Isaiah 34
DOYLYIsaiah 34:5
- — my sword shall be bathed] In the blood of these people: the same word is rendered in Jer. xvi. 10, “shall be made drunk.” This is said to be done “in heaven,” because it was there decreed to be done. Poole, Bp. Hall.
Isaiah 34:6
- The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, &c.] God shall take full vengeance on his enemies; his sword shall be, as it were, fed with the blood of his great and noted adversaries: this slaughter of his shall be like to that of an universal sacrifice, which shall be killed on the altar of the land of Edom, and all the regions of his proud opposites. Bp. Hall.
— a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea.] Considering the original sense of these words, they may fitly be applied to a place of slaughter: “Edom” signifying red, as blood is; and “Bozrah,” a vintage; which in the prophetic idiom often denotes God’s vengeance on the wicked. See particularly chap. lxiii. 3, in which chapter these words are again joined together. W. Lowth. Ezekiel has manifestly imitated this passage of Isaiah, chap. xxxix. 17, 18. The sublime author of the Revelation (chap. xix. 17, 18,) has taken this image from Ezekiel rather than Isaiah. Bp. Lowth. The destruction of Edom is foretold in a strain not less hyperboleat than this of Isaiah by Jeremiah, chap. xlix. 7-22; by Ezekiel, chap. xxxv. and xxv. 12; and by Obadiah. Jos. Mede.
Isaiah 34:11
- But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; &c.] Beside the passages referred to in the margin, with this verse and with ver. 13-15, compare chap. xiii. 21; xiv. 23. W. Lowth.
Before CHRIST about 713. Or. chinoceros. Or. drunken. c Chap. 63. 4. d Rev. 18. 18. & 19. 3. e Zeph. 2. 14. Rev. 18. 2. Or. pelican.
The desolation of her enemies. CHAP. XXXIV, XXXV. The joyful state of Christ’s kingdom.
Before CHRIST about 713. and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness.