Isaiah 34

Isaiah gives us in this chapter a sketch of the ‘New Past Future’, a phase that contemporary analysts are saying we are in after 911. The “future” has come, they say and now we are “past” that in a “new future”. This is Isaiah 34. Isaiah wants to describe the post-Second Coming situation on earth, the millennium of desolation. Isaiah wants all nations and peoples to be witness of a Future wrath of the Lord against the earth (v. 1-2). God will be against the evil nations and the militaries of this world (v. 2). At the Second Coming He will “utterly destroys them”. The past tense is used, not because it happened in reality already, but because in the description of Isaiah in the Eschaton, it is seen as accomplished. He wishes to get to the time beyond this event. We know this since in verse 3 Isaiah switches to the future tense “their slain will be thrown down” (v. 3a). The word used for the punishment of the slain people at the Second Coming is the same as the word used when Lucifer was thrown out of heaven due to his Rebellion. Their corpses will smell (v. 3b); mountains will drip with their blood (v. 3c); and the “host of heaven will wear away” which may mean that the starry host will be of no light (v. 4a). The “sky will be rolled up like a scroll and their hosts will wither away” (v. 4b-c). Very powerful and impressive actions by God at the Second Coming. It is the punishment of the Lord from heaven “My sword is satiated in heaven” (v. 5a). It shall descend for judgment upon Edom at the Second Coming (v. 5b). Edom was a thorn in the flesh of Jewish people in Isaiah’s day so he is telling his people that their day is coming. The wheel will turn. At that day the sword of the Lord will be sated with the blood of lambs and goats, kidneys of rams and in Bozrah there will be a sacrifice by the Lord. It could be that at Bozrah the Edomites had a heathen temple with sacrifices but the Lord will destroy that in the Eschaton. There will be “a great slaughter in the land of Edom” on the day of the Lord (v. 6e). Wild oxen, bulls, and it will be a bloody day (v. 7). Then Isaiah wants to point out that the Lord has a time of vengeance. He used the year-day principle to point this out: “For the Lord has a day of vengeance [and with synonymous parallelism] a year of recompense for the cause of Zion” (v. 8). On economic year of 360 days equal a prophetic 24 hour day in Isaiah’s reckoning. This was also in the Kassite calendar of the hemerological text that is in the Istanbul Museum, nearly 500 years before Isaiah. The Second Coming has results and effects that Isaiah wants his people to take note of. There is a 2003 art painting in a museum in New York with Brooklyn and Manhattan under water in the distant future. This is what Isaiah paints with words in this chapter after the Second Coming. Streams turn to pitch (v. 9a); earth to brimstone (v. 9b); the burning of the pitch shall not be quenched day and night and smoke shall go up “unto eternity”. With the millennium still to be completed, we are not in eternity. Eternity will start as soon as the Hell event is completed and God created the New Heavens and Earth, a situation that Isaiah wants to keep for chapter 35. “From generation to generation shall it be desolate” meaning that for many 40 year cycles, until a 1000 years are filled up, shall it be desolate (v. 10c).

No human being shall pass through it unto the end of ends (naṣaḥ a technical term meaning endurance among others) which refers to the end of the millennium (v. 10d). Then Isaiah wants to paint a picture of desolation and selected desert animals for that matter. He grabbed a zoology dictionary of his time and started to list the animal kingdom that will reside there: Birds like an owl [Targum pelican; Greek birds] (v. 11₁); hedgehog [Targum hedgehog; Greek same] (v. 11₂); eared owl [Targum owls; Greek ibises] (v. 11₃); raven  [Targum ravens; Greek same] (v. 11₄); ostrich [Targum ostrich; Greek same] (v. 13₄); screech owl [Targum night demons; Greek satyrs] (v. 14₄); hawks [Targum kites; Greek hedgehog] (v. 15₂). Plants like thorns [Targum thorns; Greek thorns] (v. 13₁); nettles [Targum nettles] (v. 13₂); thistles [Targum thistles] (v. 13₃). Animals like a jackal [Targum jackals] (v. 13); desert creatures [Targum fearsome animals; Greek devils] (v. 14₁); howlers [Targum wild cats; Greek satyrs] (v. 14₂); shaggy goat [Targum demons] (v. 14₃). Reptiles like a snake [Targum hedgehog; Greek monsters] (v. 15₁). At this last point the error spelling of the Targum and Qumran Isaiah scroll from cave one are the same as opposed to the original, which read snake. The times of Christ and later were difficult due to persecutions and bookburning practices and library building thefts which show in the quality of copies that were made. Isaiah says that God placed them here “Every one with its kind” (v. 15d). It is the Creation formula of Moses here used by Isaiah. God will place them in the desolation zone for a Millennium. Isaiah was informed about eschatology and the Millennium conditions and he asked his audience to look in the Book of the Lord about this. The Lord spoke (v. 16c); it was gathered by the Holy Spirit (v. 16e); it was edited (v. 17b); it was written (v. 16a); it was read (v. 16a). That is why Isaiah has such a developed view of Eschatology. They knew more than we know today about them. These animals will possess the desolate earth until (ad olam) until eternity starts and that will start after Hell at the end of the Millennium (v. 17c). Isaiah repeated that these animals will dwell in the desolate earth until the completion of the Millennium. We know there is an end in sight since in the next chapter at 35:9, he says that no vicious beast will be found there and that includes the jackal of 34:13c).

Dear God

The desolation is a zone for Satan to remain alone for a thousand years. Only these creatures remain with him in a smoking environment. Grant that we will be safely in Zion with You and safe us from ourselves O Lord. Amen.

Koot van Wyk, (DLitt et Phil; ThD) Kyungpook National University, Department of Liberal Education, Sangju, South Korea; conjoint lecturer of Avondale College, Australia