Berean Standard Bible
Isaiah 34
1Come 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.2The LORD is angry with all the nations and furious with all their armies. He will devote them to destruction;1 He will give them over to slaughter.3Their slain will be left unburied, and the stench of their corpses will rise; the mountains will flow with their blood.
Judgment on Edom
(Isaiah 21:11–12)
4All 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.
5When My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens,then it will come down upon Edom,upon the people I have devoted to destruction.6The 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.7And the wild oxen will fall with them,the young bulls with the strong ones.Their land will be drenched with blood,and their soil will be soaked with fat.
8For the LORD has a day of vengeance,a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.29Edom’s streams will be turned to tar,and her soil to sulfur;her land will become a blazing pitch.10It 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.11The desert owl and screech owl will possess it,and the great owl and raven will dwell in it.3
The LORD will stretch out over Edoma measuring line of chaosand a plumb line of destruction.12No nobles will be left to proclaim a king,and all her princes will come to nothing.13Her towers will be overgrown with thorns,her fortresses with thistles and briers.She will become a haunt for jackals,4an abode for ostriches.514The desert creatures will meet with hyenas,and one wild goat will call to another.There the night creature6 will settleand find her place of repose.15There the owl will make her nest;she will lay and hatch her eggsand gather her brood under her shadow.Even there the birds of prey will gather,each with its mate.
16Search 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.17He has allotted their portion;His hand has distributed it by measure.They will possess it forever;they will dwell in it from generation to generation.
Notes
- 1. Isaiah 34:2 Forms of the Hebrew cherem refer to the giving over of things or persons, either by destroying them or by giving them as an offering; also in verse 5. ↩
- 2. Isaiah 34:8 Or of recompense for (Edom’s) hostility against Zion. ↩
- 3. Isaiah 34:11 The precise identification of these birds is uncertain. ↩
- 4. Isaiah 34:13 Or serpents or dragons ↩
- 5. Isaiah 34:13 Literally for daughters of an ostrich or for daughters of an owl ↩
- 6. Isaiah 34:14 Hebrew Lilith ↩
Commentaries on Isaiah 34
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
Berean Standard Bible — © Berean Bible — CC0 / Public Domain
Commentaries