Isaiah 34:9 - Meaning and Application

This prophecy sounds very dark, but it reaches beyond Edom and Bozrah. It describes the sad changes that God’s providence often brings in countries, cities, palaces, and families. Places that once flourished and drew crowds sometimes fall into decay. Fruitful land can become barren, and busy cities can become heaps of ruins.

It also pictures the destroying judgments that come from God’s wrath, the right punishment for those who oppose his people. God will send these judgments when the time of redemption comes and when he settles Zion’s cause. Those who try to ruin the church can never succeed in that. They only bring ruin on themselves.

The prophecy also points ahead to the final ruin of this wicked world, which is kept for fire on the day of judgment (2 Peter 3:7). The earth itself, along with everything done in it, will be burned up. For those who set their hearts on earthly things, that end will be like a hell. Even so, this passage mainly shows the lot of those under God’s curse.

The country will become like the lake of Sodom, a place destroyed by fire and judgment (Isaiah 34:9, Isaiah 34:10). Its streams, once used to water the land and refresh the people, will be turned into pitch. The dust will become sulfur, so that the land, touched by God’s wrath, seems ready to catch fire at the first spark. Once it burns, it will become burning pitch, with a fire that spreads everywhere, not just to one house or one town. No one will be able to put it out. It will burn day and night, and the smoke will rise forever.

As long as sinners keep multiplying on earth, God will keep a righteous judgment against them (Numbers 32:14). If a people keep producing sinners, God will continue sending plagues. No one who falls under God’s wrath can pull himself back out. People may think lightly of this, but it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. If a land is doomed, no one will want to travel through it. People will choose a long detour rather than come near its stench.

The cities will become like old, broken houses left empty by their owners. Such places are often frightening and are usually taken over by wild animals or birds of bad omen. The palaces of the enemy will look bleak and ruined. God will mark them out for destruction by stretching over Bozrah the measuring line of confusion and the plumb line of emptiness (Isaiah 34:11). This shows that his judgment is just and exact. The ruin is not random. It is measured, as if by line and level.

The confusion and emptiness that cover the whole land will be like the earth before God shaped it, when it was without form and void (Genesis 1:2). Sin can quickly turn a paradise into chaos and spoil the beauty of creation. Where confusion comes, emptiness soon follows. But both are sent by the ruler of the world in the right measure.

Their great men will be cut off, and none of them will dare to appear (Isaiah 34:12). They will call for the nobles to deal with the hard matters ahead, but no one will be there to take charge. Their princes will hear the bad news and be powerless. They will not be able to help or protect them from destruction.

Even the houses of government and strong defense will become like wildernesses (Isaiah 34:13). Grass will grow there, but also thorns, nettles, and brambles, and no one will be there to clear them away. We sometimes see ruined buildings overgrown with weeds and broken stones. This shows more than emptiness and neglect. It shows that the place lies under God’s curse, for thorns and thistles came with the curse after sin (Genesis 3:18).

Then the place will become the home and meeting place of wild and frightening creatures, which usually live in lonely ruins. These creatures add to the horror of the desolation. The cormorant, or perhaps the pelican, a bird that likes lonely places (Psalm 102:6), will live there. The bittern, which makes a harsh sound, the owl, a sad bird, and the raven, a bird of prey drawn by dead bodies, will all dwell there, along with every unclean bird that does not serve man (Isaiah 34:13).

Dragons, harmful and poisonous creatures, will live there too. In the high rooms where proud officials once gathered, dragons will hiss and wolves will howl. In courts once filled with powerful lords, the serpent will raise its spotted head or coil up to rest. What was once a court for princes will become a court for owls or ostriches (Isaiah 34:14).

The wild beasts of the desert will meet the wild beasts of the marsh, as if they had come by appointment, and they will enjoy the total ruin they find there. Leopards and every kind of fierce beast will make that empty place their home. The satyr, a creature of pagan imagination, is pictured calling to another to join him in this wilderness, or else settling there himself and enjoying the strange new home. There the screech-owl will rest, and the great owl will make her nest, lay her eggs, and hatch them (Isaiah 34:15). Their kind will continue there, as if to leave heirs for that deserted land.

The vultures that feed on carcasses will gather there, each with its mate. Notice three things here. Places that people have abandoned and avoid become fitting homes for other creatures, whom God’s providence still cares for and will not ignore. This also shows what people are like when they are cold, unsociable, and always withdrawing from others. They are like these lonely birds that seem to enjoy ruins and empty places.

It also shows how terrible sin is. It can turn a fruitful land into waste and a busy city into a desert. The same sin that fills a place with life can leave it empty and ruined.

There is also an assurance that this prediction will be fully carried out, down to the smallest detail (Isaiah 34:16, Isaiah 34:17). “Search the book of the Lord and read,” it says. When this destruction comes, compare what happens with what was foretold, and you will see that they match exactly. The book of the prophets is the Lord’s book, so we should treat it as coming from God and having divine authority. We should not only read it, but search through it, turning from one passage to another and comparing them. A great deal of useful knowledge can be gathered from Scripture in this careful way, and not by a quick reading.

When you read the prediction in the book of the Lord, notice these things. According to what you read, so you will see, not one of these creatures will fail, whether beast or bird. Since it was foretold that they would live there from generation to generation, each kind will continue, and none will be without a mate. These signs of ruin will themselves multiply and fill the land.

Also, since God’s mouth commanded this dreadful gathering, his Spirit will carry it out. Just as creatures were drawn by instinct to Adam so he could name them, and to Noah so he could shelter them, so these will be gathered by God’s directing power. What God’s word appoints, his Spirit will bring to pass, because no word from God will fail. In the same way, the promises of God are also fulfilled by the work of the Spirit.

There is also exact order and proportion in the carrying out of this warning. He has assigned a lot for these birds and beasts, so each one knows its place as clearly as if it were marked out. Compare Joel 2:7, Joel 2:8, where it says they will not break ranks or crowd one another. Among the heathen, fortune-tellers tried to predict events from birds in flight, as if human destiny depended on them. But here we see that the flight of birds is under the rule of the God of Israel. He has assigned their lot.

Finally, the desolation will last forever: they will possess it forever. God’s Jerusalem may be laid in ruins, but the old Jerusalem did rise again from its ruins, until it gave way to the gospel Jerusalem. That gospel city may be brought low, but it will be rebuilt, and it will remain until it gives way to the heavenly Jerusalem. But the enemies of the church will remain desolate forever, punished with everlasting destruction.