Logos Bible Study

Isaiah 34:2–8

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34:2For the Lord is angry at all the nations

and furious with all their armies.

He will annihilate them and slaughter them.

34:3Their slain will be left unburied,2

their corpses will stink;3

the hills will soak up their blood.4

34:4All the stars in the sky will fade away,5

the sky will roll up like a scroll;

all its stars will wither,

like a leaf withers and falls from a vine

or a fig withers and falls from a tree.6

34:5He says,7 “Indeed, my sword has slaughtered heavenly powers.8

Look, it now descends on Edom,9

on the people I will annihilate in judgment.”

34:6The Lord’s sword is dripping with blood,

it is covered10 with fat;

it drips11 with the blood of young rams and goats

and is covered12 with the fat of rams’ kidneys.

For the Lord is holding a sacrifice13 in Bozrah,14

a bloody15 slaughter in the land of Edom.

34:7Wild oxen will be slaughtered16 along with them,

as well as strong bulls.17

Their land is drenched with blood,

their soil is covered with fat.

34:8For the Lord has planned a day of revenge,18

a time when he will repay Edom for her hostility toward Zion.19

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Heb “will be cast aside”; , “thrown out.”
  2. 3 Heb “[as for] their corpses, their stench will arise.”
  3. 4 Heb “hills will dissolve from their blood.”
  4. 5 Heb “and all the host of heaven will rot.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa inserts “and the valleys will be split open,” but this reading may be influenced by Mic 1:4. On the other hand, the statement, if original, could have been omitted by homoioarcton, a scribe’s eye jumping from the conjunction prefixed to “the valleys” to the conjunction prefixed to the verb “rot.”
  5. 6 Heb “like the withering of a leaf from a vine, and like the withering from a fig tree.”
  6. 7 The words “he says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The Lord speaks at this point.
  7. 8 Heb “indeed [or “for”] my sword is drenched in the heavens.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa has תראה (“[my sword] appeared [in the heavens]”), but this is apparently an attempt to make sense out of a difficult metaphor. Cf. “My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens.” In v. 4 the “host of the heaven” refers to the heavenly luminaries (stars and planets, see, among others, Deut 4:19; 17:3; 2 Kgs 17:16; 21:3, 5; 23:4–5; 2 Chr 33:3, 5) that populate the divine/heavenly assembly in mythological and prescientific Israelite thought (see Job 38:7; Isa 14:13). As in 24:21, they are viewed here as opposing God and being defeated in battle.
  8. 9 Edom is mentioned here as epitomizing the hostile nations that oppose God.
  9. 10 The verb is a rare Hotpaal passive form. See §54.h.
  10. 11 The words “it drips” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
  11. 12 The words “and is covered” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
  12. 13 Heb “for there is a sacrifice to the Lord.”
  13. 14 The Lord’s judgment of Edom is compared to a bloody sacrificial scene.
  14. 15 Heb “great” (so , , , , ).
  15. 16 Heb “will go down”; “shall be struck down.”
  16. 17 Heb “and bulls along with strong ones.” Perhaps this refers to the leaders.
  17. 18 Heb “for a day of vengeance [is] for the Lord.”
  18. 19 Heb “a year of repayment for the strife of Zion.” The translation assumes that רִיב (riv) refers to Edom’s hostility toward Zion. Another option is to understand רִיב (riv) as referring to the Lord’s taking up Zion’s cause. In this case one might translate, “a time when he will repay Edom and vindicate Zion.”

The NET Bible First Edition, Copyright 1996-2005 by Biblical Studies Press