Isaiah 34:4 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 34:4
And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.
a mass of persons (or figuratively · noun, common masculine singular construct
heaven
הַשָּׁמַ֔יִםha.sha.Ma.yim
H8064
the sky (as aloft · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
dissolved
וְנָמַ֙קּוּ֙ve.na.Ma.ku
H4743
to melt · conjunction + verb, niphal sequential perfect, 3rd person common plural
heavens
הַשָּׁמָ֑יִםha.sha.Ma.yim
H8064
the sky (as aloft · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
together
וְנָגֹ֥לּוּve.na.Go.lu
H1556
to roll (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + verb, niphal sequential perfect, 3rd person common plural
scroll
כַסֵּ֖פֶרkha.Se.fer
H5612
properly · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
host
צְבָאָ֣םtze.va.'Am
H6635
a mass of persons (or figuratively · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
down
יִבּ֔וֹלyi.Bol
H5034
to wilt · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
leaf
עָלֶה֙'a.Leh
H5929
a leaf (as coming up on a tree) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
off
כִּנְבֹ֤לkin.Vol
H5034
to wilt · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
vine
מִגֶּ֔פֶןmi.Ge.fen
H1612
a vine (as twining) · preposition + noun, common both genders singular absolute
falling
וּכְנֹבֶ֖לֶתu.khe.no.Ve.let
H5034
to wilt · conjunction + preposition + verb, qal active participle, feminine singular absolute
tree
מִתְּאֵנָֽהmi.te.'e.Nah
H8384
the fig (tree or fruit) · preposition + noun, common feminine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Revelation 6:13-14 And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
Matthew 24:29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall f…
Ezekiel 32:7-8 And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon sha…
Joel 3:15 The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.
Psalms 102:25-26 Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands.
Mark 13:24-25 But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light,
2 Peter 3:7-12 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perditi…
Jeremiah 4:23-24 I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 34:1-8
Here we have a prophecy, as elsewhere we have a history, of the wars of the Lord, which we are sure are all both righteous and successful. This world, as it is his creature, he does good to; but as it is in the interest of Satan, who is called the god of this world, he fights against it.
I. Here is the trumpet sounded and the war proclaimed, Isa 34:1. All nations must hear and hearken, not only because what God is about to do is well worthy their remark (as Isa 33:13), but because they are all concerned in it; it is with them that God has a quarrel; it is against them that God is coming forth in wrath. Let them all take notice that the great God is angry with them; his indignation is upon al…
(Psa 102:26; Joe 2:31; Joe 3:15; Mat 24:29).
dissolved-- (Pe2 3:10-12). Violent convulsions of nature are in Scripture made the images of great changes in the human world (Isa 24:19-21), and shall literally accompany them at the winding up of the present dispensation.
scroll--Books were in those days sheets of parchment rolled together (Rev 6:14).
fall down--The stars shall fall when the heavens in which they are fixed pass away.
fig tree-- (Rev 6:13).
John Gill on Isaiah 34:4
And all the hosts of heaven shall be dissolved,.... "Pine away" (i), as with sickness, grow languid, become obscure, lose their light, and be turned into blood and darkness; this figure is used to express the horror of this calamity, as if the very heavens themselves, and the sun, and moon, and stars, were affected with it; see Isaiah 13:10.
and the heavens shall be rolled gether as a scroll; a book, or volume, which when rolled up, one letter of it could not be read; and it was the manner formerly of making and writing books in the form of a roll; hence the word volume; and here it signifies that there should be such a change in the heavens, as that not a star should be seen, much less the…
"You have spread out the heavens like a tent cloth." The prophet means to say that from the beginning God spread out the heavens, just as if he were unfolding a scroll and rolling it back again, as it is written in Holy Scripture: "And the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll." You have constructed your palace upon the waters, as similarly in Genesis, there were waters above the firmament and, likewise, below the firmament. "You travel on the wings of the wind." This typifies the presence of God everywhere.
Daniel said, "I beheld in the night a vision, and saw one coming with the clouds of heaven as the Son of man, and he came on to the Ancient of Days and was brought near to him. To him was given the dominion and the honor and the kingdom. And all people, tribes and tongues will serve him. His dominion is an eternal dominion, which shall not pass away. And his kingdom shall not be destroyed." … Then all the gates of heaven will be opened, or rather the heaven itself is taken away. For we read, "The heaven shall be rolled up like a scroll," wrapped up to the middle like the skin and covering of some tent, so as to be made into a more useful shape.
So, our Lord Jesus Christ comes from heaven, and he comes with glory at the last day to bring this world to its close. For this world will accomplish its course, and the world that once came into being is hereafter to be renewed. For seeing that corruption, theft, adultery and every form of sin has been poured out on the earth, and in the world fresh blood has been ever mingled with previous blood, this astonishing habitation filled with iniquity is not to last. This world passes away that the fairer world may be revealed. Now would you have this proved by the express words of Scripture? Listen to these from Isaiah: "And the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll; and all the stars shall fall down, as the leaf falls off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree."
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Leaf — Of a tree. The olive-leaf mentioned Gen. 8:11. The barren fig-tree had nothing but leaves (Matt. 21:19; Mark 11:13). The oak-leaf is mentioned Isa. 1:30; 6:13. There are numerous allusions to leaves,…
Writing — The art of writing must have been known in the time of the early Pharaohs. Moses is commanded “to write for a memorial in a book” (Ex. 17:14) a record of the attack of Amalek. Frequent mention is…
Astronomy · SI — SI
Books · Made in a roll — Made in a roll
Fig Tree, The · Fruit of, illustrative: (Untimely and dropping,) of the wicked ripe for judgment — Fruit of, illustrative: (Untimely and dropping,) of the wicked ripe for judgment
Stars · Darkening of — Darkening of
War · 28:25-68;32:30; — 28:25-68;32:30;
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
on Isaiah 34:4
And all the armies of heaven shall fade away. Isaiah employs an exaggerated style, as other prophets are accustomed to do, in order to represent vividly the dreadful nature of the judgment of God, and to make an impression on men's hearts that were dull and sluggish; for otherwise his discourse would have been deficient in energy, and would have had little influence on careless men. He therefore adds that "the stars" themselves, amidst such slaughter, shall gather blackness as if they were ready to faint, and he does so in order to show more fully that it will be a mournful calamity. In like manner, as in a dark and troubled sky, the clouds appear to be folded together, the sun and stars to…
The judgment foretold by Isaiah also belongs to the last things; for it takes place in connection with the simultaneous destruction of the present heaven and the present earth."And all the host of the heavens moulder away, and the heavens are rolled up like a scroll, and all their host withers as a leaf withers away from the vine, and like withered leaves from the fig-tree" (Nâmaq, to be dissolved into powdered mother (Isa 3:24; Isa 5:24); nâgōl (for nâgal, like nâzōl in Isa 63:19; Isa 64:2, and nârōts in Ecc 12:6), to be rolled up - a term applied to the cylindrical book-scroll. The heaven, that is to say, the present system of the universe, breaks up into atoms, and is rolled up li…
The heavens . . . stars: See also 13:10; Joel 2:30-31; Matt 24:29; Mark 13:24-25; 2 Pet 3:10-13; Rev 6:13-14.
Rashi on Isaiah 34:4
And all the host of heaven shall melt They shall be frightened when I cast down the princes of the heathens.([Mss. yield:] the princes of the nations.) ([Warsaw edition:] of Assyria and Babylon.)
shall be rolled (וְנָגֹלּוּ) an expression of rolling. And the heavens shall be rolled like a scroll. Jonathan renders: And they shall be erased from beneath the heavens, as it is stated about them in the Book. But I explain it according to the context, for now, the kingdoms of the Ishmaelites (the nations [ms.]) (the wicked [Warsaw ed.]) have fortune and light. When they are erased and destroyed, it will be as though the world has darkened for them, as though the sun and the light are rolled up li…
