Isaiah 34:4

And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree. ALL THE HOST OF HEAVEN SHALL BE DISSOLVED - (; ; ; .) DISSOLVED - (2 Peter 3:10.) Violent convulsions of nature are in Scripture made the images of great changes in the human world (Isaiah 29:19), and shall literally accompany them at the wi...

4._And all the armies of heaven shall fade away. _Isaiah employs an exaggerated style, as other prophets are accustomed to do, in order to represent vividly the dreadful nature of the judgment of God, and to make an impression on men’s hearts that were dull and sluggish; for otherwise his discourse would have been deficient in energy, and would have had little influence on careless men. He therefore adds that “the stars” themselves, amidst such slaughter, shall gather blackness as if they were ready to faint, and he does so in order to show more fully that it will be a mournful calamity. In like manner, as in a dark and troubled sky, the clouds appear to be folded together, the sun and stars to grow pale and, as it were, to faint, and all those heavenly bodies to totter and give tokens of ruin; he declares that thus will it happen at that time, and that everything shall be full of the sa...

1-8 Here is a prophecy of the wars of the Lord, all which are both righteous and successful. All nations are concerned. And as they have all had the benefit of his patience, so all must expect to feel his resentment. The description of bloodshed suggests tremendous ideas of the Divine judgments. Idumea here denotes the nations at enmity with the church; also the kingdom of antichrist. Our thoughts cannot reach the horrors of that awful season, to those found opposing the church of Christ. There is a time fixed in the Divine counsels for the deliverance of the church, and the destruction of her enemies. We must patiently wait till then, and judge nothing before the time. Through Christ, mercy is exercised to every believer, consistently with justice, and his name is glorified....

Verse Isaiah 34:4. _AND ALL THE HOST OF HEAVEN_] Isaiah 24:21, and _De Sacra Poesi Hebraeorum_, Prael. ix....

AND ALL THE HOST OF HEAVEN - On the word ‘host’ (צבא _tsâbâ'_), see the note at Isaiah 1:9. The heavenly bodies often represent kings and princes (compare the note at Isaiah 24:21). SHALL BE DISSOLVED - (ינמקוּ _v__e__nâmaqqû_. This figure Vitringa supposes to be taken from the common prejudice by which the stars appear to be crystals, or gems, set in the azure vault of heaven, which may melt and flow down by the application of heat. The sense is, that the princes and nobles who had opposed God and his people would be destroyed, as if the sparkling stars, like gems, should melt in the heavens, and flow down to the earth....

SECTION 11. THE DIVINE JUDGMENT ON THE WORLD, AND THE GLORY OF THE CHURCH CONSEQUENT UPON IT (Isaiah 34:1; Isaiah 35:1.). EXPOSITION Isaiah 34:1 and Isaiah 35:1. are generally recognized as constituting a distinct prophecy, complete in itself, and only slightly connected with what precedes. The passage is, as Bishop Lowth observes, "an entire, regula

AND ALL THE HOSTS OF HEAVEN SHALL BE DISSOLVED,.... "Pine away" i, as with sickness, grow languid, become obscure, lose their light, and be turned into blood and darkness; this figure is used to express the horror of this calamity, as if the very heavens themselves, and the sun, and moon, and stars, were affected with it; see Isaiah 13:10 AND THE HEAVENS SHALL BE ROLLED GETHER AS A SCROLL; a book, or volume, which when rolled up, one letter of it could not be read; and it was the manner formerly of making and writing books in the form of a roll; hence the word volume; and here it signifies that there should be such a change in the heavens, as that not a star should be seen, much less the sun or moon; and may signify the utter removal and abolition of all dignities and offices, supreme and subordinate, civil and ecclesiastical, in the whole Roman jurisdiction;

CHAPTER 34 The Day of Jehovah 1. _Addressed to the world: Jews and Gentiles involved (Isaiah 34:1)_ 2. _The shaking of the earth and the heavens (Isaiah 34:2)_ 3. _The day of vengeance (Isaiah 34:9)_ This is one of the darkest Chapter s in the Bible. A worldwide judgment is described such as has never taken place in the history of the world. The indignation of the Lord is then upon all nations and upon their armies. Like chapter 33, it tells of the great judgments to come....

All nations are summoned to hear their doom. Yahweh is infuriated against them, He has pronounced the ban (pp. 99, 114, Deuteronomy 2:34 *, Joshua 6:17 *) upon them. The foul odour of their exposed and putrefying corpses shall fill the air, the mountains be dissolved with their blood. The sky shall be rolled up like a scroll, and the stars drop off it (Revelation 6:13 f.) like a fading leaf from the vine or fig-tree. ISAIAH 34:4. HOST OF HEAVEN: read hills; the line is parallel to the last clause of Isaiah 34:3....

The announcement of the world-judgment, introduced by a proclamation addressed to all nations. The peoples are invited to _come near_, as if for debate (ch. Isaiah 41:1; Isaiah 48:16; Isaiah 57:3), but really to hear their doom. Cf. ch. Isaiah 1:2; Deuteronomy 32:1; Micah 1:2. _all that is therein_ Better, THE FULNESS THEREOF (R.V.); the same word as in ch. Isaiah 6:3. all things