Isaiah 34

1 All you nations, come near and listen. Pay attention, you peoples! The earth and all the people in it should listen, the world and everything in it.

2 The Lord is angry with all the nations; he is angry with their armies. He will destroy them and kill them all.

3 Their bodies will be thrown outside. The stink will rise from the bodies, and the blood will flow down the mountains.

4 The sun, moon, and stars will dissolve, and the sky will be rolled up like a scroll. The stars will fall like dead leaves from a vine or dried-up figs from a fig tree.

5 The Lord's sword in the sky is covered with blood. and destroy those people as an offering to the Lord.

6 The Lord's sword will be covered with blood; it will be covered with fat, with the blood from lambs and goats, with the fat from the kidneys of sheep. and much killing in Edom.

7 The oxen will be killed, and the cattle and the strong bulls. The land will be filled with their blood, and the dirt will be covered with their fat.

8 The Lord has chosen a time for punishment. He has chosen a year when people must pay for the wrongs they did to Jerusalem.

9 Edom's rivers will be like hot tar. Its dirt will be like burning sulfur. Its land will be like burning tar.

10 The fires will burn night and day; the smoke will rise from Edom forever. Year after year that land will be empty; no one will ever travel through that land again.

11 Birds and small animals will own that land, and owls and ravens will live there. God will make it an empty wasteland; it will have nothing left in it.

12 The important people will have no one left to rule them; the leaders will all be gone.

13 Thorns will take over the strong towers, and wild bushes will grow in the walled cities. It will be a home for wild dogs and a place for owls to live.

14 Desert animals will live with the hyenas, and wild goats will call to their friends. Night animals will live there and find a place of rest.

15 Owls will nest there and lay eggs. When they hatch open, the owls will gather their young under their wings. Hawks will gather with their own kind.

16 Look at the Lord's scroll and read what is written there: None of these will be missing; none will be without its mate. God has given the command, so his Spirit will gather them together.

17 God has divided the land among them, and he has given them each their portion. So they will own that land forever and will live there year after year.

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Isaiah 34 Commentary

Chapter 34

God's vengeance against the enemies of his church. (1-8) Their desolation. (9-17)

Verses 1-8 Here is a prophecy of the wars of the Lord, all which are both righteous and successful. All nations are concerned. And as they have all had the benefit of his patience, so all must expect to feel his resentment. The description of bloodshed suggests tremendous ideas of the Divine judgments. Idumea here denotes the nations at enmity with the church; also the kingdom of antichrist. Our thoughts cannot reach the horrors of that awful season, to those found opposing the church of Christ. There is a time fixed in the Divine counsels for the deliverance of the church, and the destruction of her enemies. We must patiently wait till then, and judge nothing before the time. Through Christ, mercy is exercised to every believer, consistently with justice, and his name is glorified.

Verses 9-17 Those who aim to ruin the church, can never do that, but will ruin themselves. What dismal changes sin can make! It turns a fruitful land into barrenness, a crowded city into a wilderness. Let us compare all we discover in the book of the Lord, with the dealings of providence around us, that we may be more diligent in seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness. What the mouth of the Lord has commanded, his Spirit will perform. And let us observe how the evidences of the truth continually increase, as one prophecy after another is fulfilled, until these awful scenes bring in more happy days. As Israel was a figure of the Christian church, so the Edomites, their bitter enemies, represent the enemies of the kingdom of Christ. God's Jerusalem may be laid in ruins for a time, but the enemies of the church shall be desolate for ever.

Taken from Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (Concise)

Chapter Summary

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.