Isaiah 34:5-17

The Judgment of Edom

5 When My sword has drunk its fill^[a] in the heavens it will then come down on Edom and on the people I have set apart for destruction.

6 The Lord's sword is covered with 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.

7 The wild oxen will be struck^[b] down with them, and young bulls with the mighty bulls. Their land will be soaked with^[c] blood, and their soil will be saturated with fat.

8 For the Lord has a day of vengeance, a time of paying back [Edom] for its hostility against Zion.

9 [Edom's] streams will be turned into pitch, her soil into sulfur; her land will become burning pitch.

10 It will never go out-day or night. Its smoke will go up forever. It will be desolate, from generation to generation; no one will pass through it forever and ever.

11 The desert owl^[d] and the hedgehog^[e] will possess it, and the great owl and the raven will dwell there. [The Lord] will stretch out a measuring line and a plumb line over her for [her] destruction and chaos.

12 No nobles will be left to proclaim a king, and all her princes will come to nothing.

13 Her palaces will be overgrown with thorns; her fortified cities, with thistles and briers. She will become a dwelling for jackals, an abode^[f] for ostriches.

14 The wild beasts will meet hyenas, and one wild goat will call to another. Indeed, the screech owl will stay there and will find a resting place for herself.

15 The sand partridge^[g] will make her nest there; she will lay and hatch her eggs and will gather [her brood] under her shadow. Indeed, the birds of prey will gather there, each with its mate.

16 Search and read the scroll of the Lord: Not one of them will be missing, none will be lacking its mate, because He has ordered it by my^[h] mouth, and He will gather them by His Spirit.

17 He has ordained a lot for them; His hand allotted their portion with a measuring line. They will possess it forever; they will dwell in it from generation to generation.

Isaiah 34:5-17 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

• [a]. DSS read sword will appear
• [b]. Or will go
• [c]. Or will drink its fill of
• [d]. Or The pelican
• [e]. Or owl
• [f]. DSS, LXX, Syr, Tg; MT reads jackals, grass
• [g]. Or The arrow snake, or The owl
• [h]. Some Hb mss; other Hb mss, DSS, Syr, Tg read His