Isaiah 34:6

6 The Lord's sword will be covered with blood; it will be covered with fat, with the blood from lambs and goats, with the fat from the kidneys of sheep. and much killing in Edom.

Isaiah 34:6 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 34:6

The sword of the Lord is filled with blood
Multitudes being slain by it; the "Lord" here is that divine Person that is described as a warrior, as a General of an army, with a sharp sword, by whom many are slain, such a number as that it is filled with the blood of them, ( Revelation 19:11-16 Revelation 19:21 ) : it is made fat with fatness:
not only filled with the blood, but fattened by it; the allusion is to ravenous creatures gorged and sated with the blood of others, and thereby made fat; perhaps this may refer to Christian princes, the sword in the hand of the Lord, who shall be enriched with the plunder and spoil of the antichristian states: [and] with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the
kidneys of rams.
The Targum is,

``with the blood of kings and governors, with the fat of the kidneys princes;''

and Jarchi interprets them, of princes and rulers; but rather the common people are designed, or the common soldiers in the army, or however the inferior officers of it; kings, princes, and generals, being intended in the following verse ( Isaiah 34:7 ) . It denotes the great carnage of all sorts and ranks of men made at this time, and which is described in ( Revelation 19:18 ) : for the Lord hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in
the land of Idumea:
there seems to be two Bozrahs the Scripture speaks of, the one in Moab, ( Jeremiah 48:24 ) and another in Edom, ( Isaiah 63:1 ) which is here meant, and was a chief city of the Edomites, and signifies a fortress, being no doubt a place well fortified; this is the Bostra of Ptolemy ^F11, and which he places in Arabia Petraea. Aben Ezra says that some interpret it of Constantinople, the metropolis of the Ottoman empire; but it is best to understand it of Rome, as Menasseh ben Israel ^F12 does, and Idumea of the whole Roman jurisdiction; Rome being the chief city of the antichristian states, that great city, which John in his Revelation describes as reigning over the kings of the earth; here and in all the antichristian kingdoms will be a great "slaughter" of men, called a "sacrifice" of the Lord, because by his order and direction, and for the honour of his justice, and being acceptable to him; and perhaps there may be an allusion to the blood sacrifices being the Lord's; this slaughter and sacrifice is called the supper of the great God, ( Revelation 19:17 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F11 Geograph. l. 5. c. 17.
F12 Spes Israelis, sect. 30. p. 91.

Isaiah 34:6 In-Context

4 The sun, moon, and stars will dissolve, and the sky will be rolled up like a scroll. The stars will fall like dead leaves from a vine or dried-up figs from a fig tree.

5 The Lord's sword in the sky is covered with blood. and destroy those people as an offering to the Lord.

6 The Lord's sword will be covered with blood; it will be covered with fat, with the blood from lambs and goats, with the fat from the kidneys of sheep. and much killing in Edom.

7 The oxen will be killed, and the cattle and the strong bulls. The land will be filled with their blood, and the dirt will be covered with their fat.

8 The Lord has chosen a time for punishment. He has chosen a year when people must pay for the wrongs they did to Jerusalem.