34:1  Come near, you nations, and hear! Pay attention, you peoples! Let the earth give heed, and all who are upon it, the world, and all who spring from it.

This is a universal event. We have the world and the earth here who are the subjects of a world-wide destruction in Chapter 13. There Babylon was defined as the earth and the world and its wicked inhabitants, who were being destroyed by the Assyrian Armies. So here we have basically the same identities, the same entities who are coming under condemnation, involving nations and peoples.

34:2  The Lord’s rage is upon all nations, his fury upon all their hosts; he has doomed them, consigned them to the slaughter.

Remember the day of the great slaughter when the towers fall? This is it. The Lord’s rage and fury are metaphors describing the King of Assyria. He personifies God’s rage and fury. The Lord Himself is not a vengeful person, who is in a rage and is furious, but He uses someone who is as His instrument and gives him power over all nations, over all their hosts. he has doomed them,
consigned them to the slaughter. This is what happens to those who covenant with death or choose a course other than God’s, they all go to their death, like a slaughter in the Day of Judgment, while the elect or righteous are delivered.

34:3–4  Their slain shall be flung out and their corpses emit a stench; their blood shall dissolve on the mountains, their fat decompose [on the hills]—

In other words, they’re lying around until their bodies rot on the ground. In North Dakota recently there were 90,000 cattle and sheep destroyed by the cold and their bodies littered the whole land and caused a stench, very similar to what’s described here, as a matter of fact. their blood shall dissolve on the mountains, their fat decompose [on the hills]–When?

33:4  when the heavens are rolled up as a scroll, and their starry hosts shed themselves with one accord, like withered leaves from a vine, or shriveled fruit from a fig tree.

So it’s a cosmic event. The heavens are likened to being rolled up as a scroll. The hosts of heaven shed themselves like fruit falling from a fruit tree or shriveled fruit. That implies several things. In Chapter 5 we saw that the Lord’s people are like shriveled fruit that rots before it ripens. The Lord’s wicked people are. And it implies here that they’re the ones who come under the destruction, shriveled fruit, not good fruit. In the Book of Isaiah good fruit is harvested and eaten. And also, the starry hosts shedding themselves with one accord, implies that we’re going to have destruction out of heaven, whether these are meteors or nuclear bombs coming down with missiles, some kind of scenario of destruction from the heavens. It’s going to cause a great cataclysmic destruction upon all nations of the world. In the book of Jude, it mentions: To the wandering star is reserved judgment forever. And some stars are going to fall down from heaven. If we look up at the stars today, what do we see? We see stars that are fixed and we see wandering stars, right? What are those wandering stars? They’re satellites and things that are up there. And if that technology is used in this instance then it could qualify for starry hosts shedding themselves with one accord if there was a nuclear attack or something like that.

34:5  When my sword drinks its fill in the heavens, it shall come down on Edom in judgment, on the people I have sentenced to damnation.

So this sword is a divine sword or divine destruction coming out of heaven. On Edom, Edom has several connotations. It is the same word essentially as Adam, which comes from the word, adamah, which means earth. So it comes down upon the earth. Edom actually means red, from red earth. It is also the name given to Esau or the people of Esau or the land of Esau. And Esau was the one who sold his birthright for a mess of pottage. So the ones who are destroyed in That Day, it gives them the connotation of those who sell their birthright for a mess of pottage, like Esau did. The people I have sentenced to damnation. These are not the ones who attain the birthright which is the covenant with God and all its attendant blessings, and through it all, in the next few verses.

34:6  The Lord has a sword that shall engorge with blood and glut itself with fat—the blood of lambs and he-goats, the kidney fat of rams.

34:6–7  For the Lord will hold a slaughter in Bozrah, an immense massacre in the land of Edom; among them shall fall bison, bulls, and steers. Their land shall be saturated with blood, their soil enriched with fat.

Horrendous amounts of cattle and sheep and goats die. Literally, you think? While in the Book of Isaiah animals are likened to people and this is an instance of it. The slaughter referred to in verse 2 is upon all their nations and their hosts. And those nations and their hosts are here likened to these animals going to the slaughter. The word slaughter is a word link. Bozrah is the capital of Edom, or the land of Esau, or the descendants of Esau. But these animals are clean animals. They’re not unclean animals. They’re kosher animals. The lambs, he-goats, rams, bison, bulls and steers, they’re all clean animals. What does that imply? It implies that these are covenant people of God, just like Esau was once before he sold out. It implies that these people are covenant people of God who have sold out. They have not kept the terms of the covenant or they wouldn’t be going to the slaughter. So he’s using the imagery of the people of Edom who were a cattle-raising people. They were noted for cattle-raising and for flocks and herds. He’s using that imagery to describe the Day of Judgment. We have already seen the Day of Judgment described as a harvest or as a vintage or as a storm, and here it’s described as a slaughter.

34:8  For it is the Lord’s day of vengeance, the year of retribution on behalf of Zion.

Vengeance upon the wicked, the Lord’s Day of Vengeance is that Day of Judgment that we see all the way through Isaiah. The year of retribution on behalf of Zion finds the people of Zion holding out, being persecuted, holding out, waiting for the Lord; eventually, the Lord comes through for them and delivers them by destroying the wicked. That’s retribution on behalf of Zion. That’s the day of vengeance upon the wicked of the Lord’s people, who oppress the righteous of the Lord’s people, or the wicked nations of the world who oppress the people of God. And the words “Vengeance and Retribution” are also metaphors describing the king of Assyria. He personifies God’s vengeance and his fury and his rage, and so forth.

34:9  Edom’s streams shall turn into lava and her earth into brimstone; her land shall become as burning pitch.

Now we see the nature of the destruction, or the slaughter-- his sword drinking its fill in the heavens coming down to Edom in judgment. People are sentenced to damnation who are likened to beasts going to the slaughter. It’s not far off. It’s a cosmic destruction. Like Babylon being destroyed as was Sodom and Gomorrah, in chapter 13:19. Here, we have basically the same scenario of world-wide destruction, as in chapter thirteen. In chapter thirteen, however, Isaiah defines Babylon as the world and the earth and its wicked inhabitants. Here, he defines those wicked inhabitants, in a particular sense. The same wicked inhabitants, the same cosmic destruction, the same Sodom and Gomorrah type of destruction. But in a particular sense of those who sold out, those who sold their birthright for a mess of pottage, like Esau. “Edom’s streams shall turn into lava, her earth into brimstone, her land shall become as burning pitch.

34:10  Night and day it shall not be quenched; its smoke shall ascend forever. It shall remain a wasteland from generation to generation; through endless ages none shall traverse it.

34:11  But hawks and falcons shall possess it, and owls and ravens inhabit it. It shall be surveyed with muddled measure and chaotic weight.

The same kind of conclusion to chapter thirteen. I’ll quote from verse 19: “Babylon the most splendid of kingdoms, the glory and pride of Chaldeans, shall be thrown down, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. Never shall it be reinhabited nor shall it be resettled through all generations. Nomads will not pitch their tents there, nor will shepherds rest their flocks in it. But wild animals will infest it, and its buildings overflow with weasels.,” and so forth. So, basically, it’s the same scenario, but in a particular sense, defined as the fate of those wicked of the Lord’s people who sell out.

Verse 11 “Hawks and falcons shall possess it, and owls and ravens inhabit it...” Animals and birds, especially unclean creatures as these are, inhabited after people inhabited -- That’s a covenant curse. But it also implies that the people were like hawks and fowl. They were like unclean creatures who lived there beforehand, who deserved the destruction that came upon them because of that. And, on the third level, implies that Gentiles, those who are not of Israel, inherited after God’s own people have inherited it. It depends on which level you want to interpret it. Because in that day all creatures will be clean, in a sense. There will be harmony among all creatures, clean and unclean. As we read in chapter 11:”then shall the wolf (an unclean animal) dwell among lambs (clean) and the leopard (unclean) lie down with young goats, calves and young lions ( clean and unclean)and will feed together, and a youngsters will lead them to pasture, and so forth. “The lion will eat straw like the ox. The suckling infant will play near the adder’s den.” So we see the clean and the unclean living there in a situation of peace and purity.


34:12  Shall they summon its nobles when it is no kingdom, when all its lords no longer exist?

The nobles are summoned to the feast that the emperor king holds, once or twice a year, for all his vassal kings. And, in the Millennial time of peace, people will go up to Zion on a pilgrimage, once or twice a year, to pay tribute to the King, to the Lord himself. But, from this cursed place, there will be no nobles. There’ll be no vassal kings coming to pay tribute. There will be none coming on a pilgrimage, because they are all wiped out. Its lords no longer exist. It’s is no kingdom anymore. That lower Kingdom has ceased to exist.

34:13  For thorns shall overgrow its palaces, thistles and briars its strongholds; it shall become the haunt of howling creatures, a reserve for birds of prey.

So much of what we read in chapter thirteen. Also, a reversal of circumstance again alluded to: That which was prominent, where there were nobles, which was a kingdom, now becomes briars and thorns, a wilderness uninhabited by people, inhabited by animals, a covenant curse. And in the next chapter we’ll see how that which was in that situation, which was in a covenant curse becomes fertile and becomes inhabited again. This is one example of this great reversal of circumstances in the book of Isaiah.

34:14  Prairie wolves shall greet jackals, and wild goats call to one another. There too shall the night owl find repose and discover for herself a resting place.

All these, except for wild goats, are unclean animals, inhabiting where God’s people, covenant people, inhabited before., but also including the whole world, because this is a prophecy and it’s addressed to all nations and peoples. All those come under that condemnation. This is what happens to them. And notice what he does now. While he is on this subject of wild animals and birds-- unclean or clean-- doesn’t matter, he turns that imagery around to something very beautiful.

34:15  There shall the hawk owl nest and lay eggs, hatch them and brood over her young. There too shall kites come together, each one accompanying her mate.

34:16  Search, and read it in the book of the Lord: None is unaccounted for, not one lacks her mate. By his mouth he decreed it, by his Spirit he brings them together.

And the Book of the Lord is the Book of Life, and there it’s written that not one lacks her mate. Is it talking about birds, there, or is it talking about people who are symbolized by the birds? The birds and the animals spoken of here are just metaphors that could allude to the unclean animals, the Gentiles, the non-Israelite peoples now receiving inheritances in place of the Lord’s people who were there before. The Book of the Lord, talks about his people, not about birds and animals. And one thing that’s inscribed there is that “not one lacks her mate.” It doesn’t say, “one lacks his mate, “ meaning that there’s provision for every female to have a mate. “By his mouth he decreed it, by his Spirit he brings them together.” When there’s the Lord’s Spirit bringing them together, then you know it’s a good union. The mouth is the Lord speaking and decreeing it, but also a metaphor describing the Lord’s Servant. The Servant has something to do with bringing together male and female, and sealing them together.

34:17  It is he who allots them an inheritance, his hand that divides it by measure. They shall possess it forever, inhabit it from generation to generation.

But, often, “from generation to generation,” it was to remain a wasteland. But, here, those who inherit the land possess it from generation to generation. Isaiah has turned around the situation from jackals and wild birds, to a situation that is a blessed situation, a Millennial situation where people receive an inheritance of land, and “possess it from generation to generation,” symbolized by the birds and by the animals. And the Lord’s Servant has something to do with it. He says “His hand divides it by measure.” He allots them an inheritance, Implying that as Joshua allotted inheritances of land to the people, anciently, when they conquered the land of Canaan, so the Servant does again. He allots the people lands of inheritance in that Millennial time of peace. And it’s also mentioned in chapter 49 where it says “I have created you and appointed you to be covenant of the people,” addressing the Lord’s servant, “to restore the land, reapportion the desolate estates.” He’s the one who apportions the desolate estates, the estates of the former wicked inhabitants, to the righteous people of the Lord. So, in summing up, those who are the covenant people of the Lord, as identified as the “clean” animals, go to the slaughter, or come under covenant curse. And those who are not the covenant people of the Lord, come in, eventually, to the covenant, and receive an inheritance in the promised land. Carries right on with that idea how wilderness and arid land, which has been under a covenant curse, shall be jubilant.