Isaiah 34:6-16

6 The LORD has a sword covered with blood; it is soaked with fat from the blood of lambs and goats, from the kidney fat of rams, for the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 Wild oxen will fall with them, steers with mighty bulls, and their land will be drenched with blood; its soil soaked with fat.
8 The LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of payback for Zion's cause.
9 Edom's streams will be turned into pitch, its dust into sulfur, and its land will become burning pitch.
10 Night and day won't be extinguished; its smoke will go up forever. From generation to generation it will lie waste; no one will ever pass through it again.
11 Screech owls and crows will possess it; owls and ravens will live there. God will stretch over it the measuring line of chaos and the plummet stone of emptiness over its officials.
12 No Kingdom There, they will call it, and all its princes will disappear.
13 Thorns will grow up in its palaces, weeds and brambles in its fortresses. It will be a dwelling for jackals, a home for ostriches.
14 Wildcats will meet hyenas, the goat demon will call to his friends, and there Lilith will lurk and find her resting place.
15 There the snake will nest and lay eggs and brood and hatch in its shadow. There too vultures will gather, each with its mate.
16 Consult the LORD's scroll and read: Not one of these will be missing; none will lack its mate. God's own mouth has commanded; God's own spirit has gathered them.

Isaiah 34:6-16 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 34

This chapter is a prophecy of the destruction of all the antichristian nations of the world, and particularly of Rome, signified by Idumea; which is introduced with a call to a general attention to it, it being a very awful and solemn affair, Isa 34:1 utter and universal destruction is declared, as the effect of God's wrath, Isa 34:2 which is expressed by a dreadful scene of blood, to the melting of the mountains with it, and by the dissolution of the heavens, and the hosts of them, Isa 34:3,4 particularly the destruction of Idumea is denounced by the sword of the Lord being on it, and bathed with the blood, both of the common people, and of their princes, signified by various sorts of creatures, Isa 34:5-7 the cause of which is the Lord's vengeance for the controversy of his church and people, injured by Edom or Rome, Isa 34:8 whose desolate and calamitous state is represented as being like that of Sodom, Isa 34:9,10 and should be no more inhabited by men, nor governed by princes, but be the dwelling of wild beasts and unclean birds, Isa 34:11-15 all which is confirmed by the word and Spirit of God, Isa 34:16,17.

Footnotes 3

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