Isaiah 34

Isaiah 34:1

6. Woe to All Nations (Chap. 34)34:1-4 In chapter 34 we have God’s indignation against all nations in general, and against Edom in particular. The latter may be representative of all the other nations. When Jehovah judges the Gentiles (nations) the air will reek from the decomposing corpses, and the mountains will melt away from the torrent of their blood. Even the stellar heavens will be convulsed. 34:5-7 The sword of the LORD, “intoxicated with blood,” will fall in fury on Edom, both on the common people (lambs, goats, rams) and on the nobles or leaders (wild oxen, young bulls, mighty bulls). 34:8 It is the day of the Lord’s vengeance. “The word ‘vengeance’ is of crucial importance. It does not mean getting even with someone, as we use it. It refers to God’s action in carrying out the sentence which He as Judge has justly imposed” (Daily Notes of the Scripture Union). 34:9-17 This passage describes Edom’s fatea blazing inferno, an uninhabited waste, taken over by mysterious birds and wild beasts. God will not stop until it is without form and void. There will be no kingdom, no king, no princes worthy of the name. Its ruins will be overgrown with thorns and it will be a sanctuary for strange creatures (which cannot be identified with certainty). Every weird creature will have a mate, and thus will reproduce, and God has given them the ruins of Edom to possess . . . from generation to generation. Forever in this chapter (vv. 10, 17) means from generation to generation.