Isaiah 34 - Introduction

The thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth chapters make one distinct and beautiful prophecy, consisting of two parts; the first containing a denunciation of judgment on the enemies of the Jews, particularly Edom Isaiah 34; and the second a most beautiful description of the flourishing state of the people of God which would follow these judgments Isaiah 35:1)

At what time the prophecy was delivered it is uncertain, and, indeed, can be determined by nothing in the prophecy itself. It is observable, however, that it is the close of the first part of the prophecies of Isaiah, the remaining chapters to the fortieth, which commences the second part of the prophecies, being occupied with an historical description of the invasion of Sennacherib and his army. It has been supposed (see the Introduction, Sections 2, 3,) that between the delivery of the prophecies in the first and second portion of Isaiah, an interval of some years elapsed, and that fire second part was delivered for his own consolation, and the consolation of the people, near the close of his life.

A somewhat similar purpose, as I apprehend, led to the composition and publication of the prophecy before us. The general strain of his prophecies thus far has been, that however numerous and mighty were the enemies of the Jews, the people of God would be delivered from them all. Such was the case in regard to the allied armies of Syria and Samaria Isaiah 7; Isaiah 8; of the Assyrian Isaiah 10; of Babylon Isaiah 13; Isaiah 14; of Moab Isaiah 15:1; Isaiah 16:1; of Damascus and Ethiopia Isaiah 17:1; Isaiah 18:1; of Egypt Isaiah 19; Isaiah 20:1; and more particularly of the Assyrians under Sennacherib Isaiah 25:1; 29–33 The prophecy before us I regard as a kind of summing up, or recapitulation of all that he had delivered; and the general idea is, that the people of God would be delivered from all their foes, and that happier times under the Messiah would succeed all their calamities. This he had expressed often in the particular prophecies; he here expresses it in a summary and condensed manner.

Keeping this general design of the prophecy in view, we may observe that it consists of the following parts:

I. A general statement that all the enemies of the people of God would be destroyed Isaiah 34:1.

1. The nations of the earth are summoned to see this, and to become acquainted with the purpose of God thus to destroy all his enemies Isaiah 34:1.

2. The destruction of the enemies of God described under the image of a great slaughter Isaiah 34:2.

3. The same destruction described under the image of the heavens rolled together as a scroll Isaiah 34:4.

II. This general truth particularly applied to Edom or Idumea as among the most virulent of their enemies Isaiah 34:5.

1. Yahweh’s vengeance would come upon the land of Idumea, and the land would be covered with the slain, and soaked in blood Isaiah 34:5.

2. The entire and utter desolation of the land of Idumea is foretold. The kingdom should be destroyed, the land laid waste, and the whole country become a dwelling place of wild beasts Isaiah 34:9.

III. The happy times that would succeed - the times of the Messiah - are exhibited Isaiah 35:1 in language of great beauty and sublimity. This is the substance of all that the prophet had predicted, and all his visions terminate there. The wilderness shall blossom; and the sick and afflicted shall be healed; the desolate lands shall be fertile; there shall be no enemy to annoy, and the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads.

As so large a part of this prophecy relates to Edom, or Idumea, it may be proper to preface the exposition of the chapter with a brief notice of the history of that country, and of the causes for which God denounced vengeance upon it.

Idumea was the name given by the Greeks to the land of Edom, the country which was settled by Esau. The territory which they occupied extended originally from the Dead Sea to the Elanitic gulf of the Red Sea. Their territory, however, they extended considerably by conquest, and carried their anna to the east and northeast of Moab, and obtained possession of tile country of which Bozrah was the chief city. To this they had access through the intervening desert without crossing the country of the Moabites or Ammonites. The capital of East Idumea was Bozrah; the capital of South Edom was Petra or Selah, called, in 2 Kings 14:7, Joktheel (see the notes at Isaiah 16:1).

This country received its name from Esau, the son of Isaac, and the twin brother of Jacob. He was called Edom, which signifies red, from the color of the red pottage which he obtained from Jacob by the sale of his birthright Genesis 25:30. After his marriage, he removed to mount Seir, and made that his permanent abode, and the country adjacent to it received the name of Edom. Mount Seir had been occupied by a people called Horites, who were displaced by Esau, when he took possession of their country and made it his own Deuteronomy 2:12. The Edomites were at first governed by princes, improperly translated ‘dukes’ in Genesis 36:9. They were an independent people until the time of David. They seem to have continued under the government of separate princes, until the apprehension of foreign invasion compelled them to unite under one leader, and to submit them. selves to a king, When the children of Israel were passing through the wilderness, as the land of Edom lay between them and Canaan, Moses sent ambassadors to the king of Edom soliciting the privilege of a peaceful passage through their country, on the ground that they were descended from the same ancestor, and promising that the property of the Edomites should not be injured, and offering to pay for all that they should consume Numbers 20:14.

To this reasonable request the king of Edom sent a positive refusal, and came out with a strong army to resist them Numbers 20:20. This refusal was long remembered by the Jews, and was one cause of the hostile feeling which was cherished against them. The kingdom of Edom seems to have risen to a considerable degree of prosperity. There is, indeed, no direct mention made of it after this until the time of David; but it seems to have then risen into so much importance as to have attracted his attention. David carried his arms there after having obtained a victory over the Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites. It is not known, indeed, what was the cause of this war, but it is known that he killed eighteen thousand Edomites in the valley of Salt 2 Samuel 8:13; 1 Chronicles 18:12, and the rest of them were either brought into subjection under Joab, or forced to fly into foreign countries. Hadad, their young king, fled to Egypt and was favorably received by Pharaoh, and was highly honored at his court.

He was married to the sister of Tahpanes, who was the queen of Egypt 1 Kings 11:15. Yet though he lived at the court of Pharaoh, he waited only for an opportunity to recover his kingdom, and when David and Joab were dead, he proposed to the king of Egypt to make an effort to accomplish it. He returned to Idumea, but was unsuccessful in his attempts to overcome the garrisons which David had stationed to guard and secure the country (Joe. Ant. viii. 2). The kingdom of Edom continued under the house of David until the time of Jehoshaphat, and was probably governed by deputies or viceroys appointed by the kings of Judah. In the reign of Jehoshaphat they joined the Moabites and Ammonites in an attempt to recover their freedom, but they were unsuccessful. In the reign of Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, however, they rose in a body, and though they suffered great slaughter, yet they regained their liberty 2 Chronicles 21:8.

After this, no attempts were made to subdue them for more than sixty years. In the reign of Amaziah, king of Judah, however, they were attacked, and ten thousand of them fell in battle in the valley of Salt, and many were made prisoners; their capital, Selah, was taken by storm, and the two thousand captives were by Amaziah’s orders thrown down the ragged precipices near the city, and dashed in pieces (2 Kings 14:7; 2 Chronicles 25:12; Universal History, vol. i. p. 380; Ed. Lond. 1779, 8vo). When the Jews were subdued by the Babylonians, and carried captive, they seem to have regarded it as a favorable opportunity to avenge all the injustice which they had suffered from the hands of the Jews. They joined the Babylonians in their attempts to subdue Jerusalem, and exulted in the fall and ruin of the city.

Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom

In the day of Jerusalem; who said

Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.

Psalms 137:7

They seem to have resolved to take full vengeance for the fact that their nation had been so long subjected by David and his successors; to have cut off such of the Jews as attempted to escape; to have endeavored to level the whole city with the ground; to have rejoiced in the success of the Babylonians, and to have imbrued their hands in the blood of those whom the Chaldeans had left - and were thus held to be guilty of the crime of fratricide by God (see particularly Obadiah 1:10, Obadiah 1:18; Ezekiel 25:12; Ezekiel 35:3). It was for this especially that they were denounced and threatened by the prophets with heavy judgment, and with the utter destruction of the nation Isaiah 34:5, Isaiah 34:10; Jeremiah 49:7, Jeremiah 49:12; Ezekiel 25:12; Ezekiel 35:1; Joel 3:19; Amos 1:11; Obadiah 1:2, Obadiah 1:8, Obadiah 1:17; Malachi 1:3). This refusing to aid their brethren the Jews, and joining with the enemies of the people of God, and exulting in their success, was the great crime in their history which was to call down the divine vengeance, and terminate in their complete and utter ruin.

But their exultation does not long continue, and their cruelty to the Jews did not long remain unpunished. Five years after the taking of Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar humbled all the states around Judea, and particularly Idumea Jeremiah 25:15; Malachi 1:3.

During the Jewish exile, it would appear the Edomites pressed forward into the south of Palestine, of which they took possession as far as to Hebron. Here they were subsequently attacked and subdued by John Hyrcanus, and compelled to adopt the laws and customs of the Jews. The name Idumea was transferred to this part of the land of Judea which they occupied, arid this is the Idumea which is mentioned by Pliny, Ptolemy, Strabo, and other ancient writers. Indeed the name Idumea was sometimes given by the Roman writers to the whole of Palestine (Reland’s Palestine). Idumea, including the southern part of Judea, was henceforth governed by a succession of Jewish prefects. One of these, Antipater, an Idumean by birth, by the favor of Caesar, was made procurator of all Judea. He was the father of Herod the Great, who become king of Judea, including Idumea. While the Edomites had been extending themselves to the northwest, they had in in turn been driven out from the southern portion of their own territory, and from their chief city itself, by the Nabatheans, an Arabian tribe, the descendants of Nebaioth, the oldest son of Ishmael. This nomadic people had spread themselves over the whole of desert Arabia, from the Euphrates to the borders of Palestine, and finally to the Elanitic gulf of the Red Sea. They thus grew up into the kingdom of Arabia Petrea, occupying very nearly the same territory which was comprised within the limits of ancient Edom. A king of this country, Aretas, is mentioned as cotemporary with Antiochus Epiphanes, about 166 b.c. From this time to the destruction of Jerusalem, the sovereigns of Arabia Petrea came into frequent contact with the Jews and Romans, both in war and peace.

The nominal independence of this kingdom continued for some thirty years after the destruction of Jerusalem. Under the reign of Trajan, about 105 a.d., it was overrun and conquered by Cornelius Palma, then governor of Syria, and formally annexed to the Roman empire (Dio. Cass. lxviii. 14; Atom. Marcell. xiv. 8). The kingdom of Edom was thus blotted out, and their name was lost. In their own land they ceased to be a separate people, and mingled with the other descendants of Ishmael; in Judea they became, under John Hyrcanus, converts to the Jewish faith; received the rite of circumcision; and were incorporated with the Jews. Very interesting remains of cities and towns of Idumea, and particularly of Petrea, have been recently discovered by the travelers Burckhardt, and Seetsen (see Universal History, vol. i. pp. 370-383; Amer. Bib. Repository, vol. iii. pp. 247-270; Gesenius’ Introduction to his Com. on this chapter; the Travels of Burckhardt, Legh, Laborde, and Stephens; Keith, On Prophecy, pp. 135-168; and Robinson’s Bib. Researches, vol. ii. p. 551ff)