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"The indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and His fury upon all their armies:
He hath devoted them to destruction. He hath delivered them to the slaughter" (verse 2).
The prophetic vision moves on to the day of the Lord, when
"All the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall roll 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" (verse 4).
The LXX translates "And all the powers of the heavens shall melt". Matt. 24: 29
refers to the same period, as does also Rev. 6: 13, 14. Isa. 34: 8 definitely fixes the
time:--
"For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the
controversy of Zion."
Then after speaking of such evidences of destruction and desolation as streams turned
into pitch, and the dust into brimstone, the land burned with unquenchable fire, lying
waste, and possessed by cormorant and the bittern, the owl and the raven, the passage
continues:--
"And He shall stretch upon it the line of confusion (tohu), and the plummet of
emptiness (bohu)" (verse 11).
It is evident from the context that the terms tohu and bohu will describe the end of this
present system even as they did the ending of the earlier creation. The third occurrence
of the words tohu and bohu together is found in Jer. 4: While Isa. 34: speaks of
God's controversy with the nations, Jer. 4: treats of God's dealing with Israel. Evil is
pronounced against Israel.
"I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction. The lion is come up from his
thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to
make thy land desolate; and the cities shall be laid waste, without inhabitant" (4: 6, 7).
Jeremiah's prophecy of coming desolation plunges him into intense grief:--
"I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the
trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction upon destruction is cried, for the whole land is
spoiled" (4: 19, 20).
Then comes the reference back to Gen. 1: 2 to express the character of this great
overthrow:--
"I BEHELD--
The earth, and lo! it was without form, and void (tohu va bohu ), and the
heavens, and they had no light.
I BEHELD--
The mountains, and lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.
I BEHELD--
And lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.
I BEHELD--
And lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken
down at the presence of the Lord, and by His fierce anger" (Jer. 4: 23-26).