| The
ending of evil seen in four chapters
as compared to the captivity and restoration |
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Promise and protection for the end-time righteous |
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End-time wicked to be punished; Preadvent judgment |
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Desolation of a thousand years |
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The earth restored and possessed |
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| .1
¶ Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the
earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come
forth of it.
.2 For the indignation of the LORD is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter. 3 Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood. .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. |
2 -
Indignation ... upon all nations The wicked unite under civil
power to destroy the righteous at the end of time re1616.
The indignation of God is then poured out re1619.
This was not fulfilled in any literal sense earlier.
2 - Armies As the Lord destroyed the Assyrian army when they surrounded Jerusalem, He will destroy them as He did the armies of Sennacherib is3736. |
| 5 For my sword shall
be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the
people of my curse, to judgment.
6 The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for the LORD hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea. |
5 - Idumea That is, Edom, the land of Esau. |
| .7
And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls;
and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with
fatness.
.8 For it is the day of the LORD'S vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion. |
7 - Unicorns From a word meaning "wild oxen." The nations would be like sacrifices coming to the slaughter. See v6. By the addition of the wild ones we may see that both God's professed people (who offer the proper sacrificial animals) and the heathen would be punished. |
| .9
¶ And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust
thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.
10a It shall not be quenched [put out] night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: .10b from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever. 11 But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness. 12 They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing. .13 And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls. .14 The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest. 15 There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate. |
9 -
Pitch
... brimstone The fires that destroyed the earth at the coming
of Christ may continue re1410,
2pe0310.
10 - For ever The term, as used in the Bible, does not mean without end. The smoke going up is explained in Revelation as linked above. 10 - Not quenched This does not mean that the fires would not go out on their own. They will not be burning when the earth is made new. Compare re1411, re1903. Eternal fire will destroy the wicked jude 7. The cities that were an example no longer exist 2pe0206. The wicked are consumed into smoke ps03720. The smoke of end-time Babylon is also symbolic re1903. Neither root nor branch will be left in the final destruction of the wicked malachi 0401,3. Also ob10, ob16, ez2818,19. 11 - Comorant From qa'ath. Perhaps it was the vulture. The Hebrew word appears in le1118 and de1417. |
| .16
Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read: no one of these shall fail,
none shall want her mate: for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit
it hath gathered them.
17 And he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath divided it unto them by line: they shall possess it for ever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein. |
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- Seek ... book The word of God is reliable in revealing
the future.
16 - Want In the KJV this means lack. 17 - He hath cast As the Lord planned that the nations would be destroyed, v2 (or Jerusalem and Israel would be desolate during the captivity), so He has appointed the earth to be desolate during the thousand years. |
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