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Isaiah 34
1Come near, you nations, to hear! Listen, you peoples. Let the earth and all it contains hear; the world, and everything that comes from it.
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; and 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.
7The 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 dust made greasy with fat.
8For Yahweh has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
9Its streams will be turned into pitch, its dust into sulfur, And its land will become burning pitch.
10It won't be quenched night nor day. Its smoke will go up forever. From generation to generation, it will lie waste. No one will pass through it forever and ever.
11But the pelican and the porcupine will possess it. The owl and the raven will dwell in it. He will stretch the line of confusion over it, and the plumb line of emptiness.
12They shall call its nobles to the kingdom, but none shall be there; and all its princes shall be nothing.
13Thorns will come up in its palaces, nettles and thistles in its fortresses; and it will be a habitation of jackals, a court for ostriches.
14The wild animals of the desert will meet with the wolves, and the wild goat will cry to his fellow. Yes, the night creature shall settle there, and shall find herself a place of rest.
15The arrow snake will make her nest there, and lay, hatch, and gather under her shade. Yes, the kites will be gathered there, every one with her mate.
16Search in the book of Yahweh, and read: not one of these will be missing. none will lack her mate. For my mouth has commanded, and his Spirit has gathered them.
17He has cast the lot for them, and his hand has divided it to them with a measuring line. They shall possess it forever. From generation to generation they will dwell in it.
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Animals: Habits of Isaiah 34:14
The desert creatures will meet with hyenas, and one wild goat will call to another. There the night creature will settle and find her place of repose.
Animals: Homes of Isaiah 34:14
The desert creatures will meet with hyenas, and one wild goat will call to another. There the night creature will settle and find her place of repose.
Astronomy: Sidereal Phenomena Isaiah 34:4
All the stars of heaven will be dissolved. The skies will be rolled up like a scroll, and all their stars will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like foliage from the fig tree.
Being Single Isaiah 34:16
Search and read the scroll of the LORD: Not one of these will go missing, not one will lack her mate, because He has ordered it by His mouth, and He will gather them by His Spirit.
Birds: Inhabit: Deserted Cities Isaiah 34:11, 14, 15
The desert owl and screech owl will possess it, and the great owl and raven will dwell in it. The LORD will stretch out over Edom a measuring line of chaos and a plumb line of destruction. / The desert creatures will meet with hyenas, and one wild goat will call to another. There the night creature will settle and find her place of repose. / There the owl will make her nest; she will lay and hatch her eggs and gather her brood under her shadow. Even there the birds of prey will gather, each with its mate.
Birds: Make Their Nests in Deserted Cities Isaiah 34:15
There the owl will make her nest; she will lay and hatch her eggs and gather her brood under her shadow. Even there the birds of prey will gather, each with its mate.
Birds: Unclean: Bittern Isaiah 34:11
The desert owl and screech owl will possess it, and the great owl and raven will dwell in it. The LORD will stretch out over Edom a measuring line of chaos and a plumb line of destruction.
Birds: Unclean: Cormorant Isaiah 34:11
The desert owl and screech owl will possess it, and the great owl and raven will dwell in it. The LORD will stretch out over Edom a measuring line of chaos and a plumb line of destruction.
Birds: Unclean: Vulture Isaiah 34:15
There the owl will make her nest; she will lay and hatch her eggs and gather her brood under her shadow. Even there the birds of prey will gather, each with its mate.
Bittern: A Species of Heron Isaiah 34:11
The desert owl and screech owl will possess it, and the great owl and raven will dwell in it. The LORD will stretch out over Edom a measuring line of chaos and a plumb line of destruction.
Books: Made in a Roll Isaiah 34:4
All the stars of heaven will be dissolved. The skies will be rolled up like a scroll, and all their stars will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like foliage from the fig tree.
Bozrah: A City of Edom: Prophecies Concerning Isaiah 34:6
The sword of the LORD is bathed in blood. It drips with fat—with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
Bramble: General Scriptures Concerning Isaiah 34:13
Her towers will be overgrown with thorns, her fortresses with thistles and briers. She will become a haunt for jackals, an abode for ostriches.
Cormorant: A Bird Forbidden As Food Isaiah 34:11
The desert owl and screech owl will possess it, and the great owl and raven will dwell in it. The LORD will stretch out over Edom a measuring line of chaos and a plumb line of destruction.
Day: Times of Adversity Called Day of the Lord Isaiah 34:8
For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
Dragon: A Serpent or the Desert Isaiah 34:13
Her towers will be overgrown with thorns, her fortresses with thistles and briers. She will become a haunt for jackals, an abode for ostriches.
Dragons Isaiah 34:13
Her towers will be overgrown with thorns, her fortresses with thistles and briers. She will become a haunt for jackals, an abode for ostriches.
Edomites: Prophecies Concerning Isaiah 34:1
Come near, O nations, to listen; pay attention, O peoples. Let the earth hear, and all that fills it, the world and all that springs from it.
Fire: Things Connected With: Smoke Isaiah 34:10
It will not be quenched—day or night. Its smoke will ascend forever. From generation to generation it will lie desolate; no one will ever again pass through it.
Fortresses: Often: Deserted Isaiah 34:13
Her towers will be overgrown with thorns, her fortresses with thistles and briers. She will become a haunt for jackals, an abode for ostriches.
Heaven: Physical Heavens, Destruction of Isaiah 34:4
All the stars of heaven will be dissolved. The skies will be rolled up like a scroll, and all their stars will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like foliage from the fig tree.
Isaiah: Prophecies, Reproofs Isaiah 34:1
Come near, O nations, to listen; pay attention, O peoples. Let the earth hear, and all that fills it, the world and all that springs from it.
Nettles: An Obnoxious Plant Isaiah 34:13
Her towers will be overgrown with thorns, her fortresses with thistles and briers. She will become a haunt for jackals, an abode for ostriches.
Ostriches: General Scriptures Concerning Isaiah 34:13
Her towers will be overgrown with thorns, her fortresses with thistles and briers. She will become a haunt for jackals, an abode for ostriches.
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Isaiah 34:1-17 Judgment on Idumea.
The thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth chapters form one prophecy, the former part of which denounces God's judgment against His people's enemies, of whom Edom is the representative; the second part, of the flourishing state of the Church consequent on those judgments. This forms the termination of the prophecies of the first part of Isaiah (the thirty-sixth through thirty-ninth chapters being historical) and is a kind of summary of what went before, setting forth the one main truth, Israel shall be delivered from all its foes, and happier times shall succeed under Messiah.
Isaiah 34:1 Verse 1
All creation is summoned to hear God's judgments (Eze 6:3; De 32:1; Ps 50:4; Mic 6:1, 2), for they set forth His glory, which is the end of creation (Re 15:3; 4:11). that come forth of it--answering to "all that is therein"; or Hebrew, "all whatever fills it," Margin.
Isaiah 34:2 Verse 2
utterly destroyed--rather, "doomed them to an utter curse" [Horsley]. delivered--rather, "appointed."
Isaiah 34:3 Verse 3
cast out--unburied (Isa 14:19). melted--washed away as with a descending torrent.
Isaiah 34:4 Verse 4
(Ps 102:26; Joe 2:31; 3:15; Mt 24:29). dissolved--(2Pe 3:10-12). Violent convulsions of nature are in Scripture made the images of great changes in the human world (Isa 24:19-21), and shall literally accompany them at the winding up of the present dispensation. scroll--Books were in those days sheets of parchment rolled together (Re 6:14). fall down--The stars shall fall when the heavens in which they are fixed pass away. fig tree--(Re 6:13).
Isaiah 34:5 Verse 5
sword--(Jer 46:10). Or else, knife for sacrifice for God does not here appear as a warrior with His sword, but as one about to sacrifice victims doomed to slaughter [Vitringa]. (Eze 39:17). bathed--rather "intoxicated," namely, with anger (so De 32:42). "In heaven" implies the place where God's purpose of wrath is formed in antithesis to its "coming down" in the next clause. Idumea--originally extending from the Dead Sea to the Red Sea; afterwards they obtained possession of the country east of Moab, of which Bozrah was capital. Petra or Selah, called Joktheel (2Ki 14:7), was capital of South Edom (see on Isa 16:1). David subjugated Edom (2Sa 8:13, 14). Under Jehoram they regained independence (2Ch 21:8). Under Amaziah they were again subdued, and Selah taken (2Ki 14:7). When Judah was captive in Babylon, Edom, in every way, insulted over her fallen mistress, killed many of those Jews whom the Chaldeans had left, and hence was held guilty of fratricide by God (Esau, their ancestor, having been brother to Jacob): this was the cause of the denunciations of the prophets against Edom (Isa 63:1, &c.; Jer 49:7; Eze 25:12-14; 35:3-15; Joe 3:19; Am 1:11, 12; Ob 8, 10, 12-18; Mal 1:3,4). Nebuchadnezzar humbled Idumea accordingly (Jer 25:15-21). of my curse--that is, doomed to it. to judgment--that is, to execute it.
Isaiah 34:6 Verse 6
filled--glutted. The image of a sacrifice is continued. blood ... fat--the parts especially devoted to God in a sacrifice (2Sa 1:22). lambs ... goats--sacrificial animals: the Idumeans, of all classes, doomed to slaughter, are meant (Zep 1:7). Bozrah--called Bostra by the Romans, &c., assigned in Jer 48:24 to Moab, so that it seems to have been at one time in the dominion of Edom, and at another in that of Moab (Isa 63:1; Jer 49:13, 20, 22); it was strictly not in Edom, but the capital of Auranitis (the Houran). Edom seems to have extended its dominion so as to include it (compare La 4:21).
Isaiah 34:7 Verse 7
unicorns--Hebrew, reem: conveying the idea of loftiness, power, and pre-eminence (see on Job 39:9), in the Bible. At one time the image in the term answers to a reality in nature; at another it symbolizes an abstraction. The rhinoceros was the original type. The Arab rim is two-horned: it was the oryx (the leucoryx, antelope, bold and pugnacious); but when accident or artifice deprived it of one horn, the notion of the unicorn arose. Here is meant the portion of the Edomites which was strong and warlike. come down--rather, "fall down," slain [Lowth]. with them--with the "lambs and goats," the less powerful Edomites (Isa 34:6). bullocks ... bulls--the young and old Edomites: all classes. dust--ground.
Isaiah 34:8 Verse 8
recompenses for the controversy of Zion--that is, the year when God will retaliate on those who have contended with Zion. Her controversy is His. Edom had thought to extend its borders by laying hold of its neighbor's lands and has instigated Babylon to cruelty towards fallen Judah (Ps 137:7; Eze 36:5); therefore Edom shall suffer the same herself (La 4:21, 22). The final winding up of the controversy between God and all enemies of Him and His people is also foreshadowed (Isa 61:2; 63:4; 66:14-16; Mal 4:1, 3; 2Th 1:7, 8, 9; Re 11:18; 18:20; 19:2).
Isaiah 34:9 Verse 9
Images from the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah (Ge 19:24-28; so De 29:23; Jer 49:17, 18).
Isaiah 34:10 Verse 10
It--The burning pitch, &c. (Isa 34:9). smoke ... for ever--(Re 14:11; 18:18; 19:3). generation to generation--(Mal 1:4). none ... pass through--Edom's original offense was: they would not let Israel pass through their land in peace to Canaan: God recompenses them in kind, no traveller shall pass through Edom. Volney, the infidel, was forced to confirm the truth of this prophecy: "From the reports of the Arabs, southeast of the Dead Sea, within three days' journey are upwards of thirty ruined towns, absolutely deserted."
Isaiah 34:11 Verse 11
cormorant--The Hebrew is rendered, in Ps 102:6, "pelican," which is a seafowl, and cannot be meant here: some waterfowl (katta, according to Burckhardt) that tenants desert places is intended. bittern--rather, "the hedgehog," or "porcupine" [Gesenius] (Isa 14:23). owl--from its being enumerated among water birds in Le 11:17; De 14:16. Maurer thinks rather the heron or crane is meant; from a Hebrew root, "to blow," as it utters a sound like the blowing of a horn (Re 18:2). confusion--devastation. line ... stones--metaphor from an architect with line and plummet-stone (see on Isa 18:2; Isa 28:17); God will render to it the exact measure of justice without mercy (Jas 2:13; 2Ki 21:13; La 2:8; Am 7:7, 8). emptiness--desolation. Edom is now a waste of "stones."
Isaiah 34:12 Verse 12
Rather, "As to her nobles, there shall be none there who shall declare a kingdom," that is, a king [Maurer]; or else, "There shall be no one there whom they shall call to the kingdom" [Rosenmuller] (Isa 3:6, &c.). Idumea was at first governed by dukes (Ge 36:15); out of them the king wan chosen when the constitution became a monarchy.
Isaiah 34:13 Verse 13
dragons--(See on Isa 13:21; Isa 13:22). court for owls--rather, "a dwelling for ostriches."
Isaiah 34:14 Verse 14
wild beasts of the desert ... island--rather, "wild cats ... jackals" (Isa 13:21). screech owl--rather, "the night specter"; in Jewish superstition a female, elegantly dressed, that carried off children by night. The text does not assert the existence of such objects of superstition, but describes the place as one which superstition would people with such beings.
Isaiah 34:15 Verse 15
great owl--rather, "the arrow snake," so called from its darting on its prey [Gesenius]. lay--namely, eggs. gather under her shadow--rather, "cherishes" her young under, &c. (Jer 17:11).
Isaiah 34:16 Verse 16
book of the Lord--the volume in which the various prophecies and other parts of Scripture began henceforward to be collected together (Isa 30:8; Da 9:2). Seek--(so Isa 8:16, 20; Joh 5:39; 7:52). no one ... fail--of these prophecies (Mt 5:18). none shall want ... mate--image from pairing of animals mentioned, Isa 34:15 ("mate"); no prediction shall want a fulfilment as its companion. Or rather, "none of these wild animals (just spoken of) shall be wanting: none shall be without its mate" to pair and breed with, in desolate Idumea. my ... his--Such changes of person are frequent in Hebrew poetry. them--the wild beasts.
Isaiah 34:17 Verse 17
cast ... lot--As conquerors apportion lands by lot, so Jehovah has appointed and marked out ("divided") Edom for the wild beasts (Nu 26:55, 56; Jos 18:4-6).