Isaiah 34:4

“And all the hosts of heaven shall be dissolved, &c.] “Pine away”f664, 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 <231310>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…”

“(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).”

“And all the host of heaven - On the word ‘host’ (צבא tsâbâ'), see the note at Isaiah 1:9. The heavenly bodies often represent kings and princes (compare the note at Isaiah 24:21). Shall be dissolved - (ינמקוּ venâmaqqû. This figure Vitringa supposes to be taken from the common prejudice by which the stars appear to be crystals, or gems, set in the azure vault of heaven, which may melt and flow down by the application of heat. The sense is, that the princes and nobles who had opposed God and his people would be destroyed, as if the sparkling stars, like gems, should melt in the heavens, and flow down to the earth. And the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll - The word ‘scroll’…”

“Dissolved - The sun, moon, and stars. So great shall be the confusion and consternation of mankind, as if all the frame of the creation were broken into pieces. It is usual for prophetic writers, both in the Old and New Testament, to represent great and general calamities, in such words and phrases, as properly agree to the day of judgment; as on the contrary, the glorious deliverances of God's people, in such expressions, as properly agree to the resurrection from the dead. Isaiah 34:5”

“34:4 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.”

“all the: Isa 13:10, Isa 14:12; Psa 102:25, Psa 102:26; Jer 4:23, Jer 4:24; Eze 32:7, Eze 32:8; Joe 2:30, Joe 2:31; Joe 3:15; Mat 24:29, Mat 24:35; Mar 13:24, Mar 13:25; Act 2:19, Act 2:20; Pe2 3:7-12; Rev 6:13, Rev 6:14, Rev 8:12, Rev 20:11 Isaiah 34:5”

“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…”