Bird's-eye view
This chapter opens with a terrifying, universal summons. The prophet Isaiah, speaking for Yahweh, calls the entire world to attention. This is not a private memo to the house of Judah; this is a formal declaration of war against a rebellious creation. The scene is that of a cosmic courtroom, and the Judge of all the earth is about to read the verdict and pronounce the sentence. The language is absolute and all-encompassing, describing a global outpouring of divine indignation. The specific historical target in the verses that follow is Edom, but the principles laid out here are universal. This is what the covenant wrath of God looks like when it is finally unleashed.
The imagery is one of complete and total de-creation. The judgment is so thorough that it reverses the created order. The land is filled with corpses, the mountains dissolve in blood, and the very heavens rot and are rolled up like a used scroll. This is apocalyptic language, meant to convey the finality and terror of God's judgment against sin. It is a picture of the world coming apart at the seams because it has rejected its Creator. This is not just a historical event; it is a theological principle. When men and nations set themselves against God, the fabric of their reality will ultimately be unmade. This passage serves as a fearsome backdrop against which the good news of the gospel shines all the brighter, for it is from this very wrath that Christ came to deliver us.
Outline
- 1. The Universal Summons to Judgment (Isa 34:1)
- 2. The Universal Sentence of Wrath (Isa 34:2)
- 3. The Earthly Consequences of the Sentence (Isa 34:3)
- 4. The Heavenly Consequences of the Sentence (Isa 34:4)
Context In Isaiah
Isaiah 34 and 35 form a distinct pair. Chapter 34 is a picture of the ultimate curse, the "great slaughter," the day of Yahweh's vengeance. Chapter 35, in stark contrast, is a picture of the ultimate blessing, the restoration of the redeemed, the blossoming of the desert, and the return of the exiles to Zion with everlasting joy. You cannot understand the beauty of the second without the terror of the first. This section follows a series of oracles against the nations (chapters 13-23) and a "little apocalypse" (chapters 24-27). It serves to universalize the theme of judgment before turning to a specific historical narrative involving Hezekiah and Sennacherib. Chapter 34 is the summary statement of what all rebellious nations, epitomized by Edom, can expect from a holy God. It is the dark velvet on which the diamond of salvation in chapter 35 is displayed.
Key Issues
- The Nature of God's Wrath
- Corporate Guilt of Nations
- The Day of Yahweh
- Apocalyptic Language and De-creation
- The Relationship between Universal Judgment and Specific Historical Judgments
The Courtroom of the Cosmos
The scene that opens this chapter is one of a formal, legal proceeding. God is not throwing a tantrum. He is executing justice. The prophet calls for all the nations and peoples to "draw near" and "pay attention." This is the language of a court officer calling the assembly to order because the judge is entering. The earth and everything in it are summoned as witnesses, or perhaps as defendants. This is a covenant lawsuit, a rib pattern common in the Old Testament prophets. God is laying out His case against the nations for their rebellion, their idolatry, and their violence. He is the Creator, the Lawgiver, and the Judge, and He is about to demonstrate that His laws are not suggestions. The nations have sown the wind, and they are about to reap the whirlwind. This is not arbitrary anger; it is the settled, judicial, holy opposition of God to all that is evil.
Verse by Verse Commentary
1 Draw near, O nations, to hear; and pay attention, O peoples! Let the earth hear, as well as its fullness, the world and all that springs from it.
The summons is universal. This is not just for Israel, or for the major empires of the day like Assyria and Babylon. Every last nation, every people group, is called to the bar of God's justice. The scope is then widened even further: the earth itself, and all its "fullness," is to listen in. This includes the mountains, the rivers, the animals, every living thing. Why? Because creation itself has been groaning under the weight of human sin (Rom 8:22). The rebellion of mankind has cosmic consequences, and so the execution of justice will have cosmic implications. God is putting the whole world on notice. No one will be able to plead ignorance. The Judge is speaking, and all of creation is commanded to be silent and attend.
2 For the indignation of Yahweh is against all the nations, And His wrath against all their hosts; He has devoted them to destruction; He has given them over to slaughter.
Here is the reason for the summons. The "indignation" and "wrath" of Yahweh are not fleeting emotions but settled states of holy opposition. And this wrath is directed at "all the nations" and "all their hosts." The word "hosts" can refer to armies, but in this cosmic context, it likely carries a double meaning, referring to both the earthly armies of the nations and the spiritual principalities and powers that stand behind them. The nations did not rebel in a vacuum; they were incited by the ancient serpent. God's judgment, therefore, is against the entire rebellious structure, both seen and unseen. The verdict is given in two stark, legal terms. First, He has "devoted them to destruction." This is the Hebrew word herem, which refers to something set apart for God, usually by means of total destruction. It cannot be redeemed or ransomed. Second, He has "given them over to slaughter," like animals being led to the abattoir. The sentence is absolute and irreversible.
3 So their slain will be cast out, And their corpses will give off their stench, And the mountains will be drenched with their blood.
The prophet now paints a gruesome picture of the earthly results of this sentence. The slaughter will be so vast that there will be no one left to bury the dead. The bodies will be "cast out," left to rot in the open, a sign of ultimate shame and desecration in the ancient world. The stench of decay will fill the air, a foul incense of judgment. The bloodshed will be so immense that the very mountains will seem to be soaked and dissolved by it. This is not a sanitized, clinical judgment. It is a visceral, bloody, and horrifying reality. Sin is an offense to the senses of a holy God, and its consequence is a judgment that offends our senses. This is the physical reality of what it means to fall into the hands of the living God.
4 And all the host of heaven will rot away, And the sky will be rolled up like a scroll; All their hosts will also wither away As a leaf withers from the vine, Or as one withers from the fig tree.
The judgment is not limited to the earth. It extends to the heavens. The "host of heaven" here means the sun, moon, and stars. This is the language of de-creation. The celestial bodies, which represent order, stability, and even the pagan deities, will rot and dissolve. The sky, the firmament that holds back the waters of chaos, will be rolled up like an old, finished scroll, its message complete. The stars will fall from their places like dead leaves falling from a vine or a fig tree. This is the kind of language Jesus picks up in the Olivet Discourse (Matt 24:29) to describe the judgment coming on Jerusalem in A.D. 70. It refers to the collapse of a world order. When God judges a nation or a civilization, its entire cosmos collapses. Its political leaders (stars), its religious structures (heavens), and its social order (earth) are all shaken and brought to ruin. This is the ultimate end of every man-centered project. It withers and dies before the face of the God who alone is eternal.
Application
It is tempting for modern Christians to skip over passages like this, or to relegate them to a bygone era when God was, in their view, more wrathful. But this is the same God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The wrath described here is the wrath that every single one of us has earned with our sin. This is the judgment that was stored up for us. To blunt the edges of this text is to blunt the glory of the cross.
The good news of the gospel is not that God overlooks sin, but that He pours out the full measure of this cosmic, de-creating wrath upon His own Son. On the cross, Jesus was "given over to slaughter." On the cross, His blood was poured out. On the cross, the heavens went dark, and the earth shook, and the world order was overturned. He endured the full force of Isaiah 34 so that we could be brought into the full glory of Isaiah 35. He became the accursed thing under herem so that we could become the beloved children of God.
Therefore, we must read this passage with fear and trembling, recognizing the terrifying reality of sin's consequence. And then we must flee to the cross with gratitude and joy, recognizing the even more terrifying reality of God's love. For the nations, this passage is a declaration of war. But for those who are in Christ, it is a description of a war that has already been fought and won on our behalf. Our only proper response is to live as grateful citizens of the unshakable kingdom, the one reality that will remain when all the heavens and earth of men have been rolled up and put away.