The Vision of Isaiah

Chapter 34

The judgments with which God revenges his church, 1-10. The desolation of her enemies, 11-15. The certainty of the prophecy, 16, 17.

Come near, you nations, to hear./
And listen, you people./
Let the earth hear, and all that is in it,/
the world, and all things that spring from it.

For the indignation of the LORD is upon all nations/
and his fury upon all their armies./
He has utterly destroyed them./
He has delivered them to the slaughter.

Their slain shall also be cast out,/
and their ill smell shall come up from their carcasses./
The mountains shall be melted with their blood.

And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved/
and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll./
And all their hosts shall fall down,/
as the leaf falls from the vine/
and as a falling fig from the fig-tree.

For my sword shall be bathed in heaven./
Behold, it shall come down upon Edom/
and upon the people of my curse to judgment.

The sword of the LORD is filled with blood./
It is made fat with fatness,/
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 Edom.

And the wild oxen shall come down with them,/
and the young bulls with the strong bulls./
And their land shall be drenched with blood/
and their dust made fat with fatness.

For it is the day of the LORD'S vengeance,/
and the year of recompenses/
for the controversy of Zion.

And its streams shall be turned into pitch/
and its dust into brimstone,/
and its land shall become burning pitch.

10 It shall not be quenched night nor day./
Its smoke shall ascend forever./
From generation to generation it shall lie waste./
None shall pass through it forever and ever.

11 But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it./
The owl and the raven shall dwell in it./
And he shall stretch out upon it/
the line of confusion and the stones of emptiness.

12 They shall call her nobles to the kingdom,/
but no one shall be there,/
and all her princes shall be nothing.

13 And thorns shall come up in her palaces,/
nettles and brambles in her fortresses,/
and it shall be a habitation of jackals/
and a court for owls.

14 The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wolves,/
and the wild goat shall cry to his fellow./
The screech-owl shall also rest there/
and find for herself a place of rest.

15 There the great owl shall make her nest, lay,/
and hatch and gather under her shadow./
There the vultures shall also be gathered,/
each with her mate.

16 Seek out of the book of the LORD, and read./
Not one of these shall fail./
Not one shall lack her mate./
For my mouth has commanded,/
and his Spirit has gathered them.

17 And he has cast the lot for them,/
and his hand has divided it to them by line./
They shall possess it forever./
From generation to generation they shall dwell therein.

Commentary

Matthew Henry Commentary - Isaiah, Chapter 34[➚]

Notes

[v.4] - Reference, Matthew 24:29; Mark 13:24-25.

[v.10] - Quoted in Revelation 19:3.

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