Chapter 34
This seems to be a prophecy of the final judgement of God on nations just prior to the Millennial. This verse though, makes the prophecy a worldwide thing, not one confined to Judah or Israel:
2 For the LORD is enraged against all the nations, and furious against all their host; he has devoted them to destruction, has given them over for slaughter. [Isa 34:2 ESV]
All the nations of the world given over to slaughter. This can only be Trib and Great Trib. In fact...I think this can only be about the "wrath of God" that begins at the sixth seal.
2024 - It is also a switch from the prophecy that came before in that this one is addressed to the whole world. Vs 1 makes that obvious. Something new in both content and audience.
2024 - Two verbs at the end of vs 2. First, he has utterly destroyed, and second He has given them over to slaughter. The interesting thing to me is that both these verbs are of perfect type, but the first is Hiphil and the second is Qal. In English, the first is past tense and the second is also. Has given, and has destroyed. So no attempt made in English to show us that these verbs are different. Here are the definitions of Hiphil and Qal:
Hiphil usually expresses the “causative” action of Qal. Hiphil is often used to form verbs from nouns and adjectives.
Qal is the most frequently used verb pattern. It expresses the “simple” or "causal" action of the root in the active voice.
Note that these do not convey a tense of the verb as does English.
Hebrew verbs have stem and type. English has tense. I don't know how to understand the difference...
In the first case, I would think destroy is the stem. I do not understand "the causative action of Qal".
I need to buckle down and figure out how Hebrew verbs work.
vs 4 pins it down a little more I think:
4 All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling from the fig tree. [Isa 34:4 ESV].
Skies rolling up is also mentioned in Revelation at the end of time, at the beginning of God's wrath. Here are some pertinent vss from Revelation:
12 When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. 14 The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. [Rev 6:12-14 ESV]
I mean, you don't have to be a Bible scholar to see that these two verses are essentially one and the same. Yep. MSB says Rev 6:14 is the same as this verse. John must have been thinking of exactly this verse in Isaiah when he wrote Rev 6. John was expanding on the events of those times, but he quotes Isaiah to give us a reference point.
2021 - This is the sixth seal again, which I believe more and more signals the rapture. This is what makes it "justice" for God to pour out all that he does on the earth. There are no saved people left, and the only ones who will be saved are those to whom the 144,000 preach (or...maybe just the 144,000?). We know that millions upon millions will die as the trumpets, thunders, and bowls come to pass. So this ties Isa 34 to the sixth seal and beyond. To Great Tribulation.
Here is a verse:
5 For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; behold, it descends for judgment upon Edom, upon the people I have devoted to destruction. [Isa 34:5 ESV]
There was that earlier verse about a purge in heaven...and now this reference to a sword being used in heaven. God will purge the demons, Satan himself and all his followers out of heaven just prior to these events, and once heaven is cleaned up, then God will turn His wrath toward men. Here is the earlier verse:
21 On that day the LORD will punish the host of heaven, in heaven, and the kings of the earth, on the earth. [Isa 24:21 ESV] These corresponding vss from Revelation:
15 Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16 calling to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?" [Rev 6:15-17 ESV]
And here also is Edom again. As noted below, perhaps this is a placeholder for a corrupt and careless earth, rather than just about that one country. Edom was about Esau, who sold his birthright for a bowl of soup. That is a huge event, when seen in this context. That event separated the chosen of God from those who would disdain the promises, disdain the rules, disdain any kind of vision as to eternal things, and instead devote themselves to right now, today, and that soup over there. Jacob and Esau. Israel, and not Israel. Perhaps the greatest division of mankind in the history of the planet when seen in context, and revealed as a story about two brothers and a bowl of soup. Oh my...
2021 - Yes, I think I had this right. Edom is all those who disdain the eternal and live for the now. They are still with us, and they will be the ones left after the rapture.
This verse:
8 For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion. [Isa 34:8 ESV]
God is keeping a record of those who oppose Zion, who undermine her, and so on. Those who do will have a vengeance carried out on them by the Lord Himself. A judgement against peoples and nations, this is not about individuals.
Edom, and Bozrah, are mentioned more than once, but it seems to me they are just placeholders in this text for the enemies of Zion. (MSB confirms.) Bozrah...in Iraq? Same place Ninevah was? NO! Bozrah is Busseireh, in the mountains near Petra.
13, 14 though, seem once again to be a specific reference to Edom, which is to be wiped out, never to rise again. It will be desolation, fit only for wild animals. No kingdom will exist there. This language goes on to the end of the chapter in fact. Sure reads like it is specific to physical Edom.
2021 - Here is Edom:
This is the Negev today. Almost no one lives there. It is terrible desert, uninhabited, only animals live there. So what we have is a near fulfilment of this prophecy about Edom. It has been uninhabited for generations, and from that prophecy, that won't ever change. But I think it also looks ahead to the whole idea of Jacob and Esau also, and those who disdain eternal things.
2024 - The description of this place goes on and on. And if Edom is just a placeholder for "all nations" as at the beginning of this chapter, then it would imply that the whole world will be in this state during God's wrath. If we make this strictly about the coming Sixth Seal judgment and beyond, and NOT AT ALL about some near term events in Isaiah's time, then this tells us what the planet will be like in those end times. Even so, why so much detail about owls and pelicans and jackals and ostriches...Why does the description go on and on like this?
2022 - BUT, if we say - and how can we deny - that vss 1-4 tie us to the Sixth Seal, and we see from the description of this sword in vss 4-7 that has had enough of animal sacrifices and will now be used to fill the land with blood, don't we have to see this prophecy against Edom as what will happen to that place during the wrath of God? And since it says "forever", does that mean that in the new heaven and earth it will remain a wasteland? If not, then "forever" doesn't last very long! So...it must not mean that. It must be about a time more contemporary with Isaiah. The link below is what Bozrah, Jordan looks like today. It's not great...but it doesn't seem as bad as what Isaiah describes. So perhaps we need to see it as being a desolate place until Wrath, and then a place without human habitation of any kind. This area today is in the Kingdom of Jordan. Truly not many would think of such a place as a kingdom.
https://www.google.com/maps/@30.730089,35.6252014,3a,75y,237.52h,78.14t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1swlUaU7KdW9FZIQqOjUiB7Q!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
2023 - And in those last verses, it sounds like the place is an owl and hawk sanctuary. 16 Seek and read from the book of the LORD: Not one of these shall be missing; none shall be without her mate. For the mouth of the LORD has commanded, and his Spirit has gathered them. 17 He has cast the lot for them; his hand has portioned it out to them with the line; they shall possess it forever; from generation to generation they shall dwell in it. [Isa 34:16-17 ESV]. It will be interesting to see this fulfilled. Did a quick search and found that Israel is along a bird migration route and that something like 500 million birds pass through there every year. I did not find a word about any owls in my quick search, but I was paranoid about looking on unrecognized sites.