Isaiah 34:10, commentary and pictures

The land of Edom laid waste with its streams turned to burning pitch is a figure of the whole sin-cursed earth in its final overthrow at the day of the Lord's vengeance. Its fire not quenched night nor day means the burning cannot be stopped or put out until it has finished its work of consuming what feeds it. Forever and from generation to generation mean a long age lasting only as long as that condition can exist, and smoke going up forever marks the finality of the ruin, not torment without end, for what smokes is being devoured until it ceases for lack of fuel. After Christ comes the earth lies empty and impassable for a thousand years, with no people passing through it while the saints reign in heaven and only wild creatures and evil angels remain upon it. At the close of that time the wicked are raised around the descended city, devoured by fire from heaven united with fire within the earth into one vast lake of fire, and from those ashes the earth is cleansed and made new as the everlasting home of the righteous.

Historical Setting and Scope

The unquenched burning and ever-rising smoke belong to the day of the Lord's vengeance and the year of recompense for the controversy of Zion, a time of wrath and judgment without probation or mercy. Then the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations and His fury upon all their armies unto utter destruction and slaughter, with the slain cast out, mountains melted with blood, all the host of heaven dissolved and the heavens rolled together as a scroll, and His sword bathed in heaven coming down upon Idumea in sacrifice and great slaughter in Bozrah with blood and fatness. It is the glorious coming of the Lord Jesus from heaven to earth, named the day of the tumult of the Lord and the day of His wrath and fierce anger, picturing the nations' final convulsions, their gathering for the battle of the great day of God Almighty, and the world's last great overthrow at the great day of final accounts. As part of that picture the fire is not quenched, its smoke rises continually, and the land remains waste and uninhabited in lasting destruction and desolation.

Its immediate subject is the literal land of Idumea or Edom east and south of Judea near Judea, where the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah and a great slaughter under just judgment. There streams are turned to pitch and dust to brimstone and the land becomes burning pitch in absolute desolation, portrayed in imagery of unquenched fire burning night and day and smoke rising continually. The language portrays the severity and completeness of the nation's destruction, not that God appeared in person nor that literal fire and smoke continued without end. If literal Edom is meant, the predicted desolations were fulfilled ages ago and have long ceased, and that country is not burning now.

Idumea at the same time has a twofold application as a type and figure of the whole earth or world and of a portion of it in the final conflagration, so the prophecy is not limited to the present desolation of the small ancient land but reaches to the sin-cursed earth and its dwellers and to the final punishment of the ungodly at the close of the gospel age. Edom represents the earth, and the fire that cannot be quenched continues until the earth is purified from sin and its effects, during which time the land is left waste and uninhabited, and once sin and its effects are forever destroyed God creates a new heaven and new earth for the righteous to dwell in lasting peace. In its full meaning it portrays the earth made desolate by sin during the thousand years, when no human being will have any place in its awful waste, but wild beasts and birds of prey remain as roamers among the ruins while the saints are in heaven. That desolation under the type of Idumea is contrasted with the promises in Isaiah 35 of the earth restored to Eden-like beauty and fertility, and the fire is not quenched until it has completed its work, with its ever-rising smoke as a sign of the destruction's finality rather than endless burning.

The whole earth is meant because the chapter opens with a call to the earth and all therein and declares the indignation of the Lord upon all nations. After that indignation and slaying of the nations the earth remains desolate from generation to generation with no one passing through it, applied to the earth's condition after Christ's coming when sinners have been destroyed and no people remain on it. The complete destruction of the whole earth is thus shown under the figure of Idumea, in its depopulation and desolation at the second coming of Christ at the commencement of the thousand years and in the purifying fires at its end, after which a renovated earth comes forth as the eternal abode of the nations of the saved.

Meaning of Forever and Fire

Forever, for ever and ever, and from generation to generation do not always mean duration without end, but often mean a limited, long, indefinite period or age. They last only as long as it is possible to exist in that condition, as the forever of the Hebrew servant meant his natural lifetime. They denote the duration of the things to which they apply, rather than necessarily endless duration.

Not to be quenched night nor day means the fire cannot be stopped or put out before it has completed its work and consumed what it burns. It burns continuously without interruption while the destruction lasts. Then it goes out when the material feeding it is consumed, after total destruction.

Smoke going up forever marks the finality and lasting result of the destruction, not torment continuing without end. The smoke and waste are everlasting in their result after the burning itself subsides and the ruin lasts forever. The judgment ends with the land left waste and the destruction complete, and the place remains waste with no one passing through it.

Ascending smoke proves a consuming process going on, since what produces smoke is being consumed and must finally cease for lack of fuel. Where smoke ascends, fire is consuming what produces the smoke, and what is consumed must finally cease to burn because nothing remains to support the fire. The wicked are thus devoured, reduced to ashes, and perish utterly and dissolve into smoke, however slowly. Their burning will be very severe and long drawn out for an unknown time, whether for an hour, a day, or a year, and the fire will burn a long time but will not burn through eternal ages.

On a literal application the predicted desolations of Edom were fulfilled ages ago and have long ceased, and that country is not burning now. This proves that unquenched fire and ever-ascending smoke end in complete destruction and leave the land waste. If the last-day fire is meant, the earth is not forever destroyed but rises from its ashes into a new earth, so no eternity of endless misery is found there either.

Earth's Millennial Desolation

The desolation begins at Christ's second coming when all the living wicked are slain, the righteous dead are raised, and the living righteous are changed to immortality. The immortal saints then ascend to the New Jerusalem and heavenly city to reign with Christ and judge the wicked for one thousand years. After the saints' thousand-year reign the wicked dead are raised and with Satan come up around the holy city to be utterly destroyed, and Isaiah 65:17-25 does not disprove this order. The earth is left desolate at that coming because the sinners then living are destroyed out of the land while the immortal saints ascend to heaven.

During the thousand years the earth lies waste from generation to generation as an awful, empty waste incapable of supporting human life. Its fire is not quenched night nor day, its smoke rises continually, and no one passes through it forever and ever because no people remain on it while the righteous are in heaven. The judgment continues without interruption and leaves the land permanently desolate in that state. This is the condition of the earth during the thousand years between the second coming and the final destruction of the wicked, when the wicked dead remain dead until the thousand years are ended.

The verse belongs among the Old Testament prophecies describing that millennial desolation after the wicked are destroyed at the advent. The day of vengeance and recompense burns the earth and leaves it broken up and waste without human inhabitants. That burning occurs at the beginning of the thousand years between the resurrection of the righteous and the resurrection of the wicked.

Though desolate of human beings, the earth is not left without animal life. Wild beasts and birds of prey survive the beginning of the day of the Lord, dwell among the ruins, and increase and multiply during the thousand years. The devil with his angels and demons inhabits the uninhabited earth where Satan is bound during that period. The surviving animals later provide food for the wicked when they rise at the end of the thousand years. The earth thus remains empty of humanity and at rest until the thousand years end, before it is entirely wrapped in flame at their end.

The desolation lasts 1,000 years, for forever and ever means as long as the old earth remains in that desolated state, not eternity. It continues through the thousand years while the righteous are in heaven; afterward the wicked are raised and destroyed, and the earth is restored as the righteous' eternal inheritance. It lies desolate until the New Jerusalem descends, then the curse is removed, the deserts blossom, and those who obey God dwell in the renewed earth forever in Eden-like beauty and fertility.

Final Burning and New Creation

The verse describes the final conflagration of the earth and the punishment of the wicked in the great day of God and day of judgment, when ungodly men receive perdition by fire and brimstone forming a lake of fire in which the wicked are burned up on this earth. Its language of unquenched burning and smoke ascending forever is parallel to the third angel's warning about torment with fire and brimstone, spoken both of the earth itself and of the wicked in that same fire in almost exactly the same words. Forever does not mean unlimited duration, for the scene of conflagration eventually closes and is followed by new heavens and a new earth.

The land is turned into burning pitch with brimstone, burning night and day without quenching even to the lowest sheol in the nether parts of the earth. This happens because streams are turned into pitch so that water supports fire instead of extinguishing it, and dust is turned into brimstone and the land into burning pitch. Fire rained upon the wicked from heaven after the example of Sodom and Gomorrah, in the presence of Christ and the holy angels, joins with fire burning inside the earth to dissolve the entire globe. That burning lasts a long time and melts the whole earth, dissolving the elements without annihilating them.

The fire is never extinguished but burns till every particle of matter is dissolved, for it lives by consuming fuel until the whole globe is at last devoured and turned to smoke. The strong language of fire not quenched night nor day and smoke going up forever expresses unstoppable work while destruction lasts and the lasting result of the destruction, not endless burning through eternal ages. The scene finally closes rather than continuing without end, and after the earth is melted God creates new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness for the righteous to dwell in. During the burning the land is uninhabited, and once sin and its effects are forever destroyed the renewed earth becomes the everlasting home of God's people.

The destruction of the living wicked at the second coming at the commencement of the thousand years and the final doom of all the ungodly in the lake of fire with purifying fires at its end are very similar in character. The verse applies to both, to the depopulation and desolation at the beginning of the thousand years and to the final burning at its end, after which a renovated earth comes forth as the eternal abode of the saved. Its desolation extends through the thousand years, with the wicked's smoke rising with the earth's as they are destroyed in the lake of fire surrounding the city of God.

The final Gehenna occurs at the close of the 1,000 years after the city of God has descended upon the earth, the unjust have been raised to damnation, and Satan has gathered all the wicked with the devil and his angels around the city for final assault on Christ, the angels, and the saints inside. On a place prepared on earth for the very purpose, in full view of all within and upon the walls of the city and in the presence of the Lamb and holy angels, fire rained from God out of heaven upon the vast host unites with fire in the interior of the earth so the elements melt and the earth is dissolved. There the fire devours Satan and all transgressors, is not quenched night nor day, sends up smoke forever, leaves the land waste with none passing through, and makes the earth one vast lake of fire in which the wicked dead raised after the thousand years are utterly destroyed.

That fire which destroys the wicked purifies the earth from sin and its effects and restores it to its primitive beauty. From its ashes and from those same melted elements God brings a renovated earth cleansed from sin and the curse, with the curse removed and the deserts blossoming, as the everlasting home of the saved and of those who obey God. It is the same event as the desolation and dissolving in Isaiah 24 that is followed by the glorious reign of the Messiah, and Isaiah 35 immediately follows with the new earth where the wilderness is glad and blossoms as the rose after the fires have ceased.

Links to Other Scriptures

The wording of unquenched burning by night and day and of smoke going up forever is taken up in Revelation in the third angel's warning of torment with fire and brimstone for those who worship the beast and his image. The Greek aion used for forever in the Septuagint of Isaiah is the same word used there, and Idumea, the beast-worshipers, and great Babylon with their ascending smoke all point to the very same time and scenes of destruction at the second advent. While that destruction lasts the fire and smoke are not quenched and the earth lies waste, with punishment continuing without reprieve so long as the wicked remain, yet the scene finally closes instead of continuing without end before new heavens and a new earth appear. On its literal application the desolation foretold against Idumea near Judea, where the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah with streams turned to pitch and dust to brimstone into burning pitch, was fulfilled ages ago and that country is not burning now, proving the fire goes out after total destruction. So the same language of fire and brimstone and ever-ascending smoke in Revelation 14 does not mean unending torment, but a limited and total destruction leaving the land waste with none passing through, however severe and long drawn out, whether for an hour, a day, or a year, ending when the wicked are devoured, reduced to ashes, perish, and become as though they had not been.

The going up of smoke forever spoken of the land of Idumea as a figure of the earth, of the worshipers of the beast and his image, and of great Babylon denotes one destruction visited on the earth and on Babylon at the second coming at the commencement of the thousand years, in its depopulation and desolation then and in the purifying fires at its end, after which a renovated earth comes forth as the eternal abode of the saved. Within that pattern the fall of Babylon serves as a type of the end of the world and the return from captivity to Zion with songs and everlasting joy serves as a type of the gospel dispensation.

The burning, smoke, and impassable waste are temporary because the very next chapter shows the same land afterward blossoming as the rose, with the wilderness glad, the fires ceased, the earth made new, and the ransomed of the Lord inhabiting it in renewed beauty for the righteous. The fire is unquenchable in that it cannot be stopped before it has completed its work and consumed the sinners, burning continuously while destruction lasts, then stopping when the material feeding it is consumed and the wicked are burned up. Here forever and forever and ever mean only continuously for as long as it is possible to exist in that condition, as forever for the Hebrew servant meant his natural lifetime, denoting the duration of the things to which they apply.

It is the same event as the desolation and dissolving in Isaiah 24, with dissolving heavens and melting earth forming a lake of fire and brimstone in which the wicked are burned up on this earth, followed by the glorious reign of the Messiah and standing directly before the rejoicing renewed earth of Isaiah 35 where the wilderness blossoms. That order, from desolation through a thousand years of lying waste to descent of the saints and city, raising of the wicked dead, their destruction by fire from heaven into one vast lake of fire, and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness, is not disproved by Isaiah 65:17-25. Unquenched fire and seemingly everlasting smoke, as faintly pictured by a volcano, signify the far greater terror of the day when God punishes a disobedient and ungodly world.