Isaiah 34:6-16

6 The sword of the Lord is filled of blood, it is made fat of the inner fatness of the blood of lambs and of bucks of goats, of the blood of rams full of marrow (The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, and it is made fat with inner fatness, yea, with the blood of lambs and of goat bucks, and with the fat from the kidneys of rams); for why the slain sacrifice of the Lord is in Bozrah, and great slaying is in the land of Edom.

7 And unicorns shall go down with them, and bulls with them that be mighty (And wild oxen shall go down with them, and bulls with other mighty beasts); the land of them shall be filled with blood, and the earth of them with [the] inner fatness of fat beasts;

8 for it is a day of vengeance of the Lord, a year of yielding of the doom of Zion. (for it is a day of the vengeance of the Lord, a year of yielding the justice, or the judgement, of Zion.)

9 And the strands thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the earth thereof into brimstone; and the land thereof shall be into burning pitch, night and day. (And its streams shall be turned into pitch, and its land into brimstone; yea, its land shall become burning pitch, day and night.)

10 It shall not be quenched without end, the smoke thereof shall go up from generation into generation, and it shall be desolate into worlds of worlds; none shall pass thereby.

11 And (an) onocrotalus, and an urchin, shall wield it; and a capret, and a crow shall dwell therein; and a measure shall be stretched forth thereon, that it be driven (in)to nought, and an hanging plummet into desolation.

12 The noble men thereof shall not be there; rather they shall call the king into help, and all the princes thereof shall be into nought. (They shall call for its noble men to rule the kingdom, but no one shall be there; and all its leaders shall come to nothing.)

13 And thorns and nettles shall grow in the houses thereof, and a teasel in the strongholds thereof; and it shall be the couch of dragons, and the pasture of ostriches.

14 And fiends, and wonderful beasts, like men in the higher part, and like asses in the nether part, and an hairy, shall meet; one shall cry to another. Lamia shall lie there, and find rest there to herself; (And fiends, and wonderful beasts, like men in the higher part, and like donkeys in the lower part, and hairy all over, shall meet; and one shall cry to the other. The lamia shall lie down there, and shall find rest there for herself;)

15 there an urchin had ditches, and nourished out whelps (there a hedge-hog had dens, and nourished whelps), and digged about, and fostered in the shadow thereof; there kites were gathered together, one to another.

16 Seek ye diligently in the book of the Lord, and read ye; one of those things failed not, one sought not (in vain for) another; for he commanded that thing, that goeth forth of my mouth, and his spirit, he gathered them together. (Seek ye diligently in the Book of the Lord, and read ye; not one of them shall fail, not one shall seek in vain for another; for he hath commanded it with his mouth, and with his breath, he hath brought them together.)

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.