Isaiah · chapter 34 of 66
Updated on
Isaiah 34 summons all the nations to hear that the Lord is angry with them and has devoted them to destruction. The judgment centers on Edom, which becomes a desolate land, inhabited by birds and wild animals, from generation to generation. The chapter presents that day as a day of vengeance of the Lord for the cause of Zion and ends by inviting readers to look in the book of the Lord for confirmation of these words.
Isaiah 34 and 35 form a pair of contrasts. Chapter 34 describes a universal judgment with Edom as the example; chapter 35 announces the restoration of Zion in images of a blooming desert. Many scholars see them as a conclusion to the first great part of the book, before the historical narratives of chapters 36-39.
The chapter begins with a solemn call to the nations and peoples to draw near and listen, along with the earth and all that fills it, because the Lord is enraged against all the nations and furious against all their host. He has devoted them to destruction and given them over to slaughter. Their slain will be cast out, the mountains will melt with their blood, and all the host of heaven will rot away; the skies will be rolled up like a scroll, and all their host will fall as leaves fall from the vine and the fig tree.
The Lord's sword has drunk its fill in the heavens and will descend on Edom, a people he has devoted to judgment. The sword of the Lord is sated with blood, gorged with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, for the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah and a great slaughter in the land of Edom. It is a day of vengeance for the Lord, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
Edom's streams will turn to pitch and its dust to sulfur, and its land to burning pitch; night and day it will not be quenched, and its smoke will go up forever. From generation to generation it will lie waste and no one will pass through it forever. The pelican and the hedgehog will possess it, the owl and the raven will dwell in it; he will stretch over it the line of confusion and the plumb line of emptiness. Its nobles will have no kingdom to proclaim, and thorns will grow in its palaces. It will be a haunt of jackals and an abode for ostriches; wild beasts of the desert will meet there, along with creatures whose names in the text are hard to pin down. The chapter ends by inviting readers to seek and read from the book of the Lord: not one of these creatures will be missing or lack her mate, because his mouth has commanded it and his Spirit has gathered them. He has cast the lot for them and his hand has divided the land by line; they will possess it forever.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The Lord is enraged against all the nations and has devoted them to destruction. Judgment is foreign to no one: it covers every people and reminds us that God is sovereign over the whole earth.
All the host of heaven will dissolve and the skies will be rolled up like a scroll. The language is cosmic and takes up images that return in Revelation 6:13-14, where they are used for the final judgment.
It is a day of vengeance for the Lord and a year of recompense for the cause of Zion. The vengeance here is not human caprice but God's justice on behalf of his oppressed people.
The prophet invites readers to seek in the book of the Lord and read: none of this will be missing, because his mouth has commanded it. It is an invitation to verify in Scripture that God's words come to pass.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: The nations and peoples, together with the earth and all that fills it. — Isaiah 34:1
Answer: Against all the nations and all their host. — Isaiah 34:2
Answer: A scroll that is rolled up. — Isaiah 34:4
Answer: On Edom. — Isaiah 34:5
Answer: A day of vengeance for the Lord and a year of recompense for the cause of Zion. — Isaiah 34:8
Answer: To seek in the book of the Lord and read, because none of what is said will be missing. — Isaiah 34:16
Isaiah 34 is a hard chapter, but useful for remembering that God is just and that evil does not go unanswered. For those who suffer injustice, the text affirms that the Lord takes their cause seriously. In a Sunday school class you can talk about how to wait for God's justice without taking revenge into our own hands, as the New Testament teaches.
The chapter also invites us to read Scripture with confidence. Verse 16 urges us to seek in the book of the Lord, because his word comes to pass. In a small group you can encourage regular Bible reading, even of difficult passages like this one, asking what they reveal about God's character and about the seriousness of sin.
Isaiah 34 leaves a devastated land as a symbol of the Lord's judgment on his enemies. Chapter 35 answers with the opposite picture: the desert blooms, the weak are strengthened and the redeemed return to Zion with joy.
Edom, the nation descended from Esau, appears in many prophets as an example of a hostile enemy of Israel and as a representative of the nations opposed to God. Isaiah uses it as a concrete example of the universal judgment announced at the start of the chapter.
It is large-scale prophetic and apocalyptic language that describes divine judgment with images of rolled-up skies and falling stars. Some take it as a figure for historical judgments; others see it as an announcement of the final judgment. Revelation 6:13-14 takes up some of these images.
The Hebrew text uses names of desert animals and creatures that translators render in different ways, because it is not always clear which ones are meant. The general idea is that places once filled with palaces will be left to wild creatures.