2For Yahweh is enraged against all the nations, and angry with all their armies. He has utterly destroyed them. He has given them over for slaughter.
3Their slain will also be cast out, and the stench of their dead bodies will come up. The mountains will melt in their blood.
4All of the army of the sky will be dissolved. The sky will be rolled up like a scroll, and all its armies will fade away, as a leaf fades from off a vine or a fig tree.
5For my sword has drunk its fill in the sky. Behold, it will come down on Edom, and on the people of my curse, for judgment.
6Yahweh’s sword is filled with blood. It is covered with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for Yahweh has a sacrifice in Bozrah, And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
2 For Yahweh is enraged against all the nations, and angry with all their armies. He has utterly destroyed them. He has given them over for slaughter.
3 Their slain will also be cast out, and the stench of their dead bodies will come up. The mountains will melt in their blood.
4 All of the army of the sky will be dissolved. The sky will be rolled up like a scroll, and all its armies will fade away, as a leaf fades from off a vine or a fig tree.
5 For my sword has drunk its fill in the sky. Behold, it will come down on Edom, and on the people of my curse, for judgment.
6 Yahweh’s sword is filled with blood. It is covered with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for Yahweh has a sacrifice in Bozrah, And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
KJVKing James Version
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.
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.
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JPSJPS Tanakh (1917)
2 For the LORD hath indignation against all the nations, and fury against all their host; He hath utterly destroyed them, He hath delivered them to the slaughter.
3 Their slain also shall be cast out, and the stench of their carcasses shall come up, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood.
4 And all the host of heaven shall moulder away, 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.
5 For My sword hath drunk its fill in heaven; behold, it shall come down upon Edom, and upon the people of My ban, to judgment.
6 The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, 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 Edom.
Revelation 6:13-14(v4)The stars of the sky fell to the earth, like a fig tree dropping its unripe figs when it is shaken by a great wind. The sky was removed…
Matthew 24:29(v4)But immediately after the suffering of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the…
Ezekiel 32:7-8(v4)When I extinguish you, I will cover the heavens and make its stars dark. I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon won’t give its…
Joel 3:15(v4)The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.
Isaiah 63:1(vv5–6)Who is this who comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? Who is this who is glorious in his clothing, marching in the greatness of…
Show all 80 cross-references
Jeremiah 46:10(v5)For that day is of the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge himself of his adversaries. The sword will devour and…
Joel 2:20(v3)But I will remove the northern army far away from you, and will drive it into a barren and desolate land, its front into the eastern sea,…
Psalms 102:25-26(v4)Of old, you laid the foundation of the earth. The heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will endure. Yes, all of…
Amos 1:11-12(v5)Yahweh says: “For three transgressions of Edom, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because he pursued his brother with the…
Malachi 1:4(v5)Whereas Edom says, “We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places;” Yahweh of Armies says, “They shall build, but I…
Mark 13:24-25(v4)But in those days, after that oppression, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will be falling from the…
2 Peter 3:7-12(v4)But the heavens that exist now and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and…
Isaiah 34:7(v3)The wild oxen will come down with them, and the young bulls with the mighty bulls; and their land will be drunken with blood, and their…
Jeremiah 4:23-24(v4)I saw the earth, and, behold, it was waste and void, and the heavens, and they had no light. I saw the mountains, and behold, they…
Jeremiah 25:15-29(v2)For Yahweh, the God of Israel, says to me: “Take this cup of the wine of wrath from my hand, and cause all the nations to whom I send you…
Jeremiah 49:7-22(v5)Of Edom, Yahweh of Armies says: “Is wisdom no more in Teman? Has counsel perished from the prudent? Has their wisdom vanished? Flee! Turn…
Jeremiah 49:13(v6)For I have sworn by myself,” says Yahweh, “that Bozrah will become an astonishment, a reproach, a waste, and a curse. All its cities will…
Ezekiel 25:12-14(v5)“ ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Because Edom has dealt against the house of Judah by taking vengeance, and has greatly offended, and taken…
Ezekiel 39:4(v3)You will fall on the mountains of Israel, you, and all your hordes, and the peoples who are with you. I will give you to the ravenous birds…
Joel 2:30-31(v4)I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood, fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon…
Zephaniah 3:8(v2)“Therefore wait for me”, says Yahweh, “until the day that I rise up to the prey, for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may…
Matthew 24:35(v4)Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
Revelation 8:12(v4)The fourth angel sounded, and one third of the sun was struck, and one third of the moon, and one third of the stars; so that one third of…
Deuteronomy 32:14(vv5–6)butter from the herd, and milk from the flock, with fat of lambs, rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the finest of the wheat.…
Deuteronomy 29:18-21(v5)lest there should be among you man, woman, family, or tribe whose heart turns away today from Yahweh our God, to go to serve the gods of…
Deuteronomy 32:41-42(v5)if I sharpen my glittering sword, my hand grasps it in judgment; I will take vengeance on my adversaries, and will repay those who hate me.…
2 Kings 9:35-37(v3)They went to bury her, but they found no more of her than the skull, the feet, and the palms of her hands. Therefore they came back, and…
Psalms 17:13(v5)Arise, Yahweh, confront him. Cast him down. Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword;
Psalms 137:7(v5)Remember, Yahweh, against the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem, who said, “Raze it! Raze it even to its foundation!”
Isaiah 13:5(v2)They come from a far country, from the uttermost part of heaven, even Yahweh, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
Isaiah 13:10(v4)For the stars of the sky and its constellations will not give their light. The sun will be darkened in its going out, and the moon will not…
Isaiah 14:19-20(v3)But you are cast away from your tomb like an abominable branch, clothed with the slain, who are thrust through with the sword, who go down…
Isaiah 24:6(v5)Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, and those who dwell therein are found guilty. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are…
Isaiah 30:25(v2)There will be brooks and streams of water on every lofty mountain and on every high hill in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers…
Isaiah 30:27-30(v2)Behold, Yahweh’s name comes from far away, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke. His lips are full of indignation. His tongue…
Isaiah 34:5(v6)For my sword has drunk its fill in the sky. Behold, it will come down on Edom, and on the people of my curse, for judgment.
Isaiah 63:3(v6)“I have trodden the wine press alone. Of the peoples, no one was with me. Yes, I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath. Their…
Jeremiah 8:1-2(v3)“At that time,” says Yahweh, “they will bring the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of his princes, the bones of the priests, the…
Jeremiah 22:19(v3)He will be buried with the burial of a donkey, drawn and cast out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.”
Jeremiah 47:6(v5)“ ‘You sword of Yahweh, how long will it be before you are quiet? Put yourself back into your scabbard; rest, and be still.’
Jeremiah 50:27(v6)Kill all her bulls. Let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them! For their day has come, the time of their visitation.
Jeremiah 51:40(v6)“I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with male goats.
Ezekiel 14:19(v3)“Or if I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out my wrath on it in blood, to cut off from it man and animal;
Ezekiel 21:3-5(v5)Tell the land of Israel, ‘Yahweh says: “Behold, I am against you, and will draw my sword out of its sheath, and will cut off from you the…
Ezekiel 21:4-5(v6)Seeing then that I will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked, therefore my sword will go out of its sheath against all flesh from…
Ezekiel 21:9-11(v5)“Son of man, prophesy, and say, ‘Yahweh says: “A sword! A sword! It is sharpened, and also polished. It is sharpened that it may make a…
Ezekiel 32:5-6(v3)I will lay your flesh on the mountains, and fill the valleys with your height. I will also water the land in which you swim with your…
Ezekiel 35:6(v3)therefore, as I live,” says the Lord Yahweh, “I will prepare you for blood, and blood will pursue you. Since you have not hated blood,…
Ezekiel 38:22(v3)I will enter into judgment with him with pestilence and with blood. I will rain on him, and on his hordes, and on the many peoples who are…
Ezekiel 39:11(v3)“ ‘ “It will happen in that day, that I will give to Gog a place for burial in Israel, the valley of those who pass through on the east of…
Ezekiel 39:17-20(v6)“You, son of man, the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Speak to the birds of every sort, and to every animal of the field, “Assemble yourselves, and…
Joel 3:9-14(v2)Proclaim this among the nations: “Prepare for war! Stir up the mighty men. Let all the warriors draw near. Let them come up. Beat your…
Amos 1:1-2(v2)The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days…
Amos 4:10(v3)“I sent plagues among you like I did Egypt. I have slain your young men with the sword, and have carried away your horses; and I filled…
Obadiah 1:1-14(v5)The vision of Obadiah. This is what the Lord Yahweh says about Edom. We have heard news from Yahweh, and an ambassador is sent among the…
Zephaniah 1:7(v6)Be silent at the presence of the Lord Yahweh, for the day of Yahweh is at hand. For Yahweh has prepared a sacrifice. He has consecrated his…
Zephaniah 2:12(v5)You Cushites also, you will be killed by my sword.
Zechariah 14:3(v2)Then Yahweh will go out and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
Zechariah 14:12-16(v2)This will be the plague with which Yahweh will strike all the peoples who have fought against Jerusalem: their flesh will consume away…
Matthew 25:41(v5)Then he will say also to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his…
Acts 2:19-20(v4)I will show wonders in the sky above, and signs on the earth beneath: blood, and fire, and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned into…
Revelation 14:20(v3)The wine press was trodden outside of the city, and blood came out of the wine press, even to the bridles of the horses, as far as one…
Revelation 16:3-4(v3)The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became blood as of a dead man. Every living thing in the sea died. The third…
Revelation 19:17-18(v6)I saw an angel standing in the sun. He cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the sky, “Come! Be gathered together to…
Revelation 20:11(v4)I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. There was found no place for them.
Deuteronomy 27:15-26(v5)‘Cursed is the man who makes an engraved or molten image, an abomination to Yahweh, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up…
Isaiah 13:13(v4)Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place in Yahweh of Armies’ wrath, and in the day of his…
Isaiah 24:1-23(v2)Behold, Yahweh makes the earth empty, makes it waste, turns it upside down, and scatters its inhabitants. It will be as with the people, so…
Ezekiel 21:10(v6)It is sharpened that it may make a slaughter. It is polished that it may be as lightning. Should we then make mirth? The rod of my son…
Nahum 1:2-6(v2)Yahweh is a jealous God and avenges. Yahweh avenges and is full of wrath. Yahweh takes vengeance on his adversaries, and he maintains wrath…
Romans 1:18(v2)For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
1 Corinthians 16:22(v5)If any man doesn’t love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be cursed. Come, Lord!
Galatians 3:10(v5)For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who doesn’t continue in all things…
2 Peter 2:14(v5)having eyes full of adultery, and who can’t cease from sin; enticing unsettled souls; having a heart trained in greed; children of cursing;
Revelation 1:16(v5)He had seven stars in his right hand. Out of his mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining at its…
Revelation 6:12-17(v2)I saw when he opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake. The sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon…
Revelation 14:15-20(v2)Another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, “Send your sickle, and reap; for the hour to…
Revelation 19:15-21(v2)Out of his mouth proceeds a sharp, double-edged sword, that with it he should strike the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod. He…
Revelation 20:9(v2)They went up over the width of the earth, and surrounded the camp of the saints, and the beloved city. Fire came down out of heaven from…
Revelation 20:15(v2)If anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.
80 distinct cross-references across this passage (82 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (20 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv2, 4, 5, 6God hath determined in his counsel, and hath given…
God hath determined in his counsel, and hath given sentence for their destruction.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv2–6Isa 34:2 For the indignation of the LORD [is]…
Isa 34:2 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.
Ver. 2. For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations.] Is, or shall be, upon all the Church’s enemies, whether of former or latter time; even his "boiling wrath," as the Word signifieth.
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He hath utterly destroyed them.] Or, He will make an anathema of them, as Isa 34:5, the "people of my curse," devoted to destruction.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv2–6Upon all nations; not only upon the Assyrians, and…
Upon all nations; not only upon the Assyrians, and those nations which were confederate with them in this expedition, but upon all other enemies of my people whatsoever.
He hath utterly destroyed them; he will infallibly destroy all of them.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv2–6For the indignation of the Lord is upon all…
For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations,.... All the nations of the earth, which have committed fornication with the whore of Rome, or have given in to her false worship, superstition, and idolatry; which is the reason of God's wrath and indignation against them, and of such severe punishment being inflicted on them; see Rev 18:3,
and his fury upon all their armies; the armies of the kings of the earth, gathered together at Armageddon, to make war with Christ, and those that follow him; see Rev 16:14,
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he hath utterly destroyed them; not only devoted them to destruction, but actually destroyed them, with "Cherem", an utter destruction; one of the words of which Armageddon is compounded, and so points at the place, as well as the nature and manner, of the destruction:
he hath delivered them to slaughter; to be slain with the sword of him that sitteth on the white horse, which proceeds out of his mouth, Rev 19:21.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv2–6All nations - Not only upon the Assyrians, but…
All nations - Not only upon the Assyrians, but on all enemies of my people.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv4–6Verse 4. And all the host of heaven] See…
Verse 4. And all the host of heaven] See Clarke on Isa 24:21, and De Sacra Poesi Hebraeorum, Prael. ix.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv2, 4, 5Isa 34:2-3. For the indignation of the Lord is…
Isa 34:2-3. For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations — Not only upon the Assyrians, and those nations which are confederate with them in their expedition against Judea, but upon all other enemies of my people. He hath utterly destroyed them — He will infallibly destroy all of them. Their slain also shall be cast out — Into the fields, where they shall lie unburied, and be left a prey to ravenous beasts and birds. In which words he implies, either that such vast numbers would be slain, that the survivers would not be able to find time or place to bury them, or that they should be held in such contempt and abhorrence that none would be inclined to do them that office: and the mountains — About Jerusalem, where they are supposed to be gathered to fight against her, like the Assyrians; shall be melted with their blood — Shall be covered with their blood, which shall flow down abundantly from them with great force, and dissolve, and carry down with it a part of the soil of the mountains, as great showers of rain frequently do. This sentence upon the nations, which thus exhibits a kind of general judgment, to be executed upon the enemies of God and his people, by the sword of God, is sufficient to strike terror into every hearer.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv2–6For the indignation of the Lord - Yahweh is…
For the indignation of the Lord - Yahweh is about to express his wrath against all the nations which are opposed to his people.
He hath utterly destroyed them - In his purpose, or intention. The prophet represents this as so certain that it may be exhibited as already done.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn vv4–5Away. These strong expressions denote great misery, chap. xiii.,…
Away. These strong expressions denote great misery, chap. xiii., and Joel ii. 10., and Ezechiel xxxii. 27. (Calmet) --- Book. Hebrew, "roll." (Haydock) --- Some thence foolishly inferred that the destiny of every one might be read in the heavens. (Huet.; Eusebius, præp. vi. 11.; Philoo. xxiii.; Pic. Astrol. viii. 5.) --- The prophet only means that the heavens shall be devoid of beauty, (Calmet) and covered with darkness. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures1864 · Public DomainOn v55 6For my sword shall be bathed in heaven:
2. THE JUDGMENT ON EDOM, AS REPRESENTATION OF THE WHOLE IN ONE PARTICULAR EXAMPLE OF SPECIAL INTEREST TO ISRAEL
Isa_34:5-15
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5 6For 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.
7 And the 7 8unicorns shall come down with them,
And the bullocks with the bulls;
And their land shall be 9soaked with blood,
And their dust made fat with fatness.
8 10For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance,
And the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.
9 And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch,
And the dust thereof into brimstone,
And the land thereof shall become burning pitch.
10 It shall not be quenched night nor day;
The smoke thereof shall go up for ever:
From generation to generation it shall lie waste;
None shall pass through it for ever and ever.
11 But the 11cormorant and the 12bittern 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 13They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom,
But none shall be there,
And all her princes shall be 14nothing.
13 15And thorns shall come up in her palaces,
Nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof.
And it shall be an habitation of 16dragons,
And a court for 17 18owls.
14 19The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with 20the wild beasts of the island,
And the 21satyr shall cry to his fellow;
The 22screech owl also shall rest there,
And find for herself a place of rest.
15 There shall the 23great 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.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa_34:5. Only by great ingenuity can כִּי be explained to mean “for.” Hence Knobel construes it as pleonastic, connecting the discourse, and appeals, e. g. to Isaiah 8:23. But there exists a plain causal connection between Isa_34:4-5, only the res causans is in verse 4 and not in Isa_34:5. Hence כִּי here=“because” and not “for.” Because the sword of God has become drunken in heaven it comes down to earth (comp. Gen_3:14; Gen_33:11; Exo_1:19, etc.).—רִוָּה (comp. Isa_16:9) is direct causative Piel = ebrietatem facere, “to produce drunkenness.” As, e. g., הִשְׁמִין not only means “fatten,” i. e., others, but also “make, produce, grow fat,” i. e., grow fat one’s-self, so this verb means not only “make others drunk” (Jer_31:14; Psa_65:11), but also “make one’s-self drunk.”—למשׁפט=in behoof of accomplishing judgment; comp. Hab_1:12; Eze_44:24 K’ri; comp. Isa_41:1; Isa_54:17, in another sense Isa_5:7; Isa_32:1; Isa_28:26.
Isa_34:6. Drechslek refers ליהוה to מלאה: the sword is to the Lord (the Lord has His sword) full of blood. But then it would need to read הַחֶרֶב, as the sword has already been mentioned. Would one translate; “Jehovah has a sword that is full of blood,” that again does not suit the previous mention of the sword verse 5, though this translation would best suit the three other instances of the use of ליהוה in this section (verses 2, 6, 9). The context requires the rendering “the sword of the Lord is full of blood.” For verses 6, 7 manifestly tell what the sword, (that Isa_34:5 was to come on Edom), when actually come, has done to Edom. This is intimated by describing the sword after the execution. Thus the same sword as Isa_34:5 is meant. The article is wanting because חרב ליהוה, (instead of חרב יהוה, which occurs only 1Ch_21:12) seems to be vox solennis, (Jdg_7:20; Jer_12:12; Jer_47:6).—הֻדַּשְׁנָה instead of הֻתְדַּשְּׁנָה, Hothpaal, from דאן, comp. verse 7; Isa_30:23; Green’s Gram., § 96, a.——That מִן before דַּם is to be explained according to Isa_2:6, does not seem probable. Rather it seems that the notion of causality, that lies in הדשנה מחלב, has passed over to what follows: such as was before intimated, the sword has become from the blood of the sacrificial beasts.—כַּר again only Isa_16:1.—עַתּוּד again only Isa_1:11; Isa_14:9—אילים again in Isa_1:11; Isa_60:7. זֶבַח and טֶבַח (verse 3) correspond in sense and sound. On זבח see list.
Isa_34:8. The Plural שׁלומים occurs only here: comp. the sing. Hos_9:7; Mic_7:3.—If the pointing לְרִיב is correct, then רִיב is to be construed as substantive. For as such it is in the construct state and has given its tone to the governing noun; then ל does not stand directly before the tone syllable. But if it is a verb, then it has the tone, and ל in that case receives pretonic kamets (comp. לָרִיב Isa_3:13). As noun ריב means causae actio, defensio, in the same sense as the verb with following accusative (Isa_1:17; Isa_51:22) is used (comp. Isa_19:20).
Isa_34:10. לְנֵצַח נְצָחִים (the Masoretic form of writing נֵצַח occurs four times; Psa_49:20; 1Sa_15:29; 1Ch_29:11) occurs only here.—תהו ;קַו, see list.
Isa_34:12. חֹרֶיהָ is put absolutely before.—מלובה ,אפם; see list.
Isa_34:13. ארמון comp. Isa_23:13; Isa_25:2; Isa_32:14.—קמושׁ ;סירים; and חוח (kindred חָח Isa_37:29) occur only here in Isaiah, מבצר, locus munitus Isa_17:3; Isa_25:12.—נָוֶה see list.
Isa_34:13-15. שׂעיר ,איים ,ציים ,בנות ,יענה ,תגים comp. on Isa_13:21-22.—חָצִיד (=חָצֵר locus septus) occurs again in Isaiah only Isa_35:7 (see Comm. in loc.).—פָנַשׁ in Isaiah only here.—אַךְ has here also its restrictive sense. When Gesenius (Thes. p. 89) says: that the vis restringendi relates non at proximum sed ad sequens quoddam vocabulum, and translates here accordingly: non nisi spectra ibi habitant, non nisi vultures ibi congregantur, the two statements exclude each other. For where only spectra dwell, the vulture cannot also dwell, and vice versa. To express that, the אַךְ must be joined to לילית and דיות (Isa_34:14-15). But both times it is joined to שָׁם. Hence it appears that the Prophet would say: only there does the lilith rest, only there does the vulture congregate: i.e., there is no other place so suitable for them.—הרניע again Isa_51:4 in another sense; in Isa_28:12 we had the noun מרגעה “resting place.” Also מנוח “resting place,” only here in Isaiah; comp. Gen_8:9; Lam_1:3.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. If the Prophet would not deal only in indefinite generalities in regard to the judgment on the nations of the earth, he must give prominence to the case of one nation instar omnium. Among neighboring nations Moab, and Edom, and Amnion, were most detested by the Israelites (comp. Deu_23:3-6; Eze_35:5; sqq.; Amo_1:11 : Oba_1:10 sqq.; Psa_137:7, etc.). As Isaiah elsewhere, in a similar connection, mentions the Moabites by way of exemplification (Isa_25:10 sqq.), it is natural he should give similar prominence also to Edom, as he does here and Isa_63:1 sqq. Now, because the sword of Jehovah has already become drunken in heaven with blood, it descends to earth, because it finds no more work above.
2. For my swored—of Zion.
Isa_34:5-8. The relation of this section to what precedes is this: the Prophet has said (Isa_34:2-3), what the. Lordpurposes to do on earth. החרימם and נתנם Isa_34:2 are to be understood of acts of the will, not of performance: Isa_34:3 describes prophetically what shall once take place on earth in consequence of that divine decree. Isa_34:4 pictures the judgment that shall be executed on the heavens, but here the Prophet combines intention and performance. He contemplates the judgment of God as beginning in heaven, and continued on earth.
[On the construction of כִּי see Text, and Gram. “It may be construed in its proper sense, either with Isa_34:3 (Hitzig), or with the whole of the preceding description. All this shall certainly take place for my sword (the speaker being God Himself) is steeped,” etc.—J. A. Alex.,in loc.].
The expression is a bold poetic one. Isaiah speaks of the sword of the Lord again Isa_27:1; Isa_66:16. But only here does he personify it. He may, as regards the sense, have in mind Deu_32:41-43. Inevitable and irresistible are the judgments of the Lord. This the Prophet expresses by saying that the sword of the Lord, intoxicated with the judgment accomplished on “the host of the high ones that are on high” (Isa_24:21), and thirsting for more blood, descends to earth, and that first on Edom, as the nation that above all has become an object of the divine ban. (חֵרֶם the segregatio ad internecionem, 1Ki_20:42; Isa_43:28). Isa_34:6-7 describe the effects of the execution. The sword of the Lord is not only full of blood, but is fattened, dropping fat. As in the second clause of Isa_34:6, the Edomites are regarded as a sacrifice, they are here compared to sheep, goats and rams.
Bozra stands for Edom also Isa_63:1. Concerning this city see on Jer. 69:13.
The enumeration of buffaloes, bullocks and bulls (Isa_34:7) denotes that the entire nation shall perish, great and small, high and low. רְאֵם (only here in Isaiah, elsewhere only Num_23:22; Deu_33:17; Job_39:9 sq.; Psa_22:22; Psa_29:6; Psa_92:11). It is now universally understood to mean the buffalo (see Herz.R.–Encycl, xl. p. 28). פָרִים see on Isa_1:11. אביר meaning “bull” occurs only Isa_10:13 K’thibh. ירד meaning “to fell” trees, beasts or men, is peculiar to Isaiah (see Isa_32:19). For Jer_48:15; Jer_50:27; Jer_51:40 the use of the word is not quite the same. In consequence of the slaughter the earth itself is drunk with blood, and fat with fat, comp. on Isa_34:5-6. The parallelism reigns not only in these verses, but in the entire complexity of Isa_34:6-8. For the description of the judgment in Isa_34:6 a. and Isa_34:7 correspond, and the reasons assigned Isa_34:6 b. and Isa_34:8. But progress appears in the thought because Isa_34:8 gives particularly the object of the “sacrifice” and the “slaughter.” The Lord will thereby satisfy His vengeance, and give Zion justice by a righteous recompense.
The expression for the day of the Lord’setc., recalls Isa_2:12 and Isa_63:4. But the Prophet seems moreover to have in mind Deu_32:35; Deu_32:41. For in those passages, as here, the notions of vengeance and recompense underlie the discourse.
But beside this, our passage lay before Jeremiah. For Jer_46:10 is penetrated with elements drawn from Isa_34:5-8. The following considerations show that our passage is the source from which Jer. drew. 1) The grand, drastic boldness and loftiness of the language of our passage, of which the words of Jer., after the fashion of that Prophet, are but a tempered imitation. 2) Isaiah uses the expression רִוְּתָה twice (Isa_34:5; Isa_34:7); Jer. says, רָוְתָה It is much more likely that Jeremiah would dilute the strong expression of a predecessor, in his well-known fashion (see my comm. on Jer. Introd. § 3) than that an author living much later in the exile, should intensify the normal but weaker expression of Jeremiah 3) Jer. says יוֹם נְקָמָה, Isaiah; יוֹם Now in general נקם is the older form of the word, and is used only in Lev_26:25; Deu_32:35; Deu_32:41; Deu_32:43; Jdg_16:28; Psa_58:11; Pro_6:34; Mic_5:14, and in Isa. (Isa_35:4; Isa_47:3; Isa_59:17; Isa_61:2; Isa_63:4). In the exceptions Eze_24:8; Eze_25:12, נְקֹם נָקָם is evidently said for the sake of the effect of sound; in Eze_25:15 the expression וַיִנָקְמוּ נקם is used along with נְקָמָה. On the other hand נְקָמָה is the form exclusively used by Jeremiah, and in Ezekiel it is the prevalent form (the exceptions being given above) and beside these is used only here and there (Num_31:2-3; Lam_3:60; Psa_149:7). But it is not probable that a writer later than Jeremiah has introduced the old form into a passage borrowed from Jeremiah.
3. And the streams—emptiness.
Isa_34:9-11. Edom was situated at the southern point of the Dead Sea. The following description recalls the pitchy and sulphurous character of this sea and its surroundings. It seems as if the Prophet would allude to that event which, recorded in Gen_19:24-25; Gen_19:28, had impressed that character on the region. At least the sulphur, the overturning (הפך) and the ascending smoke are traits that he seems to have borrowed from that passage. זֶפֶת occurs again only Exo_2:3. נפרית we had already where Isa_30:33 the breath of God is called “a stream of brimstone.” When the streams are flowing pitch and the dust of the land is sulphur, the whole land will become a fearful place of conflagration. Day and night (the expression occurs Deu_28:66, beside comp. Isa_4:5; Isa_21:8; Isa_60:11), forever, for it is the flame of the last judgment, the burning shall continue. The burning land is the subject of תבכה which is used intensively also Isa_43:17; Isaiah 46:24.
Isa_34:10. On דור as defining time see on Isa_13:20. מדור לדור occurs only here. חַרַבexarescere, exsiccari, comp. Isa_19:5-6; Isa_44:27; Isa_60:12. אֵין עֹבֵר again only Isa_60:15. It does not agree well to say of the same land that it shall become an everlasting burning, and that it shall be a pathless desert. But the Prophet describes the future by means of the present, and contemplates the earth as an Edom cursed of God, and thinks of the latter as a scorched desert land. [The same may be said of the similarly inconsistent descriptions in all that follows in this section.—Tr.].
Isa_34:11. As such the land is inhabited only by beasts of the desert. [On the names of beings enumerated in this and the following verses see J. A. Alex.,comm, in loc, especially on לילית Isa_34:14.—Tr.]. קאת (from קוא “to vomit”) is the pelican (Lev_11:18; Deu_14:17; Zep_2:14), קפד “the porcupine” (see on Isa_14:23; Zep_2:14). נשׁוף “the owl” (only here in Isa. comp. Lev_9:17; Deu_14:16),—ערב “the raven” (in Isaiah only here). As right building can only be done by means of measuring line and plummet (Job_38:5), so shall right destruction be directed by aid of the same implements. The image is the same as Amo_7:7-9, comp. 2Ki_21:23; Lam_2:8. “The stone” is the weight that makes the line plumb. The expression אבני בהו is ἄπ. λεγ.; and בהו Isaiah uses no where else (see Gen_1:2; Jer_4:23).
[“The sense of the whole metaphor may then be—that God has laid this work out for Himself and will perform it (Barnes),—that even in destroying He will proceed deliberately, and by rule (Knobel), which last thought is well expressed in Rosenmueller’s paraphrase (ad mensuram vastabitur, ad regulam depopulabitur).”—J. A. Alexander.]
4. They shall call—with her mate.
Isa_34:12-15. The Prophet now describes the desolation as it affects the territory of the nobility of Edom, both as to their persons and their castles. חריה being nominative absolute, the words must be translated: “as to her nobles, there are none there that call out a monarchy (election of king, accession to regency).” As the presence of the nobility is the necessary condition of a king’s election, and not vice versa, I regard this translation as more correct than the other which is also grammatically possible, viz.: “there is no kingdom that they may proclaim.” Moreover it is logically more correct that in the phrase with וְ the word put before absolutely should be the subject. Royalty in Edom was not inherited, but Esau’s descendants formed a high nobility from which the king proceeded by election (Gen_36:15 sqq.; 31 sqq.). חֹרliber, ingenuus, nobilis Isaiah uses only here. Comp. Ecc_10:17; Jer_27:20 and often.
[On חריה J. A. Alexander gives a copious synopsis of interpretations and then adds: “This great variety of explanations, and the harshness of construction with which most of them are chargeable, may serve as an excuse for the suggestion of a new one, not as certainly correct, but as possibly entitled to consideration.” Beside the meaning nobles, הֹרִים in several places “no less certainly means holes or caves (see 1Sa_14:11; Job_30:6; Nah_2:13). Now it is matter of history not only that Edom was full of caverns, but that these were inhabited and that the aboriginal inhabitants, expelled by Esau, were expressly called Horites (חֹרִים) as being inhabitants of caverns (Isa_14:6; Isa_36:20; Deu_2:12; Deu_2:22). This being the case, the entire depopulation of the country, and especially the destruction of its princes, might be naturally and poetically expressed by saying that the kingdom of Edom should be thenceforth a kingdom of deserted caverns.” For the appropriateness of description see in Robinson’s “Researches” the account of Petra.—Tr.].
Isa_34:13. The ruin of the nobility is followed by that of their palaces. They are said to mount up (עלתה) but only ironically, for they appear great and high only by the rank wild growth on them.
Not only beasts of the desert, but also repulsive demons of the desert disport themselves in the desolate ruins of Edom. The Prophet mentions a female being, the ghost-like, restlessly wandering (comp. Mat_12:43) Lilith, but which just there in those dreadful places finds a congenial resting place. The name לִילית certainly comes from לַיִל “the night,” and denotes a being of the night, a spectre. According to the Talmud Lilith is the chief of the nocturnal Schedim, of the לִילִין or טְלָנִין (comp. Buxtorf,Lex. rabb., p. 1140 and 877), and bears the name אַנִּרַת בַּת קַחְלַתi. e., “Agrath the (female) dancer.” Comp. Kohut,Jüd. Angel, und Dämonol, 1866, p. 61 and 86 sqq. Certainly Lilith is a production of popular superstition, to which various attributes and forms of appearance are ascribed. Comp. Buxtorf,l. c.Bochart,Hieroz. III. p. 829, ed.Rosenmueller, Gesen.Thes. p. 749. [Smith’sDiet, of Bible, under the word Owl]. לילית is ἄπ. λεγ.
[“In itself it means nothing more nor less than nocturnal, and would seem to be applicable to an animal or to any other object belonging to the night.” “This gratuitous interpretation of the Hebrew word” (viz., as referring to the superstitions mentioned above) “was unfortunately sanctioned by Bochart and Vitringa, and adopted with eagerness by the modern Germans who rejoice in every opportunity of charging a mistake in physics, or a vulgar superstition on the Scriptures. This disposition is the more apparent here, because the writers of this school usually pique themselves upon the critical discernment with which they separate the exegetical inventions of the Rabbins from the genuine meaning of the Hebrew text. Gesenius for example, will not even grant that the doctrine of a personal Messiah is so much as mentioned in the writings of Isaiah, although no opinion has been more universally maintained by the Jews, from the date of their oldest uncanonical books. In this case, their unanimous and uninterrupted testimony goes for nothing, because it would establish an unwelcome identity between the Messiah of the Old and New Testament. But when the object is to fasten on the Scriptures an odious and contemptible superstition, the utmost deference is paid, not only to the silly legends of the Jews, but to those of the Greeks, Romans, Zabians and Russians.” “Beside the fact that לילית means nocturnal, and that its application to a spectre is entirely gratuitous, we may argue here, as in Isaiah 13:25, that ghosts as well as demons would be wholly out of place in a list of wild and solitary animals. Is this a natural succession of ideas? Is it one that ought to be assumed without necessity?” … “Of all the figures that could be employed, that of resting seems to be the least appropriate in the description of a spectre.” … The quotation of Mat_12:43 in this connection is “strange” and “incongruous,” “where the evil spirit is expressly said to pass through dry places seeking rest and finding none.” … “The sense 19 sufficiently secured by mating לילית mean a nocturnal bird (Aben Ezra), or more specificially, an owl (Cocceius), or screech-owl (Lowth). But the word admits of a still more satisfactory interpretation, in exact agreement with the exposition which has already been given of the preceding terms as general descriptions rather than specific names. If these terms represent the animals occupying Idumea, first as belonging to the wilderness (ציים), then as distinguished by their fierce and melancholy cries (איים), and then as shaggy in appearance (שׂעיר), nothing can be more natural than that the fourth epithet should also be expressive of their habits as a class … nocturnal or belonging to the night.”—J. A. Alexander,in loc.—Tr.].
Isa_34:15. Bochart in his Hieroz., II. p. 194 sqq., has proved that קפוז means arrow-snake. In lonely places, out of danger it harbors and lays its eggs. מִלֵט Piel=“to cause slipping away,” like the Hiph. Isa_66:7; the imperf., with Vav consecutive makes what must hypotactically be regarded as a repeated fact, appear paratactically as occurring once. בקע “to cleave,” for by cleaving open the young are brought forth, comp. Isa_35:6; Isa_58:8; Isa_59:5. דגר “to cherish” (only here and Jer_17:11), cherishes the young in its shadow (i. e., of its own body)—דיה “vulture,” again only Deu_14:13. The expression אשׁה רעותה only here and Isa_34:16 in Isaiah. Drechsler justly construes it as asyndeton, and as in apposition with the subject, as must be done also Isa_34:16.
[“As to the particular species of animals referred to in this whole passage, there is no need, as Calvin well observes, of troubling ourselves much about them. (Non est cur in iis magnopere torqueamur). The general sense evidently is that a human population should be succeeded by wild and lonely animals—implying total and continued desolation.”—J. A. Alexander. For rich illustration of the subject from modern travellers see Barnes’ Notes on Isaiah, in loc.—Tr.].
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Isa_34:1-4. Because Rev_6:12-17 has express reference to this passage, some would conclude that the Prophet here has in view only that special event of the world’s judgment (the opening of the sixth seal). But that is not justified. For other passages of the New Testament that do not specially relate to the opening of the sixth seal are based on this passage (Mat_24:29; 2Pe_3:7 sqq.; Rev_14:11; Rev_19:11 sqq.). It appears from this that the present passage is, as it were, a magazine from which New Testament prophecy has drawn its material for more than one event of fulfilment.
2. On Isa_34:16. The word of God can bear the closest scrutiny. Indeed it desires and demands it. If men would only examine the Scriptures diligently and with an unclouded mind and love of truth, “whether these things are so,” as did the Bereans (Act_17:11; Joh_5:39)!
3. On Isa_35:3. “The Christian church is the true Lazaretto in which may be found a crowd of weary, sick, lame and wretched people. Therefore, Christ is the Physician Himself (Mat_9:12) who binds up and heals those suffering from neglect (Eze_34:16; Isa_61:1). And His word cures all (Wis_16:12). His servants, too, are commissioned officially to admonish the rude, to comfort the timid, to bear the weak, and be patient with all (1Th_5:14). Therefore, whoever feels weak, let him betake himself to this Bethania; there he will find counsel for his soul,” Cramer.
4. [On Isa_35:8-9. “They who enter the path that leads to life, find there no cause of alarm. Their fears subside; their apprehensions of punishment on account of their sins die away, and they walk that path with security and confidence. There is nothing in that way to alarm them; and though there are many foes—fitly represented by lions and wild beasts—lying about the way, yet no one is permitted to ‘go up thereon.’ This is a most beautiful image of the safety of the people of God, and of their freedom from all enemies that could annoy them.” “The path here referred to is appropriately designed only for the redeemed of the Lord. It is not for the profane, the polluted, the hypocrite. It is not for those who live for this world, or for those who love pleasure more than they love God. The church should not be entered except by those, who have evidence that they are redeemed. None should make a profession of religion who have no evidence that they belong to “the redeemed,” and who are not disposed to walk in the way of holiness. But for all such it is a highway on which they are to travel. It is made by leveling hills and elevating valleys; across the sandy desert and through the wilderness of this world, infested with the enemies of God and His people. It is made straight and plain, so that none need err; it is defended from enemies, so that all may be safe; because ‘He,’ their Leader and Redeemer, shall go with them and guard that way.” Barnes in loc.]
Footnotes:
[6]Because my sword has become drunken.
[7]Or, rhinoceros.
[8]buffaloes.
[9]Or, drunken.
[10]For a day of vengeance has Jehovah.
[11]Or, pelican.
[12]porcupine.
[13]Its nobles—there are none to proclaim the monarchy.
[14]no more.
[15]And its palaces soar aloft in thorns.
[16]jackal.
[17]Or, ostriches.
[18]Heb. daughters of the owl.
[19]Heb. ziim.
[20]Heb. Ijim.
[21]shaggy monster.—J. A. A.
[22]Or, night monster.
[23]arrowsnake.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv2–6utterly destroyed--rather, "doomed them to an utter curse" [HORSLEY].
utterly destroyed--rather, "doomed them to an utter curse" [HORSLEY].
delivered--rather, "appointed."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv4–54. The language here relates to the last things…
4. The language here relates to the last things in the wicked human world. It is not symbolic, for symbol relates to an idea; it is not typical, for type relates to an antitype in persons or things; it is simply poetical, intended to indicate terrific revolution; sudden, total, appalling change. In the same way is the reference 2Pe_3:10-12, to be understood. Also, Rev_6:14. The dissolving of the stars of heaven may come from the idea of their burning out like a lamp wick, and all becoming suddenly dark. The rolling up of the expanse of the heavens is easily conceived from the scroll, or ancient book, (like our map,) being rolled up and removed out of sight.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv2–62. For the indignation of the Lord …] Rather,…
2. For the indignation of the Lord …] Rather, For Jehovah hath indignation … and fury. It is remarkable that no reason is assigned for Jehovah’s anger.
their armies] their host (R.V.). he hath utterly destroyed them] Lit. he hath made them a devoted thing,—ḥçrem, a technical word for that which is irrevocably devoted to the deity, usually implying utter destruction. Cf. ch. Isa_11:15.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv4–6(4) And all the host of heaven shall be…
(4) And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved . . .—No prophetic picture of a “day of the Lord” was complete without this symbolism (see Isa_13:10-11), probably written about this period. Like the psalmist (Psa_102:26), Isaiah contrasts the transitoriness of sun, moon, and stars, with the eternity of Jehovah. The Greek poets sing that the “life of the generations of men is as the life of the leaves of the trees” (Homer, Il. vi. 146). To Isaiah’s sublime thoughts there came the vision of a time when even the host of heaven would fall as “a leaf from the vine, and as a fig from the fig-tree.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv2–6For the indignation of the Lord is upon, etc.;…
For the indignation of the Lord is upon, etc.; rather, for the Lord hath indignation against all the nations, and wrath against all their host. He hath utterly destroyed; rather, he hath devoted, or put under ban.
Divine indignations.
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It is important that we use the words which express the severe side of Divine dealings with great judgment and carefulness. We should resist the tendency of modern times to eliminate all the severer features from the conception of the Divine Being. Dr. Bushnell thus expresses it: "Our age is at the point of apogee from all the robuster notions of Deity." Our fathers made too much of t he Divine "wrath;" but we are in danger of making too little. There is a considerable variety of words that we may use to express this sterner side of the Divine dealing "anger," "indignation," "fury," "vengeance," "judgment," "justice," and the like, but they are all more or less defective. Wrath is the term most commonly used in our translation, and it is really the best, if only we can hold it closely enough to the idea of a moral, in distinction from a merely animal, passion; else, failing in this, it will connect associations of unregulated temper that are painful, and as far as possible from being sacred. It requires in this view, like the safety-lamps of the miners, a gauze of definition round it, to save it from blazing into an explosion too fierce to serve the purposes of light." Indignation is the most unexceptionable word, and it is to one point in connection with it that attention is now invited. It is especially suited to express the feeling of God, because it applies to wrong-doers rather than to wrong actions. It links on to the view that the essence of sin is not a wrong thing done, but the wrong will out of which the doing came. We cannot get up indignation merely at things done; our feeling settles and centers on the bad doers. In all cases of sin we should keep quite clearly before us that the Divine concern is not, supremely, the disturbed circumstances, but the sinners and the sufferers. Divine power can readjust and rearrange all our conditions and circumstances, just as that power can preserve the order, and put straight the broken or deflected order, of creation. It is God"s own condition, laid upon himself, that moral states can only be reached by moral means. Divine indignations, as they concern moral beings, find expression in the persuasions of Divine judgments; these fall on the man himself, or they may fall on his substitute and representative; and so is opened up for treatment the mystery of Divine indignations resting on Christ for us, for our sakes. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn v5My sword shall be bathed in heaven
Isa_34:5
My sword shall be bathed in heaven
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The sword bathed in heaven
The text draws back the curtain which separates the visible world from the invisible.
It reveals celestial regions, in which there are also great struggles going on. It lifts up our eyes to the grander movements of the world of spirits; and then it declares that the sword which is to be used in fighting what seem to be the petty wars of the Hebrews and the Edomites, is the same sword which has been used in these celestial conflicts; that the means and instruments of righteousness upon the earth must be the same with the means and instruments of righteousness in the heavens.
I. ALL GOOD STRUGGLE IN THE WORLD IS REALLY GODS BATTLE, and ought to recognise itself as such. Every special victory of human progress--the victory over slavery, superstition, social wrong, nay, even thevictory over tough matter, the subduing of the hard stuff of nature to spiritual uses,--each of these is but a step in the great onward march of God taking possession of His own. Fight your battle with the sword bathed in heaven; so you shall make it victorious, and grow strong and great yourself in fighting it.
II. One of the most marvellous things about Jesus is the UNION OF FIRE AND PATIENCE. He saw His Fathers house turned into a place of merchandise, and instantly the whip of small cords was in His hands, and He was cleansing the sacred place with His impassioned indignation. And yet He walked day after day through the streets of Jerusalem, and saw the sin, and let the sinners sin on with only the remonstrance of His pure presence and His pitying gaze. Only in Gods own time and in Gods own way can the battles of the Lord be fought. There is no self-will in Jesus. He is one with His Father, and lives by His Fathers will. His sword was always bathed in heaven.
III. THE BATTLE WHICH GOES ON WITHIN OURSELVES IS GODS BATTLE, and is of supreme importance. If the battle be Gods, it must be fought only with Gods weapons. You want to get rid of your selfishness. You must not kill it with the sword of another selfishness, which thenceforth shall rule in its place. Selfishness can only be cast out by self-forget-fulness and consecration. To count sin Gods enemy, and to fight it with all His purity and strength, that is what it means for us that our sword should be bathed m heaven. (Phillips Brooks, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield1917 · Public DomainOn v5See; Isa 34:1-8, (See Scofield "Gen 36:1")
Idumea
See; Isa 34:1-8, (See Scofield "Gen 36:1")
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann1924 · Public DomainOn v5Idumea as a Type of Hostility Against God
Idumea as a Type of Hostility Against God
v. 5. For My sword shall be bathed in heaven, intoxicated, as it were, as it prepares to execute His punishment; behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, as in a drunken frenzy, and upon the people of My curse, those doomed to experience His condemnation, to judgment. The Lord has an unparalleled slaughter and sacrifice in mind, to be carried out upon Edom, the apostate brother nation of Israel, and upon all those who followed Edom in his enmity against the chosen of the Lord.
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v. 6. The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, glutted with heavy slaughter; it is made fat with fatness, as it engages in bringing sacrifice, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams, those parts being named which were especially devoted to God in the sacrifices, 2Sa 1:22; for the Lord hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, the capital of Auranitis, east of Jordan, for thus far Edom had extended its dominion at that time, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea, whose territory extended from the southern end of the Dead Sea to the Elanitic Gulf.
v. 7. And the unicorns, the Asiatic buffaloes, shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls, representing the sacrificial animals of the herds, the powerful men in Edom to be slain with the ordinary people; and their land shall be soaked with blood and their dust made fat with fatness, the entire country, as it were, glutted, drunken with the great amount of blood and fat of the slain.
v. 8. For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion, the time when Jehovah will retaliate on those who have contended with Zion, in order to give justice to Zion, the people of His choice. Isa 43:4; Deu 32:35-41.
v. 9. And the streams thereof, of Idumea, shall be turned into pitch, in agreement with the volcanic and sulphurous character of the country near the Dead Sea, and the dust thereof into brimstone, which is still found in large quantities in that neighborhood, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch, a place where a fearful fire would rage.
v. 10. It shall not be quenched night nor day, the smoke thereof shall go up forever; from generation to generation it shall lie waste, as the result of the terrible volcanic upheavals by which its fertility was destroyed; none shall pass through it forever and ever. The first act of the final destruction is shown in the fact that to this day one may travel for days through former Idumea without finding one inhabited city, and the final act will come with the fire of eternity. Cf Rev 14:11; Rev 18:18; Rev 19:3.
v. 11. But the cormorant, the pelican, and the bittern, the porcupine, shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it, the description of the desolation wrought agreeing with that in other parts of the prophets, Isa 13:20-22; Isa 14:23; Zep 2:14; and He, Jehovah, shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, His measuring-line being used with deliberate’ intent in working ruin, and the stones, the weights at the end of the plumb-lines, of emptiness, resulting in utter destruction. With the same rigorous exactness which marks the carpenter’s construction the Lord carries out His program of destruction, thus reducing Edom to a state of desolation.
v. 12. They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, literally, "As to her nobles, there are none there that call out a monarchy," that is, none are left to elect a new king or to succeed to the throne, and all her princes shall be nothing, none being there, none could be elected by the nobility to assume the power of a reigning monarch.
v. 13. And thorns shall come up in her palaces, growing up in the midst of their ruins, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof, where formerly magnificent castles stood; and it shall be an habitation of dragons, wild cats or dogs, and a court for owls, a place where ostriches will find their food.
v. 14. The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, the marten rivaling the jackal in his attempts to find food, and the satyr, spirit of the desert, shall cry to his fellow; the screech-owl, a night-specter believed to be dwelling in the wilderness, also shall rest there and find for herself a place of rest, for this evil spirit felt at home in the midst of desolation.
v. 15. There shall the great owl, rather, the arrow-snake, make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow, cherishing her young in the shadow of the ruins; there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate. In short, all the animal dwellers of the wilderness, whose shaggy appearance by day and whose melancholy cries by night made them objects inspiring fear and superstition, would be found in the desolate wastes of the former rich Idumean cities. Moreover, the people who would then compare prophecy and fulfillment would find that they agree most exactly.
v. 10. Seek ye out of the Book of the Lord, the prophecies as preserved by the command of Jehovah, who inspired them, and read, such searching being commanded to this day; no one of these shall fail, every point brought out in the prophecy would find its fulfillment, none shall want her mate, the corresponding prediction; for My mouth, it hath commanded, and His spirit, His breath, as God inspired his servants to write, it hath gathered them, so that the prophecy came to pass literally.
v. 17. And He, Jehovah, hath cast the lot for them, for all the wild beasts of the desert, and His hand hath divided it unto them by line, distributed it to them, given it to them for a possession; they shall possess it forever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein, these doleful creatures occupying the. land which had been the pride of Edom. Thus Jehovah ever is the Protector of His children over against all enemies.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv3, 5The bodies of their dead will be thrown out
The bodies of their dead will be thrown out
This can be stated in active form. AT: "No one will bury their dead" (See: Active or Passive)
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their dead
This refers to the dead people. AT: "those who died" (See: Nominal Adjectives)
the mountains will soak up their blood
"the mountains will be covered in their blood"
the sky will be rolled up like a scroll
This can be stated in active form. This compares what Yahweh will do to the sky to a person rolling up a scroll. AT: "Yahweh will roll up the sky in the same way that a person rolls up a scroll" (See: Active or Passive and Simile)
all their stars will fade away, as the leaf fades from off the vine, and as the overripe figs from the fig tree
This emphasizes even the things in the sky that people thought would be there forever will fall as easily as a leaf. AT: "all the stars will fall from the sky like a leaf falls from a vine or a fig falls from a tree" (See: Simile)
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv2, 4, 5, 6 God hath determined in his counsel, and hath given…
God hath determined in his counsel, and hath given sentence for their destruction.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv2–6 Isa 34:2 For the indignation of the LORD [is]…
Isa 34:2 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.
Ver. 2. For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations.] Is, or shall be, upon all the Church’s enemies, whether of former or latter time; even his "boiling wrath," as the Word signifieth.
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He hath utterly destroyed them.] Or, He will make an anathema of them, as Isa 34:5, the "people of my curse," devoted to destruction.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv2–6 Upon all nations; not only upon the Assyrians, and…
Upon all nations; not only upon the Assyrians, and those nations which were confederate with them in this expedition, but upon all other enemies of my people whatsoever.
He hath utterly destroyed them; he will infallibly destroy all of them.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv2–6 For the indignation of the Lord is upon all…
For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations,.... All the nations of the earth, which have committed fornication with the whore of Rome, or have given in to her false worship, superstition, and idolatry; which is the reason of God's wrath and indignation against them, and of such severe punishment being inflicted on them; see Rev 18:3,
and his fury upon all their armies; the armies of the kings of the earth, gathered together at Armageddon, to make war with Christ, and those that follow him; see Rev 16:14,
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he hath utterly destroyed them; not only devoted them to destruction, but actually destroyed them, with "Cherem", an utter destruction; one of the words of which Armageddon is compounded, and so points at the place, as well as the nature and manner, of the destruction:
he hath delivered them to slaughter; to be slain with the sword of him that sitteth on the white horse, which proceeds out of his mouth, Rev 19:21.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv2–6 All nations - Not only upon the Assyrians, but…
All nations - Not only upon the Assyrians, but on all enemies of my people.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv4–6 Verse 4. And all the host of heaven] See…
Verse 4. And all the host of heaven] See Clarke on Isa 24:21, and De Sacra Poesi Hebraeorum, Prael. ix.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv2, 4, 5 Isa 34:2-3. For the indignation of the Lord is…
Isa 34:2-3. For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations — Not only upon the Assyrians, and those nations which are confederate with them in their expedition against Judea, but upon all other enemies of my people. He hath utterly destroyed them — He will infallibly destroy all of them. Their slain also shall be cast out — Into the fields, where they shall lie unburied, and be left a prey to ravenous beasts and birds. In which words he implies, either that such vast numbers would be slain, that the survivers would not be able to find time or place to bury them, or that they should be held in such contempt and abhorrence that none would be inclined to do them that office: and the mountains — About Jerusalem, where they are supposed to be gathered to fight against her, like the Assyrians; shall be melted with their blood — Shall be covered with their blood, which shall flow down abundantly from them with great force, and dissolve, and carry down with it a part of the soil of the mountains, as great showers of rain frequently do. This sentence upon the nations, which thus exhibits a kind of general judgment, to be executed upon the enemies of God and his people, by the sword of God, is sufficient to strike terror into every hearer.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv2–6 For the indignation of the Lord - Yahweh is…
For the indignation of the Lord - Yahweh is about to express his wrath against all the nations which are opposed to his people.
He hath utterly destroyed them - In his purpose, or intention. The prophet represents this as so certain that it may be exhibited as already done.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv4–5 Away. These strong expressions denote great misery, chap. xiii.,…
Away. These strong expressions denote great misery, chap. xiii., and Joel ii. 10., and Ezechiel xxxii. 27. (Calmet) --- Book. Hebrew, "roll." (Haydock) --- Some thence foolishly inferred that the destiny of every one might be read in the heavens. (Huet.; Eusebius, præp. vi. 11.; Philoo. xxiii.; Pic. Astrol. viii. 5.) --- The prophet only means that the heavens shall be devoid of beauty, (Calmet) and covered with darkness. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v5 5 6For my sword shall be bathed in heaven:
2. THE JUDGMENT ON EDOM, AS REPRESENTATION OF THE WHOLE IN ONE PARTICULAR EXAMPLE OF SPECIAL INTEREST TO ISRAEL
Isa_34:5-15
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5 6For 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.
7 And the 7 8unicorns shall come down with them,
And the bullocks with the bulls;
And their land shall be 9soaked with blood,
And their dust made fat with fatness.
8 10For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance,
And the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.
9 And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch,
And the dust thereof into brimstone,
And the land thereof shall become burning pitch.
10 It shall not be quenched night nor day;
The smoke thereof shall go up for ever:
From generation to generation it shall lie waste;
None shall pass through it for ever and ever.
11 But the 11cormorant and the 12bittern 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 13They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom,
But none shall be there,
And all her princes shall be 14nothing.
13 15And thorns shall come up in her palaces,
Nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof.
And it shall be an habitation of 16dragons,
And a court for 17 18owls.
14 19The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with 20the wild beasts of the island,
And the 21satyr shall cry to his fellow;
The 22screech owl also shall rest there,
And find for herself a place of rest.
15 There shall the 23great 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.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa_34:5. Only by great ingenuity can כִּי be explained to mean “for.” Hence Knobel construes it as pleonastic, connecting the discourse, and appeals, e. g. to Isaiah 8:23. But there exists a plain causal connection between Isa_34:4-5, only the res causans is in verse 4 and not in Isa_34:5. Hence כִּי here=“because” and not “for.” Because the sword of God has become drunken in heaven it comes down to earth (comp. Gen_3:14; Gen_33:11; Exo_1:19, etc.).—רִוָּה (comp. Isa_16:9) is direct causative Piel = ebrietatem facere, “to produce drunkenness.” As, e. g., הִשְׁמִין not only means “fatten,” i. e., others, but also “make, produce, grow fat,” i. e., grow fat one’s-self, so this verb means not only “make others drunk” (Jer_31:14; Psa_65:11), but also “make one’s-self drunk.”—למשׁפט=in behoof of accomplishing judgment; comp. Hab_1:12; Eze_44:24 K’ri; comp. Isa_41:1; Isa_54:17, in another sense Isa_5:7; Isa_32:1; Isa_28:26.
Isa_34:6. Drechslek refers ליהוה to מלאה: the sword is to the Lord (the Lord has His sword) full of blood. But then it would need to read הַחֶרֶב, as the sword has already been mentioned. Would one translate; “Jehovah has a sword that is full of blood,” that again does not suit the previous mention of the sword verse 5, though this translation would best suit the three other instances of the use of ליהוה in this section (verses 2, 6, 9). The context requires the rendering “the sword of the Lord is full of blood.” For verses 6, 7 manifestly tell what the sword, (that Isa_34:5 was to come on Edom), when actually come, has done to Edom. This is intimated by describing the sword after the execution. Thus the same sword as Isa_34:5 is meant. The article is wanting because חרב ליהוה, (instead of חרב יהוה, which occurs only 1Ch_21:12) seems to be vox solennis, (Jdg_7:20; Jer_12:12; Jer_47:6).—הֻדַּשְׁנָה instead of הֻתְדַּשְּׁנָה, Hothpaal, from דאן, comp. verse 7; Isa_30:23; Green’s Gram., § 96, a.——That מִן before דַּם is to be explained according to Isa_2:6, does not seem probable. Rather it seems that the notion of causality, that lies in הדשנה מחלב, has passed over to what follows: such as was before intimated, the sword has become from the blood of the sacrificial beasts.—כַּר again only Isa_16:1.—עַתּוּד again only Isa_1:11; Isa_14:9—אילים again in Isa_1:11; Isa_60:7. זֶבַח and טֶבַח (verse 3) correspond in sense and sound. On זבח see list.
Isa_34:8. The Plural שׁלומים occurs only here: comp. the sing. Hos_9:7; Mic_7:3.—If the pointing לְרִיב is correct, then רִיב is to be construed as substantive. For as such it is in the construct state and has given its tone to the governing noun; then ל does not stand directly before the tone syllable. But if it is a verb, then it has the tone, and ל in that case receives pretonic kamets (comp. לָרִיב Isa_3:13). As noun ריב means causae actio, defensio, in the same sense as the verb with following accusative (Isa_1:17; Isa_51:22) is used (comp. Isa_19:20).
Isa_34:10. לְנֵצַח נְצָחִים (the Masoretic form of writing נֵצַח occurs four times; Psa_49:20; 1Sa_15:29; 1Ch_29:11) occurs only here.—תהו ;קַו, see list.
Isa_34:12. חֹרֶיהָ is put absolutely before.—מלובה ,אפם; see list.
Isa_34:13. ארמון comp. Isa_23:13; Isa_25:2; Isa_32:14.—קמושׁ ;סירים; and חוח (kindred חָח Isa_37:29) occur only here in Isaiah, מבצר, locus munitus Isa_17:3; Isa_25:12.—נָוֶה see list.
Isa_34:13-15. שׂעיר ,איים ,ציים ,בנות ,יענה ,תגים comp. on Isa_13:21-22.—חָצִיד (=חָצֵר locus septus) occurs again in Isaiah only Isa_35:7 (see Comm. in loc.).—פָנַשׁ in Isaiah only here.—אַךְ has here also its restrictive sense. When Gesenius (Thes. p. 89) says: that the vis restringendi relates non at proximum sed ad sequens quoddam vocabulum, and translates here accordingly: non nisi spectra ibi habitant, non nisi vultures ibi congregantur, the two statements exclude each other. For where only spectra dwell, the vulture cannot also dwell, and vice versa. To express that, the אַךְ must be joined to לילית and דיות (Isa_34:14-15). But both times it is joined to שָׁם. Hence it appears that the Prophet would say: only there does the lilith rest, only there does the vulture congregate: i.e., there is no other place so suitable for them.—הרניע again Isa_51:4 in another sense; in Isa_28:12 we had the noun מרגעה “resting place.” Also מנוח “resting place,” only here in Isaiah; comp. Gen_8:9; Lam_1:3.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. If the Prophet would not deal only in indefinite generalities in regard to the judgment on the nations of the earth, he must give prominence to the case of one nation instar omnium. Among neighboring nations Moab, and Edom, and Amnion, were most detested by the Israelites (comp. Deu_23:3-6; Eze_35:5; sqq.; Amo_1:11 : Oba_1:10 sqq.; Psa_137:7, etc.). As Isaiah elsewhere, in a similar connection, mentions the Moabites by way of exemplification (Isa_25:10 sqq.), it is natural he should give similar prominence also to Edom, as he does here and Isa_63:1 sqq. Now, because the sword of Jehovah has already become drunken in heaven with blood, it descends to earth, because it finds no more work above.
2. For my swored—of Zion.
Isa_34:5-8. The relation of this section to what precedes is this: the Prophet has said (Isa_34:2-3), what the. Lordpurposes to do on earth. החרימם and נתנם Isa_34:2 are to be understood of acts of the will, not of performance: Isa_34:3 describes prophetically what shall once take place on earth in consequence of that divine decree. Isa_34:4 pictures the judgment that shall be executed on the heavens, but here the Prophet combines intention and performance. He contemplates the judgment of God as beginning in heaven, and continued on earth.
[On the construction of כִּי see Text, and Gram. “It may be construed in its proper sense, either with Isa_34:3 (Hitzig), or with the whole of the preceding description. All this shall certainly take place for my sword (the speaker being God Himself) is steeped,” etc.—J. A. Alex.,in loc.].
The expression is a bold poetic one. Isaiah speaks of the sword of the Lord again Isa_27:1; Isa_66:16. But only here does he personify it. He may, as regards the sense, have in mind Deu_32:41-43. Inevitable and irresistible are the judgments of the Lord. This the Prophet expresses by saying that the sword of the Lord, intoxicated with the judgment accomplished on “the host of the high ones that are on high” (Isa_24:21), and thirsting for more blood, descends to earth, and that first on Edom, as the nation that above all has become an object of the divine ban. (חֵרֶם the segregatio ad internecionem, 1Ki_20:42; Isa_43:28). Isa_34:6-7 describe the effects of the execution. The sword of the Lord is not only full of blood, but is fattened, dropping fat. As in the second clause of Isa_34:6, the Edomites are regarded as a sacrifice, they are here compared to sheep, goats and rams.
Bozra stands for Edom also Isa_63:1. Concerning this city see on Jer. 69:13.
The enumeration of buffaloes, bullocks and bulls (Isa_34:7) denotes that the entire nation shall perish, great and small, high and low. רְאֵם (only here in Isaiah, elsewhere only Num_23:22; Deu_33:17; Job_39:9 sq.; Psa_22:22; Psa_29:6; Psa_92:11). It is now universally understood to mean the buffalo (see Herz.R.–Encycl, xl. p. 28). פָרִים see on Isa_1:11. אביר meaning “bull” occurs only Isa_10:13 K’thibh. ירד meaning “to fell” trees, beasts or men, is peculiar to Isaiah (see Isa_32:19). For Jer_48:15; Jer_50:27; Jer_51:40 the use of the word is not quite the same. In consequence of the slaughter the earth itself is drunk with blood, and fat with fat, comp. on Isa_34:5-6. The parallelism reigns not only in these verses, but in the entire complexity of Isa_34:6-8. For the description of the judgment in Isa_34:6 a. and Isa_34:7 correspond, and the reasons assigned Isa_34:6 b. and Isa_34:8. But progress appears in the thought because Isa_34:8 gives particularly the object of the “sacrifice” and the “slaughter.” The Lord will thereby satisfy His vengeance, and give Zion justice by a righteous recompense.
The expression for the day of the Lord’setc., recalls Isa_2:12 and Isa_63:4. But the Prophet seems moreover to have in mind Deu_32:35; Deu_32:41. For in those passages, as here, the notions of vengeance and recompense underlie the discourse.
But beside this, our passage lay before Jeremiah. For Jer_46:10 is penetrated with elements drawn from Isa_34:5-8. The following considerations show that our passage is the source from which Jer. drew. 1) The grand, drastic boldness and loftiness of the language of our passage, of which the words of Jer., after the fashion of that Prophet, are but a tempered imitation. 2) Isaiah uses the expression רִוְּתָה twice (Isa_34:5; Isa_34:7); Jer. says, רָוְתָה It is much more likely that Jeremiah would dilute the strong expression of a predecessor, in his well-known fashion (see my comm. on Jer. Introd. § 3) than that an author living much later in the exile, should intensify the normal but weaker expression of Jeremiah 3) Jer. says יוֹם נְקָמָה, Isaiah; יוֹם Now in general נקם is the older form of the word, and is used only in Lev_26:25; Deu_32:35; Deu_32:41; Deu_32:43; Jdg_16:28; Psa_58:11; Pro_6:34; Mic_5:14, and in Isa. (Isa_35:4; Isa_47:3; Isa_59:17; Isa_61:2; Isa_63:4). In the exceptions Eze_24:8; Eze_25:12, נְקֹם נָקָם is evidently said for the sake of the effect of sound; in Eze_25:15 the expression וַיִנָקְמוּ נקם is used along with נְקָמָה. On the other hand נְקָמָה is the form exclusively used by Jeremiah, and in Ezekiel it is the prevalent form (the exceptions being given above) and beside these is used only here and there (Num_31:2-3; Lam_3:60; Psa_149:7). But it is not probable that a writer later than Jeremiah has introduced the old form into a passage borrowed from Jeremiah.
3. And the streams—emptiness.
Isa_34:9-11. Edom was situated at the southern point of the Dead Sea. The following description recalls the pitchy and sulphurous character of this sea and its surroundings. It seems as if the Prophet would allude to that event which, recorded in Gen_19:24-25; Gen_19:28, had impressed that character on the region. At least the sulphur, the overturning (הפך) and the ascending smoke are traits that he seems to have borrowed from that passage. זֶפֶת occurs again only Exo_2:3. נפרית we had already where Isa_30:33 the breath of God is called “a stream of brimstone.” When the streams are flowing pitch and the dust of the land is sulphur, the whole land will become a fearful place of conflagration. Day and night (the expression occurs Deu_28:66, beside comp. Isa_4:5; Isa_21:8; Isa_60:11), forever, for it is the flame of the last judgment, the burning shall continue. The burning land is the subject of תבכה which is used intensively also Isa_43:17; Isaiah 46:24.
Isa_34:10. On דור as defining time see on Isa_13:20. מדור לדור occurs only here. חַרַבexarescere, exsiccari, comp. Isa_19:5-6; Isa_44:27; Isa_60:12. אֵין עֹבֵר again only Isa_60:15. It does not agree well to say of the same land that it shall become an everlasting burning, and that it shall be a pathless desert. But the Prophet describes the future by means of the present, and contemplates the earth as an Edom cursed of God, and thinks of the latter as a scorched desert land. [The same may be said of the similarly inconsistent descriptions in all that follows in this section.—Tr.].
Isa_34:11. As such the land is inhabited only by beasts of the desert. [On the names of beings enumerated in this and the following verses see J. A. Alex.,comm, in loc, especially on לילית Isa_34:14.—Tr.]. קאת (from קוא “to vomit”) is the pelican (Lev_11:18; Deu_14:17; Zep_2:14), קפד “the porcupine” (see on Isa_14:23; Zep_2:14). נשׁוף “the owl” (only here in Isa. comp. Lev_9:17; Deu_14:16),—ערב “the raven” (in Isaiah only here). As right building can only be done by means of measuring line and plummet (Job_38:5), so shall right destruction be directed by aid of the same implements. The image is the same as Amo_7:7-9, comp. 2Ki_21:23; Lam_2:8. “The stone” is the weight that makes the line plumb. The expression אבני בהו is ἄπ. λεγ.; and בהו Isaiah uses no where else (see Gen_1:2; Jer_4:23).
[“The sense of the whole metaphor may then be—that God has laid this work out for Himself and will perform it (Barnes),—that even in destroying He will proceed deliberately, and by rule (Knobel), which last thought is well expressed in Rosenmueller’s paraphrase (ad mensuram vastabitur, ad regulam depopulabitur).”—J. A. Alexander.]
4. They shall call—with her mate.
Isa_34:12-15. The Prophet now describes the desolation as it affects the territory of the nobility of Edom, both as to their persons and their castles. חריה being nominative absolute, the words must be translated: “as to her nobles, there are none there that call out a monarchy (election of king, accession to regency).” As the presence of the nobility is the necessary condition of a king’s election, and not vice versa, I regard this translation as more correct than the other which is also grammatically possible, viz.: “there is no kingdom that they may proclaim.” Moreover it is logically more correct that in the phrase with וְ the word put before absolutely should be the subject. Royalty in Edom was not inherited, but Esau’s descendants formed a high nobility from which the king proceeded by election (Gen_36:15 sqq.; 31 sqq.). חֹרliber, ingenuus, nobilis Isaiah uses only here. Comp. Ecc_10:17; Jer_27:20 and often.
[On חריה J. A. Alexander gives a copious synopsis of interpretations and then adds: “This great variety of explanations, and the harshness of construction with which most of them are chargeable, may serve as an excuse for the suggestion of a new one, not as certainly correct, but as possibly entitled to consideration.” Beside the meaning nobles, הֹרִים in several places “no less certainly means holes or caves (see 1Sa_14:11; Job_30:6; Nah_2:13). Now it is matter of history not only that Edom was full of caverns, but that these were inhabited and that the aboriginal inhabitants, expelled by Esau, were expressly called Horites (חֹרִים) as being inhabitants of caverns (Isa_14:6; Isa_36:20; Deu_2:12; Deu_2:22). This being the case, the entire depopulation of the country, and especially the destruction of its princes, might be naturally and poetically expressed by saying that the kingdom of Edom should be thenceforth a kingdom of deserted caverns.” For the appropriateness of description see in Robinson’s “Researches” the account of Petra.—Tr.].
Isa_34:13. The ruin of the nobility is followed by that of their palaces. They are said to mount up (עלתה) but only ironically, for they appear great and high only by the rank wild growth on them.
Not only beasts of the desert, but also repulsive demons of the desert disport themselves in the desolate ruins of Edom. The Prophet mentions a female being, the ghost-like, restlessly wandering (comp. Mat_12:43) Lilith, but which just there in those dreadful places finds a congenial resting place. The name לִילית certainly comes from לַיִל “the night,” and denotes a being of the night, a spectre. According to the Talmud Lilith is the chief of the nocturnal Schedim, of the לִילִין or טְלָנִין (comp. Buxtorf,Lex. rabb., p. 1140 and 877), and bears the name אַנִּרַת בַּת קַחְלַתi. e., “Agrath the (female) dancer.” Comp. Kohut,Jüd. Angel, und Dämonol, 1866, p. 61 and 86 sqq. Certainly Lilith is a production of popular superstition, to which various attributes and forms of appearance are ascribed. Comp. Buxtorf,l. c.Bochart,Hieroz. III. p. 829, ed.Rosenmueller, Gesen.Thes. p. 749. [Smith’sDiet, of Bible, under the word Owl]. לילית is ἄπ. λεγ.
[“In itself it means nothing more nor less than nocturnal, and would seem to be applicable to an animal or to any other object belonging to the night.” “This gratuitous interpretation of the Hebrew word” (viz., as referring to the superstitions mentioned above) “was unfortunately sanctioned by Bochart and Vitringa, and adopted with eagerness by the modern Germans who rejoice in every opportunity of charging a mistake in physics, or a vulgar superstition on the Scriptures. This disposition is the more apparent here, because the writers of this school usually pique themselves upon the critical discernment with which they separate the exegetical inventions of the Rabbins from the genuine meaning of the Hebrew text. Gesenius for example, will not even grant that the doctrine of a personal Messiah is so much as mentioned in the writings of Isaiah, although no opinion has been more universally maintained by the Jews, from the date of their oldest uncanonical books. In this case, their unanimous and uninterrupted testimony goes for nothing, because it would establish an unwelcome identity between the Messiah of the Old and New Testament. But when the object is to fasten on the Scriptures an odious and contemptible superstition, the utmost deference is paid, not only to the silly legends of the Jews, but to those of the Greeks, Romans, Zabians and Russians.” “Beside the fact that לילית means nocturnal, and that its application to a spectre is entirely gratuitous, we may argue here, as in Isaiah 13:25, that ghosts as well as demons would be wholly out of place in a list of wild and solitary animals. Is this a natural succession of ideas? Is it one that ought to be assumed without necessity?” … “Of all the figures that could be employed, that of resting seems to be the least appropriate in the description of a spectre.” … The quotation of Mat_12:43 in this connection is “strange” and “incongruous,” “where the evil spirit is expressly said to pass through dry places seeking rest and finding none.” … “The sense 19 sufficiently secured by mating לילית mean a nocturnal bird (Aben Ezra), or more specificially, an owl (Cocceius), or screech-owl (Lowth). But the word admits of a still more satisfactory interpretation, in exact agreement with the exposition which has already been given of the preceding terms as general descriptions rather than specific names. If these terms represent the animals occupying Idumea, first as belonging to the wilderness (ציים), then as distinguished by their fierce and melancholy cries (איים), and then as shaggy in appearance (שׂעיר), nothing can be more natural than that the fourth epithet should also be expressive of their habits as a class … nocturnal or belonging to the night.”—J. A. Alexander,in loc.—Tr.].
Isa_34:15. Bochart in his Hieroz., II. p. 194 sqq., has proved that קפוז means arrow-snake. In lonely places, out of danger it harbors and lays its eggs. מִלֵט Piel=“to cause slipping away,” like the Hiph. Isa_66:7; the imperf., with Vav consecutive makes what must hypotactically be regarded as a repeated fact, appear paratactically as occurring once. בקע “to cleave,” for by cleaving open the young are brought forth, comp. Isa_35:6; Isa_58:8; Isa_59:5. דגר “to cherish” (only here and Jer_17:11), cherishes the young in its shadow (i. e., of its own body)—דיה “vulture,” again only Deu_14:13. The expression אשׁה רעותה only here and Isa_34:16 in Isaiah. Drechsler justly construes it as asyndeton, and as in apposition with the subject, as must be done also Isa_34:16.
[“As to the particular species of animals referred to in this whole passage, there is no need, as Calvin well observes, of troubling ourselves much about them. (Non est cur in iis magnopere torqueamur). The general sense evidently is that a human population should be succeeded by wild and lonely animals—implying total and continued desolation.”—J. A. Alexander. For rich illustration of the subject from modern travellers see Barnes’ Notes on Isaiah, in loc.—Tr.].
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Isa_34:1-4. Because Rev_6:12-17 has express reference to this passage, some would conclude that the Prophet here has in view only that special event of the world’s judgment (the opening of the sixth seal). But that is not justified. For other passages of the New Testament that do not specially relate to the opening of the sixth seal are based on this passage (Mat_24:29; 2Pe_3:7 sqq.; Rev_14:11; Rev_19:11 sqq.). It appears from this that the present passage is, as it were, a magazine from which New Testament prophecy has drawn its material for more than one event of fulfilment.
2. On Isa_34:16. The word of God can bear the closest scrutiny. Indeed it desires and demands it. If men would only examine the Scriptures diligently and with an unclouded mind and love of truth, “whether these things are so,” as did the Bereans (Act_17:11; Joh_5:39)!
3. On Isa_35:3. “The Christian church is the true Lazaretto in which may be found a crowd of weary, sick, lame and wretched people. Therefore, Christ is the Physician Himself (Mat_9:12) who binds up and heals those suffering from neglect (Eze_34:16; Isa_61:1). And His word cures all (Wis_16:12). His servants, too, are commissioned officially to admonish the rude, to comfort the timid, to bear the weak, and be patient with all (1Th_5:14). Therefore, whoever feels weak, let him betake himself to this Bethania; there he will find counsel for his soul,” Cramer.
4. [On Isa_35:8-9. “They who enter the path that leads to life, find there no cause of alarm. Their fears subside; their apprehensions of punishment on account of their sins die away, and they walk that path with security and confidence. There is nothing in that way to alarm them; and though there are many foes—fitly represented by lions and wild beasts—lying about the way, yet no one is permitted to ‘go up thereon.’ This is a most beautiful image of the safety of the people of God, and of their freedom from all enemies that could annoy them.” “The path here referred to is appropriately designed only for the redeemed of the Lord. It is not for the profane, the polluted, the hypocrite. It is not for those who live for this world, or for those who love pleasure more than they love God. The church should not be entered except by those, who have evidence that they are redeemed. None should make a profession of religion who have no evidence that they belong to “the redeemed,” and who are not disposed to walk in the way of holiness. But for all such it is a highway on which they are to travel. It is made by leveling hills and elevating valleys; across the sandy desert and through the wilderness of this world, infested with the enemies of God and His people. It is made straight and plain, so that none need err; it is defended from enemies, so that all may be safe; because ‘He,’ their Leader and Redeemer, shall go with them and guard that way.” Barnes in loc.]
Footnotes:
[6]Because my sword has become drunken.
[7]Or, rhinoceros.
[8]buffaloes.
[9]Or, drunken.
[10]For a day of vengeance has Jehovah.
[11]Or, pelican.
[12]porcupine.
[13]Its nobles—there are none to proclaim the monarchy.
[14]no more.
[15]And its palaces soar aloft in thorns.
[16]jackal.
[17]Or, ostriches.
[18]Heb. daughters of the owl.
[19]Heb. ziim.
[20]Heb. Ijim.
[21]shaggy monster.—J. A. A.
[22]Or, night monster.
[23]arrowsnake.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–6 utterly destroyed--rather, "doomed them to an utter curse" [HORSLEY].
utterly destroyed--rather, "doomed them to an utter curse" [HORSLEY].
delivered--rather, "appointed."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv4–5 4. The language here relates to the last things…
4. The language here relates to the last things in the wicked human world. It is not symbolic, for symbol relates to an idea; it is not typical, for type relates to an antitype in persons or things; it is simply poetical, intended to indicate terrific revolution; sudden, total, appalling change. In the same way is the reference 2Pe_3:10-12, to be understood. Also, Rev_6:14. The dissolving of the stars of heaven may come from the idea of their burning out like a lamp wick, and all becoming suddenly dark. The rolling up of the expanse of the heavens is easily conceived from the scroll, or ancient book, (like our map,) being rolled up and removed out of sight.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv2–6 2. For the indignation of the Lord …] Rather,…
2. For the indignation of the Lord …] Rather, For Jehovah hath indignation … and fury. It is remarkable that no reason is assigned for Jehovah’s anger.
their armies] their host (R.V.). he hath utterly destroyed them] Lit. he hath made them a devoted thing,—ḥçrem, a technical word for that which is irrevocably devoted to the deity, usually implying utter destruction. Cf. ch. Isa_11:15.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv4–6 (4) And all the host of heaven shall be…
(4) And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved . . .—No prophetic picture of a “day of the Lord” was complete without this symbolism (see Isa_13:10-11), probably written about this period. Like the psalmist (Psa_102:26), Isaiah contrasts the transitoriness of sun, moon, and stars, with the eternity of Jehovah. The Greek poets sing that the “life of the generations of men is as the life of the leaves of the trees” (Homer, Il. vi. 146). To Isaiah’s sublime thoughts there came the vision of a time when even the host of heaven would fall as “a leaf from the vine, and as a fig from the fig-tree.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv2–6 For the indignation of the Lord is upon, etc.;…
For the indignation of the Lord is upon, etc.; rather, for the Lord hath indignation against all the nations, and wrath against all their host. He hath utterly destroyed; rather, he hath devoted, or put under ban.
Divine indignations.
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It is important that we use the words which express the severe side of Divine dealings with great judgment and carefulness. We should resist the tendency of modern times to eliminate all the severer features from the conception of the Divine Being. Dr. Bushnell thus expresses it: "Our age is at the point of apogee from all the robuster notions of Deity." Our fathers made too much of t he Divine "wrath;" but we are in danger of making too little. There is a considerable variety of words that we may use to express this sterner side of the Divine dealing "anger," "indignation," "fury," "vengeance," "judgment," "justice," and the like, but they are all more or less defective. Wrath is the term most commonly used in our translation, and it is really the best, if only we can hold it closely enough to the idea of a moral, in distinction from a merely animal, passion; else, failing in this, it will connect associations of unregulated temper that are painful, and as far as possible from being sacred. It requires in this view, like the safety-lamps of the miners, a gauze of definition round it, to save it from blazing into an explosion too fierce to serve the purposes of light." Indignation is the most unexceptionable word, and it is to one point in connection with it that attention is now invited. It is especially suited to express the feeling of God, because it applies to wrong-doers rather than to wrong actions. It links on to the view that the essence of sin is not a wrong thing done, but the wrong will out of which the doing came. We cannot get up indignation merely at things done; our feeling settles and centers on the bad doers. In all cases of sin we should keep quite clearly before us that the Divine concern is not, supremely, the disturbed circumstances, but the sinners and the sufferers. Divine power can readjust and rearrange all our conditions and circumstances, just as that power can preserve the order, and put straight the broken or deflected order, of creation. It is God"s own condition, laid upon himself, that moral states can only be reached by moral means. Divine indignations, as they concern moral beings, find expression in the persuasions of Divine judgments; these fall on the man himself, or they may fall on his substitute and representative; and so is opened up for treatment the mystery of Divine indignations resting on Christ for us, for our sakes. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v5 My sword shall be bathed in heaven
Isa_34:5
My sword shall be bathed in heaven
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The sword bathed in heaven
The text draws back the curtain which separates the visible world from the invisible.
It reveals celestial regions, in which there are also great struggles going on. It lifts up our eyes to the grander movements of the world of spirits; and then it declares that the sword which is to be used in fighting what seem to be the petty wars of the Hebrews and the Edomites, is the same sword which has been used in these celestial conflicts; that the means and instruments of righteousness upon the earth must be the same with the means and instruments of righteousness in the heavens.
I. ALL GOOD STRUGGLE IN THE WORLD IS REALLY GODS BATTLE, and ought to recognise itself as such. Every special victory of human progress--the victory over slavery, superstition, social wrong, nay, even thevictory over tough matter, the subduing of the hard stuff of nature to spiritual uses,--each of these is but a step in the great onward march of God taking possession of His own. Fight your battle with the sword bathed in heaven; so you shall make it victorious, and grow strong and great yourself in fighting it.
II. One of the most marvellous things about Jesus is the UNION OF FIRE AND PATIENCE. He saw His Fathers house turned into a place of merchandise, and instantly the whip of small cords was in His hands, and He was cleansing the sacred place with His impassioned indignation. And yet He walked day after day through the streets of Jerusalem, and saw the sin, and let the sinners sin on with only the remonstrance of His pure presence and His pitying gaze. Only in Gods own time and in Gods own way can the battles of the Lord be fought. There is no self-will in Jesus. He is one with His Father, and lives by His Fathers will. His sword was always bathed in heaven.
III. THE BATTLE WHICH GOES ON WITHIN OURSELVES IS GODS BATTLE, and is of supreme importance. If the battle be Gods, it must be fought only with Gods weapons. You want to get rid of your selfishness. You must not kill it with the sword of another selfishness, which thenceforth shall rule in its place. Selfishness can only be cast out by self-forget-fulness and consecration. To count sin Gods enemy, and to fight it with all His purity and strength, that is what it means for us that our sword should be bathed m heaven. (Phillips Brooks, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v5 See; Isa 34:1-8, (See Scofield "Gen 36:1")
Idumea
See; Isa 34:1-8, (See Scofield "Gen 36:1")
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v5 Idumea as a Type of Hostility Against God
Idumea as a Type of Hostility Against God
v. 5. For My sword shall be bathed in heaven, intoxicated, as it were, as it prepares to execute His punishment; behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, as in a drunken frenzy, and upon the people of My curse, those doomed to experience His condemnation, to judgment. The Lord has an unparalleled slaughter and sacrifice in mind, to be carried out upon Edom, the apostate brother nation of Israel, and upon all those who followed Edom in his enmity against the chosen of the Lord.
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v. 6. The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, glutted with heavy slaughter; it is made fat with fatness, as it engages in bringing sacrifice, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams, those parts being named which were especially devoted to God in the sacrifices, 2Sa 1:22; for the Lord hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, the capital of Auranitis, east of Jordan, for thus far Edom had extended its dominion at that time, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea, whose territory extended from the southern end of the Dead Sea to the Elanitic Gulf.
v. 7. And the unicorns, the Asiatic buffaloes, shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls, representing the sacrificial animals of the herds, the powerful men in Edom to be slain with the ordinary people; and their land shall be soaked with blood and their dust made fat with fatness, the entire country, as it were, glutted, drunken with the great amount of blood and fat of the slain.
v. 8. For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion, the time when Jehovah will retaliate on those who have contended with Zion, in order to give justice to Zion, the people of His choice. Isa 43:4; Deu 32:35-41.
v. 9. And the streams thereof, of Idumea, shall be turned into pitch, in agreement with the volcanic and sulphurous character of the country near the Dead Sea, and the dust thereof into brimstone, which is still found in large quantities in that neighborhood, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch, a place where a fearful fire would rage.
v. 10. It shall not be quenched night nor day, the smoke thereof shall go up forever; from generation to generation it shall lie waste, as the result of the terrible volcanic upheavals by which its fertility was destroyed; none shall pass through it forever and ever. The first act of the final destruction is shown in the fact that to this day one may travel for days through former Idumea without finding one inhabited city, and the final act will come with the fire of eternity. Cf Rev 14:11; Rev 18:18; Rev 19:3.
v. 11. But the cormorant, the pelican, and the bittern, the porcupine, shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it, the description of the desolation wrought agreeing with that in other parts of the prophets, Isa 13:20-22; Isa 14:23; Zep 2:14; and He, Jehovah, shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, His measuring-line being used with deliberate’ intent in working ruin, and the stones, the weights at the end of the plumb-lines, of emptiness, resulting in utter destruction. With the same rigorous exactness which marks the carpenter’s construction the Lord carries out His program of destruction, thus reducing Edom to a state of desolation.
v. 12. They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, literally, "As to her nobles, there are none there that call out a monarchy," that is, none are left to elect a new king or to succeed to the throne, and all her princes shall be nothing, none being there, none could be elected by the nobility to assume the power of a reigning monarch.
v. 13. And thorns shall come up in her palaces, growing up in the midst of their ruins, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof, where formerly magnificent castles stood; and it shall be an habitation of dragons, wild cats or dogs, and a court for owls, a place where ostriches will find their food.
v. 14. The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, the marten rivaling the jackal in his attempts to find food, and the satyr, spirit of the desert, shall cry to his fellow; the screech-owl, a night-specter believed to be dwelling in the wilderness, also shall rest there and find for herself a place of rest, for this evil spirit felt at home in the midst of desolation.
v. 15. There shall the great owl, rather, the arrow-snake, make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow, cherishing her young in the shadow of the ruins; there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate. In short, all the animal dwellers of the wilderness, whose shaggy appearance by day and whose melancholy cries by night made them objects inspiring fear and superstition, would be found in the desolate wastes of the former rich Idumean cities. Moreover, the people who would then compare prophecy and fulfillment would find that they agree most exactly.
v. 10. Seek ye out of the Book of the Lord, the prophecies as preserved by the command of Jehovah, who inspired them, and read, such searching being commanded to this day; no one of these shall fail, every point brought out in the prophecy would find its fulfillment, none shall want her mate, the corresponding prediction; for My mouth, it hath commanded, and His spirit, His breath, as God inspired his servants to write, it hath gathered them, so that the prophecy came to pass literally.
v. 17. And He, Jehovah, hath cast the lot for them, for all the wild beasts of the desert, and His hand hath divided it unto them by line, distributed it to them, given it to them for a possession; they shall possess it forever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein, these doleful creatures occupying the. land which had been the pride of Edom. Thus Jehovah ever is the Protector of His children over against all enemies.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv3, 5 The bodies of their dead will be thrown out
The bodies of their dead will be thrown out
This can be stated in active form. AT: "No one will bury their dead" (See: Active or Passive)
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their dead
This refers to the dead people. AT: "those who died" (See: Nominal Adjectives)
the mountains will soak up their blood
"the mountains will be covered in their blood"
the sky will be rolled up like a scroll
This can be stated in active form. This compares what Yahweh will do to the sky to a person rolling up a scroll. AT: "Yahweh will roll up the sky in the same way that a person rolls up a scroll" (See: Active or Passive and Simile)
all their stars will fade away, as the leaf fades from off the vine, and as the overripe figs from the fig tree
This emphasizes even the things in the sky that people thought would be there forever will fall as easily as a leaf. AT: "all the stars will fall from the sky like a leaf falls from a vine or a fig falls from a tree" (See: Simile)
translationWords
blood
scroll
vine
fig
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv2–6 34:2 completely destroy: See Lev 27:28-29.
34:2 completely destroy: See Lev 27:28-29.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.