Albert Barnes Commentary Isaiah 34:1

Albert Barnes Commentary

Isaiah 34:1

1798–1870
Presbyterian
Albert Barnes
Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes Commentary

Isaiah 34:1

1798–1870
Presbyterian
SCRIPTURE

"Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye peoples: let the earth hear, and the fulness thereof; the world, and all things that come forth from it." — Isaiah 34:1 (ASV)

Come near, ye nations, to hear - This means to hear of the judgments God was about to execute and the great purposes He was about to accomplish. If the supposition is correct that this and the following chapter contain a summary of all that the prophet had spoken up to this point—a declaration that all the enemies of God's people would be destroyed, the most violent and bitter of whom was Idumea, and that this was to be followed by the happy times of the Messiah—then we see a clear reason why all the nations are summoned to hear and pay attention.

These events pertain to them all; the truths communicated are of universal interest. And all that is therein. The Hebrew, as noted in the margin, is ‘its fullness;’ that is, all the inhabitants of the earth.

All things that come forth of it - All that proceed from it; that is, all the inhabitants that the world has produced. The Septuagint renders it: The world and the people ὁ λαὸς (ho laos) who are therein.