Isa. 34 God’s fury and wrath against his church’s enemies, Isa. 34:1–10. Their land utterly desolate, Isa. 34:11–15. The certainty hereof, and duration, Isa. 34:16–17.

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…

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. He hath utterly destroyed them; he will infallibly destroy all of them.

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 people’s contempt…

All the host of heaven; the sun, and moon, and stars. which frequently come under this name in Scripture, as Deut. 4:19, Deut. 17:3, and elsewhere. Shall be dissolved; shall seem to be dissolved.

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, Rev. 4:1, Rev. 12:1, in and against which these enemies are said to be gathered together. Or, 2.

Is filled with blood; shall drink its fill of blood. The metaphor is here taken from a great glutton or drunkard, who is almost insatiable with meat and drink.

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…

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.

The streams, 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.

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

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 entirely possessed by those creatures which delight in deserts and waste places. See the same or like expressions in the like case, Isa.

They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there; they shall endeavour 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…

This is another mark and evidence of extreme desolation, as it is also, Hos. 9:6.

The satyr shall cry to his fellow: See Poole “Isa. 13:21”. See Poole “Isa. 13:22”. The screech owl also shall rest there, because there shall be no men left to disturb or affright them, Isa. 17:2.

The great owl; whether this or what other creature is meant by this Hebrew word, the learned reader may find largely discoursed in my Latin 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…

Seek ye out of the book 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.

He hath divided the land to them, as it were, by lot and line, as Canaan was divided among the Israelites.