Isaiah 34 · a question people ask
The chapter begins with all the nations and the sky, then names Edom. Is it speaking of Edom, or of the whole world?
It speaks of both, in that order, and doesn't say how they stand to each other. It calls "you nations" and "the world" to hear (34:1), says "the LORD is enraged against all the nations" (34:2), and speaks of the sky: "The sky will be rolled up like a scroll" (34:4). Then it says, "Behold, it will come down on Edom" (34:5), and names Bozrah and "the land of Edom" (34:6). From 34:9 on it speaks of one place. The chapter doesn't say whether its words for the sky are a picture of the day or what will be seen in it, and it names no time. Chapter 13 also sets the sky (Isaiah 13:10) beside one named city (Isaiah 13:19), and its notes set Jesus's words in Matthew 24:29 beside 13:10; these notes don't repeat them. Revelation speaks of the sky "removed like a scroll when it is rolled up" (Revelation 6:14); this chapter's line to Jesus gives the two ways Christians read that, and these notes pick neither and name no date or event.
The verses
“Come near, you nations, to hear! Listen, you peoples. Let the earth and all it contains hear, the world, and everything that comes from it. For the LORD is enraged against all the nations, and angry with all their armies. He has utterly destroyed them. He has given them over for slaughter.”
“All of the army of the sky will be dissolved. The sky will be rolled up like a scroll, and all its armies will fade away, as a leaf fades from off a vine or a fig tree. For my sword has drunk its fill in the sky. Behold, it will come down on Edom, and on the people of my curse, for judgment. The LORD’s sword is filled with blood. It is covered with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.”
“Its streams will be turned into pitch, its dust into sulfur, and its land will become burning pitch.”
“For the stars of the sky and its constellations will not give their light. The sun will be darkened in its going out, and the moon will not cause its light to shine.”