2 For Yahweh has indignation against all the nations, and wrath against all their host: he has utterly destroyed them, he has delivered them to the slaughter.
"Therefore wait for me," says Yahweh, "until the day that I rise up to the prey, for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour on them my indignation, even all my fierce anger, for all the earth will be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.
If anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.
Out of his mouth proceeds a sharp, double-edged sword, that with it he should strike the nations. He will rule them with a rod of iron. He treads the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God, the Almighty. He has on his garment and on his thigh a name written, "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS." I saw an angel standing in the sun. He cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the sky, "Come! Be gathered together to the great supper of God,{TR reads "supper of the great God" instead of "great supper of God"} that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, and small and great." I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him who sat on the horse, and against his army. The beast was taken, and with him the false prophet who worked the signs in his sight, with which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. The rest were killed with the sword of him who sat on the horse, the sword which came forth out of his mouth. All the birds were filled with their flesh.
Another angel came out from the temple, crying with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, "Send forth your sickle, and reap; for the hour to reap has come; for the harvest of the earth is ripe!" He who sat on the cloud thrust his sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped. Another angel came out from the temple which is in heaven. He also had a sharp sickle. Another angel came out from the altar, he who has power over fire, and he called with a great voice to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, "Send forth your sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for the earth's grapes are fully ripe!" The angel thrust his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vintage of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. The winepress was trodden outside of the city, and blood came out from the winepress, even to the bridles of the horses, as far as one thousand six hundred stadia.{1600 stadia = 296 kilometers or 184 miles}
I saw when he opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake. The sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became as blood. The stars of the sky fell to the earth, like a fig tree dropping its unripe figs when it is shaken by a great wind. The sky was removed like a scroll when it is rolled up. Every mountain and island were moved out of their places. The kings of the earth, the princes, the commanding officers, the rich, the strong, and every slave and free person, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains. They told the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of his wrath has come; and who is able to stand?"
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
This will be the plague with which Yahweh will strike all the peoples who have warred against Jerusalem: their flesh will consume away while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will consume away in their sockets, and their tongue will consume away in their mouth. It will happen in that day, that a great panic from Yahweh will be among them; and they will lay hold everyone on the hand of his neighbor, and his hand will rise up against the hand of his neighbor. Judah also will fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the surrounding nations will be gathered together: gold, and silver, and clothing, in great abundance. So will be the plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel, and of the donkey, and of all the animals that will be in those camps, as that plague. It will happen that everyone who is left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, Yahweh of Hosts, and to keep the feast of tents.
They come from a far country, from the uttermost part of heaven, even Yahweh, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
Yahweh is a jealous God and avenges. Yahweh avenges and is full of wrath. Yahweh takes vengeance on his adversaries, and he maintains wrath against his enemies. Yahweh is slow to anger, and great in power, and will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. Yahweh has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. He rebukes the sea, and makes it dry, and dries up all the rivers. Bashan languishes, and Carmel; and the flower of Lebanon languishes. The mountains quake before him, and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, yes, the world, and all who dwell in it. Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the fierceness of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken apart by him.
The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. He said: "Yahweh will roar from Zion, And utter his voice from Jerusalem; And the pastures of the shepherds will mourn, And the top of Carmel will wither."
Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare war. Stir up the mighty men. Let all the warriors draw near. Let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, And your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, "I am strong." Hurry and come, all you surrounding nations, And gather yourselves together." Cause your mighty ones to come down there, Yahweh. "Let the nations arouse themselves, And come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; For there will I sit to judge all the surrounding nations. Put in the sickle; For the harvest is ripe. Come, tread, for the winepress is full, The vats overflow, for their wickedness is great." Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of Yahweh is near, in the valley of decision.
For thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, to me: take this cup of the wine of wrath at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it. They shall drink, and reel back and forth, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them. Then took I the cup at Yahweh's hand, and made all the nations to drink, to whom Yahweh had sent me: [to wit], Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings of it, and the princes of it, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse, as it is this day; Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people; and all the mixed people, and all the kings of the land of the Uz, and all the kings of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Gaza, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod; Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon; and all the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the isle which is beyond the sea; Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all who have the corners [of their hair] cut off; and all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mixed people who dwell in the wilderness; and all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes; and all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another; and all the kingdoms of the world, which are on the surface of the earth: and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them. You shall tell them, Thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel: Drink you, and be drunken, and spew, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you. It shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at your hand to drink, then shall you tell them, Thus says Yahweh of Hosts: You shall surely drink. For, behold, I begin to work evil at the city which is called by my name; and should you be utterly unpunished? You shall not be unpunished; for I will call for a sword on all the inhabitants of the earth, says Yahweh of Hosts.
Behold, the name of Yahweh comes from far, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue is as a devouring fire; and his breath is as an overflowing stream, that reaches even to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction: and a bridle that causes to err [shall be] in the jaws of the peoples. You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goes with a pipe to come to the mountain of Yahweh, to the Rock of Israel. Yahweh will cause his glorious voice to be heard, and will show the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of [his] anger, and the flame of a devouring fire, with a blast, and tempest, and hailstones.
There shall be on every lofty mountain, and on every high hill, brooks [and] streams of waters, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.
Behold, Yahweh makes the earth empty, and makes it waste, and turns it upside down, and scatters abroad the inhabitants of it. It shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the creditor, so with the debtor; as with the taker of interest, so with the giver of interest to him. The earth shall be utterly emptied, and utterly laid waste; for Yahweh has spoken this word. The earth mourns and fades away, the world languishes and fades away, the lofty people of the earth do languish. The earth also is polluted under the inhabitants of it; because they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore has the curse devoured the earth, and those who dwell therein are found guilty: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left. The new wine mourns, the vine languishes, all the merry-hearted do sigh. The mirth of tambourines ceases, the noise of those who rejoice ends, the joy of the harp ceases. They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to those who drink it. The waste city is broken down; every house is shut up, that no man may come in. There is a crying in the streets because of the wine; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone. In the city is left desolation, and the gate is struck with destruction. For thus shall it be in the midst of the earth among the peoples, as the shaking of an olive tree, as the gleanings when the vintage is done. These shall lift up their voice, they shall shout; for the majesty of Yahweh they cry aloud from the sea. Therefore glorify Yahweh in the east, even the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel, in the isles of the sea! From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs: Glory to the righteous. But I said, I pine away, I pine away, woe is me! the treacherous have dealt treacherously; yes, the treacherous have dealt very treacherously. Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are on you, O inhabitant of the earth. It shall happen, that he who flees from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he who comes up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble. The earth is utterly broken, the earth is torn apart, the earth is shaken violently. The earth shall stagger like a drunken man, and shall sway back and forth like a hammock; and the disobedience of it shall be heavy on it, and it shall fall, and not rise again. It shall happen in that day, that Yahweh will punish the host of the high ones on high, and the kings of the earth on the earth. They shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison; and after many days shall they be visited. Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed; for Yahweh of Hosts will reign on Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem; and before his elders shall be glory.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Isaiah 34
Commentary on Isaiah 34 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 34
Isa 34:1-17. Judgment on Idumea.
The thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth chapters form one prophecy, the former part of which denounces God's judgment against His people's enemies, of whom Edom is the representative; the second part, of the flourishing state of the Church consequent on those judgments. This forms the termination of the prophecies of the first part of Isaiah (the thirty-sixth through thirty-ninth chapters being historical) and is a kind of summary of what went before, setting forth the one main truth, Israel shall be delivered from all its foes, and happier times shall succeed under Messiah.
1. All creation is summoned to hear God's judgments (Eze 6:3; De 32:1; Ps 50:4; Mic 6:1, 2), for they set forth His glory, which is the end of creation (Re 15:3; 4:11).
that come forth of it—answering to "all that is therein"; or Hebrew, "all whatever fills it," Margin.
2. utterly destroyed—rather, "doomed them to an utter curse" [Horsley].
delivered—rather, "appointed."
3. cast out—unburied (Isa 14:19).
melted—washed away as with a descending torrent.
4. (Ps 102:26; Joe 2:31; 3:15; Mt 24:29).
dissolved—(2Pe 3:10-12). Violent convulsions of nature are in Scripture made the images of great changes in the human world (Isa 24:19-21), and shall literally accompany them at the winding up of the present dispensation.
scroll—Books were in those days sheets of parchment rolled together (Re 6:14).
fall down—The stars shall fall when the heavens in which they are fixed pass away.
fig tree—(Re 6:13).
5. sword—(Jer 46:10). Or else, knife for sacrifice for God does not here appear as a warrior with His sword, but as one about to sacrifice victims doomed to slaughter [Vitringa]. (Eze 39:17).
bathed—rather "intoxicated," namely, with anger (so De 32:42). "In heaven" implies the place where God's purpose of wrath is formed in antithesis to its "coming down" in the next clause.
Idumea—originally extending from the Dead Sea to the Red Sea; afterwards they obtained possession of the country east of Moab, of which Bozrah was capital. Petra or Selah, called Joktheel (2Ki 14:7), was capital of South Edom (see on Isa 16:1). David subjugated Edom (2Sa 8:13, 14). Under Jehoram they regained independence (2Ch 21:8). Under Amaziah they were again subdued, and Selah taken (2Ki 14:7). When Judah was captive in Babylon, Edom, in every way, insulted over her fallen mistress, killed many of those Jews whom the Chaldeans had left, and hence was held guilty of fratricide by God (Esau, their ancestor, having been brother to Jacob): this was the cause of the denunciations of the prophets against Edom (Isa 63:1, &c.; Jer 49:7; Eze 25:12-14; 35:3-15; Joe 3:19; Am 1:11, 12; Ob 8, 10, 12-18; Mal 1:3,4). Nebuchadnezzar humbled Idumea accordingly (Jer 25:15-21).
of my curse—that is, doomed to it.
to judgment—that is, to execute it.
6. filled—glutted. The image of a sacrifice is continued.
blood … fat—the parts especially devoted to God in a sacrifice (2Sa 1:22).
lambs … goats—sacrificial animals: the Idumeans, of all classes, doomed to slaughter, are meant (Zep 1:7).
Bozrah—called Bostra by the Romans, &c., assigned in Jer 48:24 to Moab, so that it seems to have been at one time in the dominion of Edom, and at another in that of Moab (Isa 63:1; Jer 49:13, 20, 22); it was strictly not in Edom, but the capital of Auranitis (the Houran). Edom seems to have extended its dominion so as to include it (compare La 4:21).
7. unicorns—Hebrew, reem: conveying the idea of loftiness, power, and pre-eminence (see on Job 39:9), in the Bible. At one time the image in the term answers to a reality in nature; at another it symbolizes an abstraction. The rhinoceros was the original type. The Arab rim is two-horned: it was the oryx (the leucoryx, antelope, bold and pugnacious); but when accident or artifice deprived it of one horn, the notion of the unicorn arose. Here is meant the portion of the Edomites which was strong and warlike.
come down—rather, "fall down," slain [Lowth].
with them—with the "lambs and goats," the less powerful Edomites (Isa 34:6).
bullocks … bulls—the young and old Edomites: all classes.
dust—ground.
8. recompenses for the controversy of Zion—that is, the year when God will retaliate on those who have contended with Zion. Her controversy is His. Edom had thought to extend its borders by laying hold of its neighbor's lands and has instigated Babylon to cruelty towards fallen Judah (Ps 137:7; Eze 36:5); therefore Edom shall suffer the same herself (La 4:21, 22). The final winding up of the controversy between God and all enemies of Him and His people is also foreshadowed (Isa 61:2; 63:4; 66:14-16; Mal 4:1, 3; 2Th 1:7, 8, 9; Re 11:18; 18:20; 19:2).
9. Images from the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah (Ge 19:24-28; so De 29:23; Jer 49:17, 18).
10. It—The burning pitch, &c. (Isa 34:9).
smoke … for ever—(Re 14:11; 18:18; 19:3).
generation to generation—(Mal 1:4).
none … pass through—Edom's original offense was: they would not let Israel pass through their land in peace to Canaan: God recompenses them in kind, no traveller shall pass through Edom. Volney, the infidel, was forced to confirm the truth of this prophecy: "From the reports of the Arabs, southeast of the Dead Sea, within three days' journey are upwards of thirty ruined towns, absolutely deserted."
11. cormorant—The Hebrew is rendered, in Ps 102:6, "pelican," which is a seafowl, and cannot be meant here: some waterfowl (katta, according to Burckhardt) that tenants desert places is intended.
bittern—rather, "the hedgehog," or "porcupine" [Gesenius] (Isa 14:23).
owl—from its being enumerated among water birds in Le 11:17; De 14:16. Maurer thinks rather the heron or crane is meant; from a Hebrew root, "to blow," as it utters a sound like the blowing of a horn (Re 18:2).
confusion—devastation.
line … stones—metaphor from an architect with line and plummet-stone (see on Isa 18:2; Isa 28:17); God will render to it the exact measure of justice without mercy (Jas 2:13; 2Ki 21:13; La 2:8; Am 7:7, 8).
emptiness—desolation. Edom is now a waste of "stones."
12. Rather, "As to her nobles, there shall be none there who shall declare a kingdom," that is, a king [Maurer]; or else, "There shall be no one there whom they shall call to the kingdom" [Rosenmuller] (Isa 3:6, &c.). Idumea was at first governed by dukes (Ge 36:15); out of them the king wan chosen when the constitution became a monarchy.
13. dragons—(See on Isa 13:21; Isa 13:22).
court for owls—rather, "a dwelling for ostriches."
14. wild beasts of the desert … island—rather, "wild cats … jackals" (Isa 13:21).
screech owl—rather, "the night specter"; in Jewish superstition a female, elegantly dressed, that carried off children by night. The text does not assert the existence of such objects of superstition, but describes the place as one which superstition would people with such beings.
15. great owl—rather, "the arrow snake," so called from its darting on its prey [Gesenius].
lay—namely, eggs.
gather under her shadow—rather, "cherishes" her young under, &c. (Jer 17:11).
16. book of the Lord—the volume in which the various prophecies and other parts of Scripture began henceforward to be collected together (Isa 30:8; Da 9:2).
Seek—(so Isa 8:16, 20; Joh 5:39; 7:52).
no one … fail—of these prophecies (Mt 5:18).
none shall want … mate—image from pairing of animals mentioned, Isa 34:15 ("mate"); no prediction shall want a fulfilment as its companion. Or rather, "none of these wild animals (just spoken of) shall be wanting: none shall be without its mate" to pair and breed with, in desolate Idumea.
my … his—Such changes of person are frequent in Hebrew poetry.
them—the wild beasts.
17. cast … lot—As conquerors apportion lands by lot, so Jehovah has appointed and marked out ("divided") Edom for the wild beasts (Nu 26:55, 56; Jos 18:4-6).