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.
Isaiah 34:4
Isaiah 33 [20.] Look at Zion, the city of our appointed festivals.
Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation,
a tent that won’t be removed.
Its stakes will never be plucked up,
nor will any of its cords be broken.
But there Yahweh will be with us in majesty,
a place of wide rivers and streams,
in which no galley with oars will go,
neither will any gallant ship pass by there.
For Yahweh is our judge.
Yahweh is our lawgiver.
Yahweh is our king.
He will save us.
Your rigging is untied.
They couldn’t strengthen the foot of their mast.
They couldn’t spread the sail.
Then the prey of a great plunder was divided.
The lame took the prey.
The inhabitant won’t say, “I am sick.”
The people who dwell therein will be forgiven their iniquity.
Isaiah 34 [1.] 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 Yahweh is enraged against all the nations,
and angry with all their armies.
He has utterly destroyed them.
He has given them over for slaughter.
Their slain will also be cast out,
and the stench of their dead bodies will come up;
and the mountains will melt in their blood.
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.
Isaiah 34 [5.] 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.
Yahweh’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 Yahweh has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
The wild oxen will come down with them,
and the young bulls with the mighty bulls;
and their land will be drunken with blood,
and their dust made greasy with fat.
For Yahweh has a day of vengeance,
a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
Its streams will be turned into pitch,
its dust into sulfur,
And its land will become burning pitch.
Meaning:
Isaiah 34 and 35 belong together. Chapter 34 announces God’s judgment on the nations, focusing on Edom; chapter 35 describes the joy of the redeemed as they return to Zion. Chapter 34 opens with a summons to the whole world: “Come near, you nations, to hear!” (see the Context). In verse 4 the judgment reaches even the sky. The PIB footnote at Mark 13:25 points to this verse, because Jesus used its language when he described the shaking of the heavens before his coming (Mark 13:24-25).
- “All of the army of the sky will be dissolved”
The “army of the sky” is the host of heaven, the sun, moon and stars. Many ancient peoples worshipped them as gods, and Israel was often tempted to do the same. When God judges, even these mighty lights dissolve. Nothing that people worship in place of God can stand before him. Isaiah used similar words in his prophecy against Babylon: “For the stars of the sky and its constellations will not give their light” (Isaiah 13:10).
- “The sky will be rolled up like a scroll”
Books in Isaiah’s day were scrolls. When a reader finished, the scroll was rolled up and put away. Isaiah pictures God rolling up the sky as easily as a reader closes a book. The present heavens are not eternal; they belong to a chapter that God will close. Isaiah says elsewhere, “the heavens will vanish away like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment… but my salvation will be forever” (Isaiah 51:6).
John saw the same picture in his vision of the sixth seal: “The sky was removed like a scroll when it is rolled up” (Revelation 6:14).
- “As a leaf fades from off a vine or a fig tree”
The stars fall like dry leaves dropping from a vine or a fig tree in autumn. John again echoes Isaiah: “The stars of the sky fell to the earth, like a fig tree dropping its unripe figs when it is shaken by a great wind” (Revelation 6:13). Jesus too drew a lesson from the fig tree in the same discourse: “Now from the fig tree, learn this parable” (Mark 13:28). Its leaves can announce either the coming of summer or the fading of what is passing away.
- “For Yahweh has a day of vengeance”
The verses that follow (see the Context) name Edom, the nation descended from Esau, which had long been hostile to Israel. Edom stands for all the nations that set themselves against God and his people. God declares, “For Yahweh has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.” His judgment is not random anger but justice for the oppressed.
The very next chapter turns to comfort: “Behold, your God will come with vengeance, God’s retribution. He will come and save you” (Isaiah 35:4). The day that brings judgment on the proud brings salvation to God’s people, and “Yahweh’s ransomed ones will return” with singing (Isaiah 35:10).
The Significance of Isaiah 34:4
- Only God is permanent
Even the stars will pass away. Our trust belongs to the Creator, not to anything he has made.
- Judgment brings justice
God’s day of vengeance is good news for the oppressed. He will put right every wrong done to his people.
- A new creation
The rolling up of the old heavens prepares for God’s promise: “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth” (Isaiah 65:17).
Cross-References:
Isaiah 13:10: "For the stars of the sky and its constellations will not give their light." Isaiah’s similar picture of judgment.
Revelation 6:14: "The sky was removed like a scroll when it is rolled up." John’s vision echoes Isaiah.
Mark 13:25: "the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers that are in the heavens will be shaken." Jesus uses Isaiah’s words.
Isaiah 35:4: "Behold, your God will come with vengeance, God’s retribution. He will come and save you." Judgment followed by salvation.
Conclusion: Isaiah 34:4 pictures God’s judgment reaching the heavens themselves: the host of the sky dissolves, the sky is rolled up like a finished scroll, and the stars fall like leaves from a vine or fig tree. Jesus and John both drew on these words to describe the end of the present age. The verse reminds us that only God and his salvation last forever, and that his day of judgment on the proud is also the day of rescue for those who trust him.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible