶ Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it hath acommanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them.
  17 And he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath divided it unto them by line: they shall possess it for ever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein.