Matthew Poole and continuators on Isaiah 34

1. COme near, ye nations, to hear, and hearken, ye people : let the earth hear, and all that is therein, the world, and all things that come forth of it .

Let the People of all Nations take notice of what I am about to say and do, as that wherein they are generally concerned, and by the consideration whereof, they may, if they will, be instructed, and so delivered from the Calamity here denounced.

Heb. All the off-springs of it: Either 1. all the Trees and Fruits, and other productions of it: For it is usual with the Prophets, by a Figure, to turn his Speech to these senseless Creatures. Or 2. all the Inhabitants of the World, as the Chaldee and other Ancients restrain and understand this general Expression; which also is Emphatical, and admonisheth the proud and insolent Sons of Men, of their mean and obscure Original, that how great and glorious soever they may seem to themselves or others; yet in truth, they are but a better sort of Mushromes springing out of the Earth, for Dust they are, and unto dust they must return, as was said, Gen. 3. 19.

Marginal references: Heb the fulness thereof.

2. For the indignation of the LORD is upon all nations , and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them , he hath delivered them to the slaughter.

Not onely upon the Assyrians, and those Nations which were Confederate with them in this Expedition, but upon all other Enemies of my People whatsoever.

He will infallibly Destroy all of them.

3. Their slain also shall be cast out , and their stink shall come up out of their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood .

Into the Fields, where they shall lie unburied, and be left for a prey to all ravenous Birds and Beasts: Whereby he implies, either the vast Numbers which shall be Slain, so as they could not have time or place to Bury them: Or the curse of God upon them, and the Peoples contempt and abhorrency of them.

About Ierusalem, where they are supposed to be gathered to Fight against Ierusalem, as the Assyrians now were, and as other Enemies afterward would be, Zech. 12. 2. & 14. 2.

Shall be filled with their Blood, which shall run down abundantly from the Mountains with great force, and dissolve and carry down part of the earth of the Mountains with it, as great showers of Rain frequently do.

Marginal references: Joel. 2. 20.

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 that falleth off from the vine , and as a falling fig from the fig-tree.

The Sun, and Moon, and Stars, which frequently come under this name in Scripture, as Deut. 4. 19. and 17. 3. and elsewhere.

Shall seem to be dissolved. So great shall be the confusion and consternation of Man-kind, as if all the frame of the Creation were broken into pieces. Some understand this of the general Judgment; which some passages here following will not permit. But it is a very usual thing for Prophetical Writers, both in the Old and New-Testament, to represent great and general Calamities, in such words and phrases, as properly agree to the Day of Judgment; as on the contrary, The glorious Deliverances of God's People are set forth in such Expressions, as properly agree to the Resurrection from the Dead. See Ezek. 37. 7. Ioel. 2. 31. & 3. 15. Revel. 6. 12, 13.

Heb. as a book; for Books were then written in Scroles, which they usually rolled up together; and when they were so, no Man could [illegible: 1+ letters]ead any word in it; and no more shall any Man be able to see those goodly Lights of Heaven, for they shall all be obscured and confounded. This Phrase is used also, Isa. 8. 1. & Revel. 6. 14.

When it is withered.

Which falleth, either through great Maturity, or being thrust out by green Figs coming▪ forth, or by any other accident.

Marginal references: Rev. 6. 14.; Rev. 6. 13.

5. For my sword shall be bathed in heaven , behold, it shall come down upon Idumea , and upon the people of my curse to judgment.

In the Blood of these People. Heb. Is or shall be made drunk.

Either 1. in my Church, which is called Heaven, Dan. 8. 10. Revel. 4. 1. & 12. 1. in and against which, these Enemies are said to be gathered together. Or 2. in the highest Heaven, where God dwells; in which this is said to be done, because it was there decreed and appointed to be done.

Upon the Edomites, who, though they were nearly related to the Israelites, and were Circumcised as well as they; yet were their most inveterate and implacable Enemies, watching all opportunities, and being ready to joyn with all those that attempted to Destroy them; whereof we have many intimations and instances in Scripture. But these are not named Exclusively, but rather Comprehensively, and Synecdochically, for all the Enemies of God's Church, of whom they were a considerable Part, and an eminent Type.

To whom my Curse belongs; or, whom I have Cursed, and devoted to utter Destruction, as this Hebrew Word properly signifies.

Marginal references: Jer. 46. 10.; Jer. 49. 7.

6. The sword of the LORD is filled with blood , it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams : for the LORD hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea.

Shall drink its fill of Blood. The Metaphor is here taken from a great Glutton or Drunkard, who is almost infatiable with Meat and Drink.

By Lambs, and Goats, and Rams, He means People of all ranks and conditions, high and low, rich and poor.

So he calleth this bloody Work, because it was done by God's Command, and for His Honour; and therefore was a Service acceptable to him.

A chief City of Edom, Isa. 63. 1. Ier. 49. 13. and a Type of those Cities which should be most opposite and mischievous to God's People.

Marginal references: Zeph. 1. 7.

7. And the unicorns shall come down with them , and the bullocks with the bulls, and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness .

Heb. the Reemim. But what kind of Beast this is, whether that Beast which is commonly called an Unicorn, which seems to be but a Fiction in the Judgment of the Learned; or a Rhinoceros, or a wild Ox or Bull; it is needless to trouble the ordinary Reader about it; and the Learned may consult my Latine Synopsis upon Num. 23. 22. about it. It is confessed, That it was a Beast of great strength and fierceness; and it is certain, that it is Metaphorically used in this place, to signify their Princes and Potentates.

Shall be humbled and cast down. The Seventy and Syriack render it, they shall fall down, as such Beasts do, when they have received a deadly blow.

With the Lambs, and Goats, and Rams, last mentioned, ver. 6.

With the Fat of the slain Sacrifices, which shall be mingled with it.

Marginal references: Or, rhinocerots.; Or, drunken.

8. For it is the day of the LORD's vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion .

This is the time which God hath long since appointed and fixed, to avenge the cause of his oppressed and persecuted People, against all their Enemies.

Marginal references: Chap. 63. 4.

9. And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch .

Which seem most secure from this Danger, and much more the Land.

Idumea shall be dealt with, as Sodom and Gomorrah were, even utterly Destroyed, as it were by Fire, or burning Pitch and Brimstone thrown down upon it from Heaven.

Marginal references: See Deut. 29. 23.

10. It shall not be quenched night nor day, the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie wast, none shall pass through it for ever and ever .

It shall be irrecoverably ruined, and shall remain as a spectacle of God's vengeance to all succeeding Ages.

Marginal references: Rev. 14. 11. & 18. 18. & 19. 3.

11. But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it, the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it , and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness .

The Inhabitants shall be wholly cut off, and it shall be intirely possessed by those Creatures which delight in Deserts, and wast Places. See the same or like Expressions in the like case, Isa. 13. 21, 22. & 14. 23.

He shall use the Line, or the Stone or Plummet joyned to it, not to build them, but to mark them out to Desolation and Destruction, as work-men commonly use them, to mark what they are to pull down.

Marginal references: Zeph. 2. 14. Rev. 18. 2.; Or, pelican.; Zech. 3. 9. [illegible: 1+ letters] 4. 10.

12. They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there , and all her princes shall be nothing .

They shall indeavour to heal their Breaches, but in vain: The remnant of the People shall seek for any fit Person, and offer the Kingdom to him; but they shall not find any such, who shall be willing to undertake the Government.

Either shall be lost and cut off: Or, shall have no Courage o[illegible: 1+ letters] Strength left in them.

13. And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof , and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls.

This is another Mark and Evidence of extream Desolation, as it is also, Hos. 9. 6.

Marginal references: Hos. 9. 6.; Chap. 13. 21. &c.; Or, ostriches.; Heb. daughters of the owl.

14. The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow , the scrichowl also shall rest there , and find for her self a place of rest.

See on Isa. 13. 21, 22.

Because there shall be no Men left to disturb or affright them, Isa. 17. 2.

Marginal references: Heb. Zijim.; Heb. Ijim.; Or, nightmonster.

15. There shall the great owl , make her nest, and lay and hatch, and gather under her shadow , there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with their mate.

Whether this, or what other Creature is meant by this Hebrew Word, the learned Reader may find largely discoursed▪ in my Latine Synopsis upon this place: For others it may suffice to know, what all agree in, that, whether it be a Bird or a Serpent, it is a Creature that lives in desert places.

As fearing no Disturbance from any Men.

16. Seek ye out of the book of the law of the LORD, and read : no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate : for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them .

When this Judgment is executed, if you peruse this Book of holy Writ, and particularly this Prophecy of mine, you will find, that all things shall exactly come to pass, as I have told you.

As I have said, That the Vultures should each have their Mate; so shall it be: And this Prophecy shall be exactly fulfilled, even in its smallest Circumstances.

My Spirit; such sudden Changes of Persons being frequent here. And God's Spirit may be put for his Might and Power, as it is in many places of Scripture.

Hath brought all these Creatures together, as he formerly brought the Creatures to Adam, and to Noah by an instinct, which he put into them.

17▪ And he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath divided it unto them by line : they shall possess it for ever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein.

He hath divided the Land to them, as it were, by Lot and Line, as Canaan was divided among the Israelites.