Isaiah 34

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

For the indignation of the LORD is upon all nations Not only upon the Assyrians, and those Nations which were Confederate with them in this Expedition, but upon all other Enemies of my People whatsoever., and his fury upon all their armies: he has utterly destroyed them He will infallibly Destroy all of them., he has delivered them to the slaughter.

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

And all the host of heaven The Sun, and Moon, and Stars, which frequently come under this name in Scripture, as Deut. 4. 19. and 17. 3. and elsewhere. shall be dissolved 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., and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll 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... 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., and all their host shall fall down as the leaf that falleth off from the vine When it is withered., and as a falling fig Which falleth, either through great Maturity, or being thrust out by green Figs coming forth, or by any other accident. from the fig-tree.

For my sword shall be bathed In the Blood of these People. Heb. Is or shall be made drunk. in heaven 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., behold, it shall come down upon Idumea 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., and upon the people of my curse To whom my Curse belongs; or, whom I have Cursed, and devoted to utter Destruction, as this Hebrew Word properly signifies. to judgment.

The sword of the LORD is filled with blood 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., it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams By Lambs, and Goats, and Rams, He means People of all ranks and conditions, high and low, rich and poor.: for the LORD has a sacrifice 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. in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea. 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.

And the unicorns 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 come down 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 them With the Lambs, and Goats, and Rams, last mentioned, ver. 6., and the bullocks with the bulls, and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness With the Fat of the slain Sacrifices, which shall be mingled with it..

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 has long since appointed and fixed, to avenge the cause of his oppressed and persecuted People, against all their Enemies..

And the streams Which seem most secure from this Danger, and much more the Land. thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch 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..

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..

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

They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there 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., and all her princes shall be nothing Either shall be lost and cut off: Or, shall have no Courage o... Strength left in them..

And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof This is another Mark and Evidence of extream Desolation, as it is also, Hos. 9. 6., and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls.

The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow See on Isa. 13. 21, 22., the scrichowl also shall rest there Because there shall be no Men left to disturb or affright them, Isa. 17. 2., and find for her self a place of rest.

There shall the great owl 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., make her nest, and lay and hatch, and gather under her shadow As fearing no Disturbance from any Men., there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with their mate.

Seek ye out of the book of the law of the LORD, and read 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.: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate 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.: for my mouth it has commanded, and his spirit 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. it has gathered them Has brought all these Creatures together, as he formerly brought the Creatures to Adam, and to Noah by an instinct, which he put into them..

And he has cast the lot for them, and his hand has divided it unto them by line He has divided the Land to them, as it were, by Lot and Line, as Canaan was divided among the Israelites.: they shall possess it for ever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein.