Isaiah 34

Wesley: all nations—not only upon the Assyrians, but on all enemies of my people.

The summons is universal: nations, peoples, the whole earth. Edom is named in v. 5, but Wesley widens the judgment to all enemies of God’s people.

Calvin: draw near, ye nations. Hitherto the Prophet, intending to comfort the children of God, preached, as it were, in the midst of them; but now, directing his discourse to the Gentiles, he pursues the same subject, but in a different manner. Having formerly shewn that the Lord takes such care of his people as to find out the means of preserving them, he now adds that he will at length be their avenger. Hearken, ye peoples: as if he were about to discharge the office of a herald, and summon the nations to appear before the judgment-seat of God. Let the earth hear: he addresses the Edomites who would haughtily despise these judgments, and therefore he calls heaven and earth to bear witness against them. Yet amidst this vehemence he has his eye principally on the Church.

The summons is still to those Gentiles who had injured Judah. The drawing-near stays with Edom and her neighbors in that age.

Wesley: all nations—not only upon the Assyrians, but on all enemies of my people.

God’s anger reaches every nation that has set itself against his people, not Assyria alone.

Calvin: for the indignation of Jehovah is on all the nations. He undoubtedly means the nations which were hostile to the Jews, and at the same time were contiguous to them; being surrounded on all sides by various nations, they had almost as many enemies as neighbors. Though this hatred arose from other causes, such as envy, yet the diversity of religion very greatly inflamed their rage. On all their army: the Jews were few in number; although the nations were proud of their vast numbers and despised the Jews because they were few, yet he declares that God will easily diminish and crush them, in order to preserve his little flock. He hath destroyed them: he chose to employ the past tense, in order to place the event immediately before the eyes of those who were lying low; these predictions were made not on account of the Edomites, who paid no regard to this doctrine, but for the sake of the godly.

The devoted host stays with Edom’s circle.”

Wesley: cast out—into the fields.

The scene is vivid and terrible: unburied dead and mountains soaked with blood. The language conveys the totality of God’s judgment on his enemies.

Calvin: their slain will also be cast out. By this circumstance he shews that it will be a great calamity, for if a few persons are slain, they are committed to the earth; but when so great a multitude is slain at one time that there are not left as many as are necessary for burying them, there is no thought of interment, and therefore the air is polluted by the stench of their carcases. Hence it is evident that God is sufficiently powerful to lay low innumerable armies. Perhaps also the Prophet intended to heighten the picture of the judgment of God, because to the slaughter of the nations there will be added shame and disgrace, so that they shall be deprived of the honor and duty of burial. And the mountains shall melt on account of their blood: the blood will flow from the mountains as if the very mountains were melted, just as when the waters run down violently after heavy showers; thus also he shows that there will be no means of escape, because the sword will rage as cruelly on the very mountains as on the field of battle.

The melting mountains stay with Edom’s slaughter.

Wesley: dissolved—the sun, moon, and stars. So great shall be the confusion and consternation of mankind, as if all the frame of the creation were broken into pieces. It is usual for prophetic 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, in such expressions, as properly agree to the resurrection from the dead.

Wesley treats the dissolving heavens as prophetic language for a great upheaval among the nations—phrases that also describe the final judgment. Readers on both sides recognize the idiom.

Calvin: and all the armies of heaven shall fade away. Isaiah employs an exaggerated style, as other prophets are accustomed to do, in order to represent vividly the dreadful nature of the judgment of God, and to make an impression on men’s hearts that were dull and sluggish. In like manner, as in a dark and troubled sky, the clouds appear to be folded together, the sun and stars to grow pale and, as it were, to faint, he declares that thus will it happen at that time. These statements must be understood to relate to men’s apprehension, for heaven is not moved out of its place; but when the Lord gives manifestations of his anger, we are terrified as if the Lord folded up or threw down the heavens; not that anything of this kind takes place in heaven, but he speaks to careless men, who needed to be addressed in this manner, that they might not imagine the subject to be trivial or a fit subject of scorn. You will be seized with such terror that you shall think that the sky is falling down on your heads. It is the just punishment of indifference, that wicked men dread their own shadow, and tremble at the rustling of a falling leaf, as much as if the sun were falling from heaven. Yet it also denotes a dreadful revolution of affairs, by which everything shall be subverted and disturbed.

The rolling skies are still how that judgment feels to the careless. Calvin will not have heaven itself moved; the host falls in their apprehension over Edom.

Wesley: bathed—in the blood of these people. Heaven—where God dwells; in which this is said to be done, because it was there decreed and appointed. Idumea—upon the Edomites, who, tho' they were nearly related to the Israelites, yet were their implacable enemies. But these are named for all the enemies of God's church, of whom they were an eminent type.

The sword is “bathed in heaven” because the judgment is decreed there before it falls on Edom. Wesley reads Edom both historically, as Esau’s kin, and as a type of the church’s enemies.

Calvin: for my sword is made drunken in the heavens. He says that the sword of the Lord is bloody, as extensive slaughter makes the swords wet with gore; and, in order to give greater weight to his style, he represents the Lord as speaking. Why does he say that it is in heaven? Here the Prophet looks at the secret decree of God, by which he appoints and determines everything before it is executed; he does not mean the act itself, but extols the efficacy of the prediction, because the certainty of the effect is manifest from the unchangeable purpose of God. Unbelievers may know that the Lord in heaven takes account of the crimes of wicked men, although for a time they may pursue their career of iniquity without being punished; the sword by which they shall be slain is even now bloody in the sight of God, when he determines to inflict punishment on them. In like manner Sodom was already burning in the sight of God, while it freely indulged in wine and feasting. So it shall come down on Edom: he expressly mentions the Edomites, who were hostile to the people of God, though related to them by blood, and distinguished by the same mark of religion; they were descended from Esau, and were the posterity of Abraham. At the present day, in like manner, we have no enemies more deadly than the Papists, who have publicly received the same baptism with ourselves, and even profess Christ, and yet cruelly persecute and would wish utterly to destroy us, because we condemn their superstitions and idolatry. Such were the Edomites. On the people of my curse: they are already destroyed by a decree of heaven; that it may not be thought that God has done it unjustly, he adds, to judgment; for there is nothing to which men are more prone than to accuse God of cruelty.

Wesley: the sword—the metaphor is taken from a great glutton, who is almost insatiable. Rams—by lambs, and goats, and rams, he means people of all ranks and conditions, high and low, rich and poor. Bozrah—a chief city of Edom, and a type of those cities which should be most opposite to God's people.

Bozrah was Edom’s chief city, and the sacrificial imagery—lambs, goats, rams—covers every rank of its people. Wesley treats it as a type of the cities most opposed to God’s people.

Calvin: the sword of Jehovah is filled with blood. He follows out the same statement by a different description. He compares it to sacrifices, for animals are slain in sacrifice for the worship and honor of God, and in like manner the destruction of this people will also tend to the glory of God. Sacrifices were not very pleasant and agreeable to behold, for the revolting act of taking away life, the reeking blood, and the stencil of the smoke, might have a repulsive effect; and yet in these things the honor of God shone brightly. Thus this slaughter was hideous to behold; but believers, in order that they may hallow the name of God in this respect, are commanded to lift up their eyes to heaven; because, in executing such punishment, God erects altars to himself for slaying sacrifices. Because they unjustly oppressed the Church of God, and, forgetful of all humane feelings, treated the children of God with cruelty, Isaiah declares that in their blood is offered a sacrifice of sweet savor. With the blood of lambs and of goats: under this appellation he describes metaphorically the people that were to be slain, and, alluding to the various kinds of victims, includes not only all men of ordinary rank, but all the nobles, in order to intimate that the Lord will punish his enemies in such a manner that no man of any class whatever shall be exempted. He mentions Bozrah, the chief city and metropolis, as it were, of the nation, where the greatest slaughter shall take place; and next, he adds, the country of Edom, through the whole of which this calamity shall take its course.

The glutted sword stays with Edom’s sacrifice.”

Wesley: the unicorns—it is confessed, this was a beast of great strength and fierceness; and it is used in this place to signify their princes and potentates, who shall be humbled and cast down. Them—with the lambs, and goats, and rams. Fatness—with the fat of the slain sacrifices, mingled with it.

Wild oxen and bulls stand for Edom’s rulers and strongmen. None of them escapes the day the LORD brings.

Calvin: and the unicorns shall come down with them. This verse is closely connected with the former, for he adds nothing new, but proceeds with the same figure. It amounts to this, that the vengeance of heaven will be so unrelenting as to spare neither age nor rank, and to mark for slaughter even cruel giants, notwithstanding their silly fierceness, just as if one were preparing a sacrifice which consisted indiscriminately of every kind of animals. The term lambs is not employed in commendation of their mildness or harmlessness, but is applied comparatively to those who are feeble and who belong to the ordinary rank. Although God may appear to be harsh in thus directing his hostility against all classes, yet, by the use of the word sacrifice, he claims for himself the praise of justice; and indeed no man, when he comes to the trial, will be found to be without blame, so that on good grounds all, without exception, are irrecoverably ruined. Such is the destruction which awaits all the reprobate, who of their own accord refuse to devote themselves to the service of God; irreligious hands shall offer them in sacrifice. Abbirim is translated strong by some commentators; I have preferred to follow those who explain it to mean bulls, which it means also in Psalm 50:13, though in this passage the Prophet employs the word bulls to denote metaphorically those who are very strong and powerful.

The gorged soil stays with that land’s sacrifice.

Wesley: for—this is the time which God hath fixed, to avenge the cause of his persecuted people.

Wesley stresses that the timing belongs to God: this is the year he has fixed to take up Zion’s cause. Both traditions leave vengeance in the LORD’s hands.

Calvin: for it is the day of vengeance of Jehovah. This verse must be viewed as closely connected with the preceding verses, for it points out the object which the Lord has in view in punishing the Edomites with such severity: he wishes to avenge his people and defend their cause. What was formerly said about the Edomites must undoubtedly be extended to the enemies of the Church, for all of them were included by the Prophet under a particular class. In adversity our hearts ought to be supported by this consolation, that the attacks which we now suffer shall come into judgment before God, who justly claims for himself this office. The Prophet does not only mean that it is in his power to punish wicked men whenever he thinks proper, but that he reigns in heaven, in order to punish every kind of injustice at the proper time. We must attend to the words day and year, by which he reminds us that God does not sleep in heaven, though for a little time he does not come forth, but delays his vengeance till a fit season, that believers may in the meantime possess their souls in patience, and may leave him to govern according to his inscrutable wisdom.

Delay is his patience.”

Wesley: the land—Idumea shall be dealt with, as Sodom and Gomorrah were.

Pitch and sulfur recall Sodom and Gomorrah, the classic picture of judgment that leaves a land uninhabitable.

Calvin: and its streams shall be turned into pitch. What the Prophet now adds contains nothing new, but describes more fully this desolation. The prophets employ these lively pictures in representing the judgments of God, for the purpose of leading men to view them as actually present, and of compelling them to acknowledge those things which their eyes and minds do not discern. He denotes a horrible change, which shall destroy the whole face of Judea—of that land. Moreover, he alludes to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, as the prophets very frequently do. In that destruction, as Jude informs us, we have a perpetual representation of the wrath of God against the reprobate; and it is not without good reason that the prophets call it to our remembrance, that all may learn to dread the judgments of God.

The sulfur stays with that land.

Wesley: for ever—it shall remain as a spectacle of God's vengeance to all succeeding ages. The unquenched smoke is still Idumea’s after the pitch of v. 9.

Edom’s ruin becomes a permanent monument. Wesley reads it as a spectacle of God’s justice for every later generation.

Calvin: by night and by day it won’t be quenched. The Prophet’s language is undoubtedly hyperbolical; but the Lord is compelled to act towards us in this manner, for otherwise plain words would produce no impression on us. When he declares that the wrath of God against the Edomites will resemble a fire that burns continually, he cuts off from them all hope of pardon, because, having never ceased to provoke God, they find that he is implacable; and Malachi also pronounces this expression of reprobation, that the curse of God will for ever rest on that nation. The contrast must be supplied, because some mitigation is always held out to the people of God for their comfort. It is enough that we understand the meaning and design of the Prophet.

Calvin names hyperbole and implacable wrath on Edom.”

Wesley: dwell—it shall be entirely possessed by those creatures which delight in deserts and waste places. Stretch—he shall use the line, or the stone or plummet joined to it, not to build them, but to mark them out to destruction, as workmen commonly use them to mark what they are to pull down.

A builder’s line and plumb line are normally tools for construction. Here they measure Edom out for demolition.

Calvin: therefore the pelican and the owl shall possess it. He describes a desert place and an extensive wilderness. He mentions dreadful beasts and hideous monsters, which do not dwell with men, in order to shew more fully how shocking will be this desolation. He shall stretch over it the cord of emptiness. I take a more simple view, and think that, like all the preceding statements, it must relate to the Edomites. We read the same word in the Prophet Malachi, who lived a long time afterwards: if Edom shall say, We have been diminished, we shall therefore return and rebuild the desolate places; thus saith the Lord of Hosts, They shall indeed build, but I shall pull down. What Isaiah had foretold more obscurely, Malachi explains with greater clearness. The latter declares that the Edomites shall build in vain, and the former that they shall stretch an empty cord. As if he had said, In vain shall the masterbuilders bestow their exertions on rebuilding the cities; for builders make use of cords and plummets in all their measurements. He therefore shews that the efforts of those who shall intend to restore the land of Edom will be fruitless; they shall be destroyed in such a manner that they cannot at all recover from that destruction, though God usually alleviates other calamities by some consolation. When cities are in some measure restored after having been thrown down, this arises from the distinguished kindness of God; fruitless and unprofitable also will their work be, if he do not conduct it to the conclusion.

Owl and raven stay with that desert.

Wesley: none—they shall not find any willing to undertake the government. Nothing—shall have no courage or strength left in them.

Edom’s nobles will call for a king, and no one will take the throne. Wesley notes that political order collapses along with the land.

Calvin: they shall call her nobles without a kingdom. When the Edomites, therefore, out of their mountains breathed lofty pride, the Prophet declares that they shall be disgracefully cast down, so that they shall have no nobility and no government; just as, when a kingdom has been overturned, government is taken away, so that the general mass of the people resembles a maimed or disfigured body, and there is no distinction of ranks. To those stately nobles who vaunted themselves so much, he says in mockery, that they shall be princes without subjects. And all her princes shall be nothing: the land of Edom shall resemble a mutilated body. This is the utmost curse of God; because, if men have no political government, they will hardly differ at all from beasts. Indeed, their condition will be far worse, for beasts can dispense with a governor, because they do not make war against their own kind; but nothing can be more cruel than man, if he be not held by some restraint.

Princes reduced to nothing stay with that government.”

Wesley (on v. 11): it shall be entirely possessed by those creatures which delight in deserts and waste places.

Thorns and nettles take over the palaces and fortresses, and jackals and ostriches move in. The places built for power become a haunt for desert creatures.

Calvin: in her palaces she shall bring forth thorns. He pursues the same subject; he describes a frightful desolation, by which splendid houses and palaces are levelled to the ground, or reduced to a state so wild that they are of no use to men, but produce only briers, thorns, and nettles; which is more disgraceful than if they had been turned into fields and meadows. In this manner does the Lord punish the insolence of those who built lofty and magnificent houses and costly palaces, that the remembrance of them might be handed down to the latest posterity. Having banished men, he turns those dwellings into nests of birds and dens of wild beasts, that, instead of being, as they expected, the trophies of their name and renown, they may stand as monuments of foolish ambition. It shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls. This overthrow of order is likewise a sad token of the wrath of God, when the earth, which was created for the use of man, beholds its natural lords banished, and is compelled to admit other inhabitants; for then, undoubtedly, it is cleansed from the defilements with which it was polluted.

Jackals and ostriches stay with Edom’s forts.

Wild animals, wild goats, and night creatures settle where people once lived. The ruin is so complete that only desert creatures find rest there.

Calvin: and the wild beasts shall meet with the satyrs. He draws a picture of frightful desolation, as if he had said that Idumea shall be destroyed so as to be without inhabitants, and instead of men it shall be inhabited by frightful beasts. This reward is most justly reaped by the ambition of those who built costly palaces to be monuments of their name and reputation. Yet this is also a punishment threatened against the cruelty of a wicked nation, which was eagerly bent on the oppression of neighbours and brethren. Though we cannot absolutely determine whether the Prophet means witches, or goblins, or satyrs and fauns, yet it is universally agreed that these words denote animals which have the shape of men. We see also what various delusions are practiced by Satan, what phantoms and hideous monsters are seen, and what sounds and noises are heard. The sin which God punished so severely in a single nation is common to almost every nation; for hardly ever are those splendid buildings reared without committing much violence and injustice against the poor; so that the lime, and stones, and timber, are filled with blood in the sight of God. Therefore, as Habakkuk says, the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall bear witness to it.

Calvin will not settle satyr or goblin, but he will keep the emptying on that cruel nation.”

Snakes nest and kites gather in pairs—life goes on in Edom, but not human life. Verse 16 insists that not one of these creatures will be missing.

Calvin (on v. 14): Idumea shall be destroyed so as to be without inhabitants, and instead of men it shall be inhabited by frightful beasts. 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 her mate. Not one of those—that is, of the animals—shall fail; none shall want her mate, for his mouth hath commanded, and his Spirit hath gathered them.

Hawks with her mate stay with that possession.

Wesley: seek—when this judgment is executed, if you pursue this prophecy, you will find, that all things exactly come to pass, as I have told you. His—my spirit, (such sudden changes of persons being frequent here) 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.

“Search the book of the LORD and read”: the prophecy invites checking. Wesley says anyone who compares it with the event will find that everything came to pass.

Calvin: inquire at the book of Jehovah. By the book of the Lord some understand this prophecy, as if he had enjoined them to read attentively this prediction; for not even in the minutest point will it fail at the appointed time. Others explain it more ingeniously as denoting the eternal decree of God. I willingly interpret it as denoting the Law itself, which by way of eminence is called the book of the Lord; for from the Law, as from its source, the Prophets drew their doctrine, as we have frequently remarked. Lest the strangeness of the event should prevent the prediction from being believed, Isaiah says that the Jews had been warned of it long before; and thus he indirectly censures the unbelief of those who stared at the announcement, as if it had been something uncommon. He appropriately brings them back to the Law, in which God frequently declares that he will take care of his people, and that he will punish the wicked and reprobate. Moses having long ago spoken in this manner, the Prophet says that there is no reason why it should be difficult to believe what he foretells, since he brings forward nothing new, but only confirms now what Moses declared and testified. Not one of those; that is, of the animals. For his mouth hath commanded: although the works of God are sufficiently plain, yet by his mouth, that is, by the word, he makes them plainer to us. And this is the true contemplation of the works of God, when we keep our eye fixed on the mirror of the word. And his Spirit hath gathered them: he alludes elegantly to the breath, from which the words proceed; this prediction is abundantly powerful, because the God who by his voice commanded the brute animals to possess the land of Edom will bring them by merely breathing. We ought not to wonder that the slightest expression of the will of God causes all the animals to assemble, as happened at the flood, and likewise at the very creation of the world, when all the animals were gathered together, by the command of God, to the first man.

The book is still the Law, Moses already having said God would avenge his people. The gathered mates stay with Edom’s creatures by that command.”

Wesley: divided—he hath divided the land to them, as it were by lot and line, as Canaan was divided among the Israelites.

The same lot and measuring line that once divided Canaan now assign ruined Edom to wild creatures. Wesley’s parallel underlines the reversal.

Calvin: and he hath cast the lot for them. He says that to those wild beasts and monsters there hath been granted a secure and permanent habitation, from which they cannot be easily banished or driven out; because God hath allotted it to them as their portion by inheritance. This means that the whole of Idumea is at the disposal of the Lord, to drive out the inhabitants, and to grant possession of it to whomsoever he pleases, either wild beasts, or birds, or monsters. Hence infer that it is vain for men ever to promise themselves a permanent abode, unless so far as every person has obtained his place by lot, and on the express condition that he shall instantly leave it, whenever God calls. We lead a dependent life wherever he supports us; and either on our native soil, or at a distance from our fatherland, we are strangers. If he shall be pleased to give us a peaceable habitation for a long time in one place, it will only be by his special favor that we shall dwell there; and as soon as he thinks proper, he will constrain us to change our abode. Besides, if we acknowledge that a residence in this or that country has been appointed to us by God, we may dwell in it with safety and composure; for if he keeps wild beasts in possession of the place which he has allotted to them, how much more will he preserve men, for whose sake he created heaven, earth, the seas, and all that they contain?

Calvin and Wesley agree the creatures dwell by his portioning; Calvin will not let men promise themselves a permanent abode apart from that lot.