John Gill Commentary Isaiah 34

Come near, you nations, to hear; and listen, you people ,
&c.] Not the people of the Jews, as some, whose utter destruction, after their rejection of the Messiah, is here thought to be prophesied of; and much less are these people called upon to hear the Gospel preached to them, as Cocceius thinks; for not good, but bad news they are called to listen to, even the account of their utter ruin.

let the earth hear, and all that is in it :
not the land of Judea, but all the earth, and the inhabitants of it.

the world, and all things that come forth from it ;
which may either be understood of those that dwell in it, as the Targum interprets it; of the people that are in it, as the Septuagint and the Oriental versions; and so the phrase may denote the original of them, being of the earth, earthly, and to which they must return again; and may be designed to humble men, and hide pride from them; or else the fruits of the earth, trees, and everything that springs out of it, which are called upon to hear the voice of the Lord, when men would not; and so is designed to rebuke the stupidity and sluggishness of men to listen to what is said to them, even from the Lord, when upon the brink of destruction.

For the indignation of the Lord [is] upon all nations
All the nations of the earth, which have committed fornication with the whore of Rome, or have given in to her false worship, superstition, and idolatry; which is the reason of God's wrath and indignation against them, and of such severe punishment being inflicted on them; see (Revelation 18:3) :

and [his] fury upon all their armies ;
the armies of the kings of the earth, gathered together at Armageddon, to make war with Christ, and those that follow him; see (Revelation 16:14Revelation 16:16) (19:19) :

he has utterly destroyed them ;
not only devoted them to destruction, but actually destroyed them, with "Cherem", an utter destruction; one of the words of which Armageddon is compounded, and so points at the place, as well as the nature and manner, of the destruction:

he has delivered them to slaughter ;
to be slain with the sword of him that sitteth on the white horse, which proceeds out of his mouth, (Revelation 19:21) .

Their slain also shall be cast out Upon the open fields, and there lie unburied, and become meat for the fowls of heaven, who are invited to them as to a supper, even the supper of the great God, (Revelation 19:17Revelation 19:18) :

and their stink shall come up out of their carcasses ; so that they shall become loathsome and abominable to the living, and none shall care to come near to bury them; an emblem of their loathsome and abominable sins, the cause of this destruction:

and the mountains shall be melted with their blood ; an hyperbolical expression, denoting the great number of the slain upon the mountains, and the great quantity of blood shed there; which should run down in large streams, and carry part of them along with it, as large and hasty showers of rain wash away the earth, and carry it along with them; such an hyperbole see in (Revelation 14:20) .

And all the hosts of heaven shall be dissolved
"Pine away" ^F9 , 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; thus the destruction of Rome Pagan is described in (Revelation 6:14) as the destruction of Rome Papal is here; from which the language seems to be borrowed:

and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falls off from
the vine, and as a falling [fig] from the fig tree ;
that is, the stars should fall down: by whom may be meant persons in office, that made a considerable figure; who shall fall from their stations, in which they shone with much splendour and grandeur, as leaves fall from trees in autumn, particularly the vine; or as unripe and rotten figs fall from the fig tree when shaken by a violent wind; the same metaphor is used in (Revelation 6:13) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F9: (wqmn) "tabescet", Vatablus; "centabescet", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "contabescent", Cocceius, Gataker.

For my sword shall be bathed in heaven
That is, the sword of the Lord, as it is called in the next verse (Isaiah 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 (Revelation 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, you 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.''^F1