Ecclesiasticus 34:4

Nova Vulgata

Et tabescet omnis militia caelorum, et complicabuntur sicut liber caeli, et omnis militia eorum defluet, sicut defluit folium de vinea et arida frons de ficu.

Parallel Translations

Clementine Latin Vulgate (1592)
Et tabescet omnis militia c�lorum, et complicabuntur sicut liber c�li : et omnis militia eorum defluet, sicut defluit folium de vinea et de ficu.

Jerome's Latin Vulgate (405)
Et tabescet omnis militia c�lorum,
et complicabuntur sicut liber c�li:
et omnis militia eorum defluet,
sicut defluit folium de vinea et de ficu.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

all the: Isaiah 13:10, Isaiah 14:12, Psalms 102:25, Psalms 102:26, Jeremiah 4:23, Jeremiah 4:24, Ezekiel 32:7, Ezekiel 32:8, Joel 2:30, Joel 2:31, Joel 3:15, Matthew 24:29, Matthew 24:35, Mark 13:24, Mark 13:25, Acts 2:19, Acts 2:20, 2 Peter 3:7-12, Revelation 6:13, Revelation 6:14, Revelation 8:12, Revelation 20:11

Reciprocal: Genesis 2:1 - host Isaiah 24:19 - General Isaiah 51:6 - the heavens Jeremiah 4:28 - the heavens Joel 2:10 - the sun Haggai 2:6 - and I Hebrews 1:11 - shall perish 2 Peter 3:11 - all these 2 Peter 3:12 - the heavens

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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 sun or moon; and may signify the utter removal and abolition of all dignities and offices, supreme and subordinate, civil and ecclesiastical, in the whole Roman jurisdiction; thus the destruction of Rome Pagan is described in Revelation 6:14 as the destruction of Rome Papal is here; from whence the language seems to be borrowed:

and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling [fig] from the fig tree; that is, the stars should fall down: by whom may be meant persons in office, that made a considerable figure; who shall fall from their stations, in which they shone with much splendour and grandeur, as leaves fall from trees in autumn, particularly the vine; or as unripe and rotten figs fall from the fig tree when shaken by a violent wind; the same metaphor is used in Revelation 6:13.

i נמקו "tabescet", Vatablus; "centabescet", Junius Tremellius, Piscator "contabescent", Cocceius, Gataker.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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 v^enâmaqqû. 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’ here (ספר sêpher) means a roll, or a book. Books were made of parchment, leaves, etc., and were rolled together instead of being bound, as they are with us. The figure here is taken from what strikes the eye, that the heaven above us is “an expanse” (רקיע râqı̂ya‛) Genesis 1:8; Psalms 104:2,) which is spread out; and which might be rolled together, and thus pass away. It is possible that there may be a reference also to the fact, that in a storm, when the sky is filled with dark rolling clouds, the heavens seem to be rolled together, and to be passing away. The sense is, that there would be great destruction among those high in office and in power - a destruction that would be well represented by the rolling up of the firmament, and the destruction of the visible heavens and their host, and by leaving the world to ruin and to night.

And all their host shall fall down - That is, their stars; either by being as it were melted, or by the fact that the expanse in which they are apparently located would be rolled up and removed, and there being no fixtures for them they would fall. The same image occurs in Revelation 6:13. One somewhat similar occurs in Virgil, Georg. i. 365ff.

As the leaf falleth off from the vine ... - That is, in a storm, or when violently shaken.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 34:4. And all the host of heaven — Isaiah 24:21, and De Sacra Poesi Hebraeorum, Prael. ix.