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In this chapter we have the fatal doom of all the nations that are enemies to God's church and people, though Edom only is mentioned, because of the old enmity of Esau to Jacob, which was typical, as much as that more ancient enmity of Cain to Abel, and flowed from the original enmity of the serpent to the seed of the woman. It is probable that this prophecy had its accomplishment in the great desolations made by the Assyrian army first, or rather by Nebuchadnezzar's army some time after, among those nations that were neighbours to Israel and had been in some way or other injurious to them. That mighty conqueror took a pride in shedding blood, and laying countries waste, and therein, quite beyond his design, he was fulfilling what God here threatened against his and his people's enemies. But we have reason to think it is intended as a denunciation of the wrath of God against all those who fight against the interests of his kingdom among men, that it has its frequent accomplishment in the havoc made by the wars of the nations and other desolating judgments, and will have its full accomplishment in the final dissolution of all things at the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. Here is, I. A demand of universal attention (Isa 34:1). II. A direful scene of blood and confusion presented (Isa 34:2-7). III. The reason given for these judgments (Isa 34:8). IV. The continuance of this desolation, the country being made like the lake of Sodom (Isa 34:9, Isa 34:10), and the cities abandoned to wild beasts and melancholy fowls (Isa 34:11-15). V. The solemn ratification of all this (Isa 34:16, Isa 34:17). Let us hear, and fear.

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 34 This chapter is a prophecy of the destruction of all the antichristian nations of the world, and particularly of Rome, signified by Idumea; which is introduced with a call to a general attention to it, it being a very awful and solemn affair, Isa 34:1 utter and universal destruction is declared, as the effect of God's wrath, Isa 34:2 which is expressed by a dreadful scene of blood, to the melting of the mountains with it, and by the dissolution of the heavens, and the hosts of them, Isa 34:3 particularly the destruction of Idumea is denounced by the sword of the Lord being on it, and bathed with the blood, both of the common people, and of their princes, signified by various sorts of creatures, Isa 34:5 the cause of which is the Lord's vengeance for the controversy of his church and people, injured by Edom or Rome, Isa 34:8 whose desolate and calamitous state is represented as being like that of Sodom, Isa 34:9 and should be no more inhabited by men, nor governed by princes, but be the dwelling of wild beasts and unclean birds, Isa 34:11 all which is confirmed by the word and Spirit of God, Isa 34:16.

For my sword shall be bathed in heaven,.... That is, the sword of the Lord, as it is called in the next verse Isa 34:6, and it is he that is speaking; it designs the vengeance of the Lord, the punishment he will inflict on the wicked, said to be "bathed in heaven", because determined and prepared there; the allusion may be to the bathing of swords in some sort of liquor, to harden or brighten them, and so fit them for use. Kimchi renders it, "my sword" which is "in heaven shall be bathed", that is, in the blood of the slain; "heaven" may denote the whole Roman Papal jurisdiction, as it does the whole Roman Pagan empire in Rev 12:7 and may design the principal men in it, those that are in the highest places and offices, in whom the sword of the Lord shall be first drenched, and be as it were satiated and inebriated with the blood of them: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea; with great weight, force, and vengeance, having a commission from heaven to execute. Idumea is here particularly mentioned, because the Edomites were implacable enemies to the Jews, and so are here put for all the enemies of God's church and people, all the antichristian states, particularly Rome, which the Jews, as Jerom observes, understand by Edom or Idumea here: upon the people of my curse to judgment; a very descriptive character of the Papists, the people of God's curse, and righteously so; those who have anathematized his people, and cursed them with bell, book, and candle, are anathematized by him, devoted to destruction, and doomed to be accursed, sentenced to ruin, and on whom judgment shall pass, and shall be executed; they shall hear, "go, ye cursed", both here and hereafter, at the fall of Babylon, and at the general judgment. The Targum is, "because my sword is revealed in heaven; behold, upon Edom it is revealed, and upon the people whom I have condemned to judgment.''

(Chapter 34, Verse 1, etc.) Come near, you nations, and listen; pay attention, you peoples! Let the earth and all that fills it hear, the world and all that springs from it. For the Lord's indignation is against all the nations, and His fury is against all their armies; He has utterly destroyed them and given them over to slaughter. Their slain will be thrown out, and the stench of their corpses will rise; the mountains will be drenched with their blood. And all the host of heaven will rot away; the skies will roll up like a scroll, and all their host will wither away like a withered leaf from the vine, like foliage from the fig tree. For my sword is drenched in the heavens; indeed, it is drunk with blood. Behold, he will come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my slaughter, to judgment. The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, it is made thick with fatness, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fatness of the kidneys of rams: for there is a victim of the Lord in Bosra, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom. And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls: and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their soil made fat with fatness. After the overthrow of Jerusalem, and the shipwreck of the once very firm ship, and the plunder of all its furnishings, it is said concerning the destruction of all nations, and concerning the consummation of the world, which is in the future day of judgment. Whereby all peoples and nations of the earth and its fullness, the world and all its offspring, both those inhabited places and those uninhabitable due to excessive cold and heat, are commanded to hear, and to know with every trembling of the mind what is to come. For the wrath of the Lord is not only against one nation, the Jews, but also against the Assyrians and Chaldeans, the Egyptians, Moabites, and Ammonites, and the Philistines; but also against all nations, and against the entire host, or as the Septuagint translated, their number. She is described as a venture, which kills them and causes the stench of decaying bodies to rise up high, signifying the sins of all nations, so that their filth and impurities fill the mountains with blood. The lofty virtues and angels that presided over each nation and all the celestial hosts wither away, or fold up like a book, and all their armies and forces, as the LXX have translated, and the stars flow down like leaves, which, with the approaching cold, fall off dried and contracted from the vine and fig tree. Which also the Savior speaks in the Gospel: Stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken, and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven (Matthew 24:29-30). And it is to be considered that it does not say that the heavens will perish, but that they will be folded up or rolled up, like a book, so that after all sins have been exposed and read, those that were previously open may be folded up, so that the sins of many may no longer be written in them. Regarding these type of books, Daniel speaks in his volume: Judgment sat, and the books were opened (Dan. 7:10), in which the deeds of each individual were described. Many people think that the stars are falling, according to the Book of Revelation of John (Rev. 6 and 8). And that which is written elsewhere: All the stars will burn out and the sky and earth will pass away (Luke 21:2). For the figure of this world is passing away. Some believe that these stars are being referred to. which glow in the sky, so as to show in part and as a whole, namely that through the fall of the stars even the destruction of the heavens is revealed. But others think that these stars are going to fall, of which even the Apostle Paul writes: For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. It is not surprising, therefore, if the demons who dwell in the air are said to be heavenly, since even the birds of the sky, which certainly do not fly in the heavens but in the air, are called celestial in Scripture. For Satan himself transforms into an angel of light (2 Cor. 11), simulating a star. And the Savior saw him falling from heaven like lightning (Luke 10). And in a metaphorical sense, he is called fallen from the great star: How you have fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! (Isaiah 14:12). All these things will happen, because his sword is drunk in the sky, the punishment and the sentence, and the vengeance against sinners, which is brought forth by the Lord. This sword and dagger in Ezekiel (Ezek. XXI) is sharpened against the wicked; and after many are killed, he is ordered to enter his sheath. And when he is drunk and filled in the sky; that is, in the air, which is called heaven according to the custom of the Scriptures, then he will also descend to Edom, that is, to the earthly: so that after the punishment of the demons, even the souls of men may be judged. Idumaea indeed in our language means earthly. And it is filled with blood; and thickened with the fat of lambs and goats, and of the marrow of rams and bulls: that it may signify both princes and people to be punished. For the Lord's victim is in Bosra, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom. Of which Bosra and Idumaea the same prophet also witnesses in the following, saying: Who is this that comes from Edom, with red garments from Bosra? And some think that Bosra, which means 'flesh', is called so because through the sacrifice of the Lord in Bosra, the torments of all are shown in the flesh: they are caught in a pious error. In the present place, it is not by the letter Sin, which is put in Bosor (), that is, in the flesh: but it is written with Sade, and it is called Bosra (), which according to Jesus and Jeremiah is not in Edom, that is, Edom; but it is found in the land of Moab (Jeremiah 48). But Bosra in our language sounds fortified and surrounded, or firm: it teaches that the city of the lands of the Lord is solidified by His will, according to what is sung in the psalm; He founded it above the seas, and He placed it above the rivers (Psalm 24, 2); and about the firmness of the earth, it is said in the person of God: I have strengthened its pillars (Psalm 75, 3). And when the sacrifice of the Lord shall be in Bosra, and his slaughter in Edom, unicorns shall come down with them, and the powerful bulls, namely kings and princes of the earth; and all the slaughter and blood shall be filled with the fat of the once rich and powerful. Through these words, according to human custom, instilling terror in those who hear them, torments are shown to all the rulers and powerful ones, as well as the people and the humble. Bosra, that is, fortified and strengthened, and Edom, or Duma, and Idumea, are understood by the Jewish teachers to refer to Rome, and everything concerning it is said in the following chapter.

To us this life is a race course: we contend here, we are crowned elsewhere. No one can lay aside fear while serpents and scorpions beset his path. The Lord says, “My sword has drunk its fill in heaven,” and do you expect to find peace on the earth? No, the earth yields only thorns and thistles, and its dust is food for the serpent. “For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” We are hemmed in by hosts of foes; our enemies are upon every side. The weak flesh will soon be ashes: one against many, it fights against tremendous odds. Not till it has been dissolved, not till the prince of this world has come and found no sin therein, not till then may you safely listen to the prophet’s words: “You shall not be afraid for the terror by night nor the arrow that flies by day; nor for the trouble which haunts you in darkness.” … When the hosts of the enemy distress you, when your body is hot with fever and your passions roused, when you say in your heart, “What shall I do?” Then Elisha’s words shall give you your answer, “Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.” He shall pray, “Lord, open the eyes of your handmaid that she may see.” And then when your eyes have been opened, you shall see a fiery chariot like Elijah’s waiting to carry you to heaven, and you shall joyfully sing, “Our soul has become free like a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken and we have been set free.”

Because God did not spare the sinful angels who lost their heavenly home through their own fault, therefore does he say through Isaiah, “My sword in heaven is satiated.” For every sinner among the people will die by the sword, yet not by a physical sword (there are many and varied ways to die other than by a sword) but by the spiritual sword with which all who fail to do penance must be stricken.

Third, he shows the effect of both: for my sword, that is, my vengeance, is inebriated in heaven, that is, I have carried out vengeance on the demons abundantly: I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh (Deut 32:42). 737. Behold it shall come down upon Idumea. Here he threatens the Idumeans in particular, who came with the enemies against Jerusalem, as it says in Obadiah 1:11: when strangers carried away his army captive. And concerning this, he does three things: first, he threatens the slaughter of their men; second, the destruction of their land: and the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch (Isa 34:9); third, he sets out the confirmation of both of these threats, where it says, search diligently in the book of the Lord (Isa 34:16). 738. Concerning the first, he does three things. First, he describes the fairness of the punishment: behold it shall come down upon Idumea, to crush them; the people of my slaughter, deserving to be slaughtered by me: I have brought the destruction of Esau upon him (Jer 49:8).

This chapter contains two prophecies: the first, delivered during the siege of Jerusalem, predicts to Zedekiah the taking and burning of the city, with his own peaceful death and honorable burial, Jer 34:1-7. The second was delivered when the Chaldeans had for some time broken up the siege. It reproves the Jews for their conduct towards their brethren of the poorer sort, whom they released, by a solemn covenant, from bondage, in the extremity of their danger; but compelled to return to it when they thought that danger over, Jer 34:8-11. For this God threatens them with the sword, pestilence, and famine; and with the return of the Chaldeans, who should take the city, destroy it and the other cities by fire, and make an utter desolation of the whole land of Judea, Jer 34:12-22.

For my sword shall be bathed in heaven "For my sword is made bare in the heavens" - There seems to be some impropriety in this, according to the present reading: "My sword is made drunken, or is bathed in the heavens; "which forestalls, and expresses not in its proper place, what belongs to the next verse: for the sword of Jehovah was not to be bathed or glutted with blood in the heavens, but in Botsra and the land of Edom. In the heavens it was only prepared for slaughter. To remedy this, Archbishop Secker proposes to read, for בשמים bashshamayim, בדמם bedamim; referring to Jer 46:10. But even this is premature, and not in its proper place. The Chaldee, for רותה rivvethah, has תתגלי tithgalli, shall be revealed or disclosed: perhaps he read תראה teraeh or נראתה nirathah. Whatever reading, different I presume from the present, he might find in his copy, I follow the sense which he has given of it.

JUDGMENT ON IDUMEA. (Isa. 34:1-17) All creation is summoned to hear God's judgments (Eze 6:3; Deu 32:1; Psa 50:4; Mic 6:1-2), for they set forth His glory, which is the end of creation (Rev 15:3; Rev 4:11). that come forth of it--answering to "all that is therein"; or Hebrew, "all whatever fills it," Margin.

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 Deu 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 (Kg2 14:7), was capital of South Edom (see on Isa 16:1). David subjugated Edom (Sa2 8:13-14). Under Jehoram they regained independence (Ch2 21:8). Under Amaziah they were again subdued, and Selah taken (Kg2 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; Eze 35:3-15; Joe 3:19; Amo 1:11-12; Oba 1:8, Oba 1:10, Oba 1:12-18; 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.

If we bear this in mind, we shall not be surprised that the prophet gives the following reason for the passing away of the present heavens. "For my sword has become intoxicated in the heaven; behold, it comes down upon Edom, and upon the people of my ban to judgment. The sword of Jehovah fills itself with blood, is fattened with fat, with blood of lambs and he-goats, with kidney-fat of rams; for Jehovah has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom. And buffaloes fall with them, and bullocks together with bulls; and their land become intoxicated with blood, and their dust fattened with fat." Just as in chapter 63 Jehovah is represented as a treader of the wine-press, and the nations as the grapes; so here He is represented as offering sacrifice, and the nations as the animals offered (zebhach: cf., Zep 1:7; Jer 46:10); Eze 39:17.: all three passages founded upon this). Jehovah does not appear here in person as judge, as He does there, but His sword appears; just as in Gen 3:24, the "sword which turned every way" is mentioned as an independent power standing by the side of the cherub. The sword is His executioner, which has no sooner drunk deeply of wrath in heaven, i.e., in the immediate sphere of the Deity (rivvethâh, an intensive form of the kal, like pittēăch, Isa 48:8; Ewald, 120, d), than it comes down in wild intoxication upon Edom, the people of the ban of Jehovah, i.e., the people upon whom He has laid the ban, and there, as His instrument of punishment, fills itself with blood, and fattens itself with fat. הדּשׁנה is the hothpaal = התדּשׁנה, with the ת of the preformative syllable assimilated (compare הזּכּוּ in Isa 1:16, and אדּמּה in Isa 14:14). The penultimate has the tone, the nâh being treated as in the plural forms of the future. The dropping of the dagesh in the שׁ eht ni hse is connected with this. The reading מחלב, in Isa 34:6, is an error that has been handed down in modern copies (in opposition to both codices and ancient editions); for חלב (primary form, chilb) is the only form met with in the Old Testament. The lambs, he-goats, and rams, represent the Edomitish nation, which is compared to these smaller sacrificial animals. Edom and Bozrah are also placed side by side in Isa 63:1. The latter was one of the chief cities of the Edomites (Gen 36:33; Amo 1:12; Jer 49:13, Jer 49:22) - not the Bozrah in Auranitis (Haurân), however, which is well known in church history, but Bozrah in the mountains of Edom, upon the same site as the village of Buzaire (i.e., Minor Bozrah), which is still surrounded by its ruins. In contrast with the three names of the smaller animals in Isa 34:6, the three names of oxen in Isa 34:7 represent the lords of Edom. They also will fall, smitten by the sword (yâredū: cf., Jer 50:27; Jer 51:40; also Jer 48:15). The feast of the sword is so abundant, that even the earth and the dust of the land of Edom are satiated with blood and fat.