And the torrents thereof shall be turned into pitch, and its dust into brimstone; yea, the land thereof shall become burning pitch
Isaiah 34 announces judgment on all nations, then narrows to one country: Edom, the land of Esau's descendants. Verse 9 shows what is left when that judgment falls: the water, dust and soil all turn to fuel. Has this already happened? And what is such language meant to teach?
Commentators tie the severity here to an old grudge. The reason given in verse 8 is a case God takes up on Zion's behalf:
In the last book of the Old Testament God says that He hated Esau. The whole book of Obadiah is taken up with predictions against him. Here we find the same thing. Verse 8 tells us that vengeance falls on them in recompense for "the cause of Zion." In Zion God chose to have mercy on Jacob, but Edom hunted them with undying hatred, as we see in Psalm 83:3-6. So judgments of special severity will fall on the land of Idumea. The rest of chapter 34 gives the solemn details.
Some have argued that the ruined state of Edom today is all Isaiah meant. Frederick Grant denies it, and points back to the surrounding verses:
Isaiah is not prophesying about the present state of Edom. He speaks of a time still future, as verses 2-8 clearly show. Then this terrible judgment will fall. If Scripture language were so deceptive, who could trust it?
Idumea is another name for Edom. Some once used travel reports to prove the prophecy had already come true. Kelly draws the opposite conclusion:
Quite a few travellers have passed through Idumea, and have lived to write and publish their accounts... So even on the plainest level of fact, it became clear that the prophecy had not failed. The time for it to be fulfilled is still future. That is the only fair conclusion. It is to be a land where people no longer live, and where no strangers pass through for ever. God's unsparing wrath will make it an outstanding example of total destruction before the whole world.
Many read this fire as a picture of hell itself. Kelly answers that a named country is in view:
When the wicked dead stand before the great white throne to receive their doom, it will be no question of Idumea or any other land. Here it is the judgment of the earth while it still stands, not that eternal judgment where the old creation disappears to make way for the "new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells." The judgment of Idumea goes beyond anything in the past. Yet it falls far short of this complete and final change for eternity.
The language still carries full weight. Frederick Grant reads Edom's ruin as a picture, and applies it to another city:
What a picture of eternal judgment Idumea is... Rome is the great Edom, just as it is the great Babylon. It would be strange indeed if she did not meet a similar recompense.
Pitch is a tar-like bitumen. Elsewhere in Scripture it does the opposite work:
Noah covered the ark with pitch inside and outside. Gen. 6:14. The basket that held the infant Moses was made waterproof the same way. Ex. 2:3. Among God's judgements on the earth the streams are turned into pitch, and the land into burning pitch. Isa. 34:9. The Hebrew of Gen. 6:14 uses different words from the other passages. Noah was to pitch (kaphar, 'to cover,' often translated 'atonement') the ark with pitch (kopher, translated 'ransom'), as if to teach that only a covering ransom could save Noah and those with him, and bring them into a new earth.
Leslie Grant traces a wider meaning in the name itself:
Edom is the same name as Adam, only slightly disguised. So the nation stands for the flesh, and "those who are in the flesh cannot please God." The flesh can appear in many convincing forms. It pleases the natural senses and appeals to the reasoning minds of people. In our day the strong humanist movement is a marked example of this proud, empty pretence of the flesh. It will fall under the awesome judgment of God, while the despised people of God will be delivered.
Judgment on Edom is not the end of the story. Kelly points to what the same day brings:
God then shows that the same day that brings this desolation on Edom begins Israel's blessing. And Israel is not the only one rejoicing. Jehovah will make a large and growing scene for His own glory, where there was once misery and barrenness.
- Cause — The judgment answers a long hatred of God's people; it is recompense for the cause of Zion.
- Future — Verses 2-8 place this judgment ahead, not behind. Edom's ruins today are not the fulfilment, and travellers still cross the land.
- Earthly — It falls on a real country while the world still stands. It is not the final judgment, where the old creation disappears.
- Pattern — Yet it serves as a picture of eternal judgment. Grant applies the same picture to Rome, the great Edom.
- Contrast — Pitch once sealed Noah's ark and saved him; here it burns. And the day that leaves Edom waste is the day God begins Israel's blessing.
it shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.
Isaiah's message against Edom closes with one of the harshest scenes in the book. It raises three questions: has this already happened, why Edom, and what does "forever" mean when God says it over a piece of ground?
The verse sits under a date stamp given one line earlier — the day of the Lord's vengeance, the year of settling accounts on Zion's behalf. That anchor tells one commentator what kind of scene this is: earth, not eternity.
Of course the language is picture-language; everyone admits that. The question is, a picture of what? Of heavenly things or earthly ones? Of eternity or of time? Certainly the second in each case… This is not the new heavens and new earth. God's earthly people are coming into view — Zion, the city of the great King, the Messiah's kingship, the worldwide kingdom of the Son of man. So the judgment of the nations can no longer be put off.
One writer points out what sets Edom apart from every other nation under judgment, and turns it into a warning for the reader.
Here is a striking fact. A remnant of the other nations will come into blessing in a future day, but Edom will not… Let us take the lesson to heart, for we can fall into the same spirit as the Edomite. Jeremiah saw the failures and sins of God's people, but he wept over them. Daniel and other godly men confessed those sins as their own. The spirit of the Edomite is bitter hatred against people who, whatever their failures, are still the people of God. God finds this spirit especially displeasing.
Some look at Edom's ruins today and call the prophecy finished. Others once claimed that no traveller could cross that land — Idumea, in older writing — and live. One commentator answers both.
Many people believed… that anyone who tried to cross the land of Idumea would certainly die… That whole idea was a mistake. Apart from the local people living here and there, plenty of travellers have crossed Idumea and lived to write and publish their accounts… So even on the plainest ground of fact, it became clear that the prophecy had not failed. The time for it to be fulfilled is still future.
One writer reads the rising smoke as what a fire leaves behind: lasting proof of something God has already done.
The smoke of Edom going up forever (Isa. 34:10) would be the lasting proof that God had acted on what He saw of its condition.
The same picture returns in Revelation, over the fall of Babylon. The wording below, "ages of ages," follows an older translation.
"And her smoke goes up to the ages of ages" is a striking and powerful picture of how final and lasting this judgment from God is. The fall of the symbolic Babylon is an everlasting witness to the righteous judgment of God (compare with Isa. 34:10).
Commentators differ on how much this verse settles about final judgment. One writer insists the words mean what they say, and still refuses to read into them more than Isaiah wrote.
Edom's present condition is not what Isaiah is prophesying about. He speaks of a time still future, as verses 2-8 clearly show, and then this terrible judgment will happen. If the language of Scripture were that misleading, who could trust it? But Isaiah says nothing about "endless life in pain" — not a word… And the Old Testament "forever" is not the "ages of the ages" of the New.
Isaiah 34 does not end the thought. The very day that empties Edom of every inhabitant fills another wasteland with life.
Right beside this terrible picture of a land left empty of people, given over to wild beasts, birds of prey and reptiles, God shows that the very day which sees Edom laid waste begins Israel's blessing. And it is not only Israel rejoicing. The LORD will make a wide and growing scene for His own glory where once there was misery and bare ground… This is not just fertile land. It is the restoring of all things when that day comes on earth: every joy, fruitfulness, and beauty.
- Cause. Edom hated God's people, and God finds that spirit especially displeasing. Any reader can slip into it.
- Day. The fire belongs to a day when God settles accounts with the nations for His people — on earth and in time, not in eternity.
- Future. Travellers have crossed Edom and lived to write about it. The prophecy has not failed; its day is still ahead.
- Witness. The rising smoke is lasting proof that God has judged, the same picture used later over Babylon's fall.
- Contrast. The day that empties Edom is the day the desert blossoms: judgment on one land, restored beauty on the next.
And the pelican and the bittern shall possess it, and the great owl and the raven shall dwell in it. And he shall stretch out upon it the line of waste, and the plummets of emptiness.
Isaiah 34 announces God's judgment on Edom, and verse 11 shows the result: a land left to wild birds, then measured out with builder's tools that mark only chaos and emptiness. Two questions follow — why Edom, and what those tools mean.
The ruin of one small nation sits inside a far bigger picture.
This is one of the darkest chapters in the Bible. It describes a worldwide judgment such as the world has never seen. The Lord's anger then rests on all nations and on their armies.
Why Edom? The answer reaches back a long way.
In the last book of the Old Testament we find God saying that He hated Esau, and one of the shorter prophetic books, Obadiah, deals entirely with predictions against him. We find the same thing here. Verse 8 tells us that vengeance falls on them in payment for "the controversy of Zion." In Zion God chose to have mercy on Jacob, while Edom pursued them with undying hatred, as we see in Psalm 83:3-6. So judgments of unusual severity will fall on the land of Edom, and the rest of chapter 34 gives us the solemn details.
The creatures named here are hard to identify, and translations differ. What they signal is not in doubt.
In the Greek Old Testament the word means "hedgehog or porcupine," and some Hebrew scholars prefer that meaning for the Hebrew word qippod. But two of the passages name it alongside a bird called the Cormorant, so it is more likely a bird... These passages point to desolation caused by the judgements of God. The bittern is a bird that keeps away from company, and it is at home in any deserted marshy place... People have long treated its sad cry as a sign of coming evil.
The same picture returns over a ruined city, where the birds mean more than scenery.
"A hold of every unclean and hated bird." We gather that the demons and unclean spirits spoken of in that passage are personal beings. The unclean birds, birds of prey and of darkness, stand for the many and varied agents of Satan (Matthew 13:4, 32; Jeremiah 5:27; above all Isaiah 34:11-15), and they are of a deeply harmful and destructive kind. So Babylon is a sink of corruption, a thing God detests.
A measuring line and a plumb line are building tools. Here they serve for pulling down, and the point is accuracy.
A simple device: a lump of lead, a stone, or some other weight tied to a string, used to test whether a building or other structure stands upright. It pictures the exactness with which God brought judgement on Israel. God had built Israel up as a wall built with a plumb line, and with a plumb line it would be pulled down.
The words for confusion and emptiness here, tohu and bohu, are the same pair used of the earth in Genesis 1:2. Edom shows what kind of state those words describe.
No one can say that this describes the original state of the land of Edom. It is a state that God's judgment brought it down to. This confirms the meaning already given to Genesis 1:2... the way these words are used elsewhere (as in Isaiah 34) shows that there they fit a state God brought upon what He had made. They certainly do not describe the state in which He made or created it.
Edom's name itself carries a lesson.
Edom is the same name as Adam, only slightly disguised. The nation therefore stands for the flesh, and "Those who are in the flesh cannot please God." The flesh can appear in many convincing forms, pleasing to the natural senses and appealing to minds that reason everything out.
This wasteland is not the last word. The next chapter sets a garden beside the ruin.
Set strikingly beside this terrible picture of a vast emptiness with no room for man — a land left, as it were, to wild beasts, birds of prey and reptiles — God shows that the day which sees this desolation for Edom begins Israel's blessing. And it is not only Israel rejoicing: the Lord will make a wide and growing scene for His own glory where once there was misery and barrenness.
- Cause — God judges Edom for its long hatred of Zion, the city where He chose to show mercy to Jacob.
- Measure — The line and plumb line are building tools used for pulling down. God's judgment is exact, not random.
- Result — Tohu and bohu describe a state God's judgment brought the land down to, never the state in which He made it.
- Reach — The birds of prey and darkness stand for Satan's agents. The same picture returns over fallen Babylon.
- Reversal — The very day that empties Edom begins Israel's blessing and fills the waste with God's glory.
Of her nobles who should proclaim the kingdom, none are there; and all her princes shall be nought.
Isaiah 34 describes God's judgment on Edom, and verse 12 fixes on one detail: the thrones stand empty. No noble is left to proclaim a kingdom, and every prince comes to nothing. Why this nation, and why so complete an end?
Edom is the named target here. But the judgment reaches far wider than one small kingdom, and it falls on the nations that have crushed Zion.
Isaiah 34 reveals the terrible judgments that will fall on the other nations in Edom (compare Isaiah 63). Here it is those who have oppressed Zion, and the vengeance that God takes on oppressors. Edom itself is the particular object of this. But all the enemies of Israel who joined with Edom — the armies of the nations gathered against Jerusalem — will perish by the judgment of Jehovah in the land of Edom.
A kingdom with no one left to call it a kingdom is the exact reversal of what Edom wanted. God made Edom small, and Edom refused to be content with that.
They sought great things and hated the dignity of Israel. "Behold, I have made them small among the nations; you are greatly despised." This does not happen where a man or a people is content with the place given to them and fitting for them. It is especially the doom of those who aim beyond their measure. Then to be despised is of course particularly painful; and such was the history of Edom.
The loss is sharper when you remember what Edom had. Esau's line had rank and settled power long before Jacob's line had anything at all.
The world was Esau's portion, while Israel was still a stranger and a pilgrim. His children had their own chiefs and lands. They had kings too, and cities of their own. They were settled, as in the clefts of the rocks where eagles made their nests. All this time Jacob's children were still only homeless wanderers, in lands that were not theirs or in wasted deserts.
This judgment is not a reaction to one recent offence. When God acts, He looks back to where the story started.
With unerring wisdom God goes back to what Esau did from the beginning of his history. He had waited long and patiently, nearly a thousand years. Now He shows His perfect knowledge of the whole course and the end. But when the end does come, God always traces everything back to the beginning.
The same method fits a believer's own failures. Look past the visible fault to the cause behind it.
We never get right by merely judging this or that outbreak, but should always search out the cause... It is not enough to judge our acts; judging self is a very different process. We need to discern the springs within ourselves.
The prophets promise other condemned nations that God will restore them one day. Edom gets no such promise, and that silence is deliberate.
Obadiah 5, 6, 9, 18 and Jeremiah 49:9-10, 22 also declare that none of Edom shall be left. Notice that there is no restoration of a remnant, as there is for Elam and others (Jeremiah 49:39)... We see in these chapters, and in Isaiah 63, that Jehovah takes up Jerusalem's cause in His dispute with Edom.
One writer sees in Edom a picture of something nearer home. The name itself gives the hint.
Edom is really the same name as Adam, only slightly disguised. So the nation stands for the flesh, and "Those who are in the flesh cannot please God." The flesh can appear in many convincing forms. It pleases the natural senses and appeals to the reasoning minds of men. In our day the strong humanist movement is a clear example of this proud, empty, fleshly pretension. It will fall under the awesome judgment of God, while the despised people of God will be delivered.
- Pride. Edom refused the small place God gave it and aimed higher. That is why it ends up despised.
- Patience. God waited nearly a thousand years. Then He traced the judgment back to what Esau did at the start. He deals with roots, not outbreaks.
- Nothing. No noble is left to proclaim a kingdom. Every rank and title Edom held before Israel had a king comes to nothing.
- Finality. Elam and others get a remnant back. Edom does not, because God is pleading Jerusalem's cause.
- Application. Edom pictures the flesh. Proud, empty human pretension falls, and the despised people of God are delivered. So judge the spring within, not just the act.
And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in her fortresses; and it shall be a dwelling-place of wild dogs, a court for ostriches.
Isaiah 34 shows a land emptied of people and taken over by weeds and wild animals. Verse 13 is where the ruin reaches the buildings themselves. Why Edom? Is this ruin already history, or still ahead? And what is a scene of nettles and jackals meant to teach us?
The judgment named here lands on Edom — also called Idumea — but it reaches far wider.
Isaiah 34 reveals the terrible judgments which will fall upon the other nations in Edom (compare Isaiah 63). Here it is those who have oppressed Zion, and the vengeance that God takes on oppressors. Idumea itself is the particular object of this. But all the enemies of Israel who joined with Edom — the armies of the nations gathered against Jerusalem — will perish by the judgment of the Lord in the land of Edom.
The chapter is aimed at the line of Esau, and the reason lies far back.
In the last book of the Old Testament, God says that He hated Esau. One of the shorter prophetic books, Obadiah, is taken up entirely with predictions against him. Here we find the same thing. Verse 8 tells us that vengeance falls upon them in payment for "the controversy of Zion." In Zion God chose to have mercy upon Jacob, whereas Edom pursued them with undying hatred, as we see in Psalm 83:3-6. As a result, judgments of special severity will fall on the land of Idumea. The rest of chapter 34 gives us the solemn details.
When God finally acts, He looks back to where the evil started.
With unerring wisdom God goes back to what Esau did from the beginning of his history. He had waited long and patiently, nearly a thousand years. He shows His perfect knowledge of the whole course and its end. But when the end does come, God always traces everything back to the beginning.
Thorns and nettles are not scenery. Scripture uses them as a settled signal.
Scripture mentions these as a sign that a place was deserted and given up to desolation. The book of Job describes poor outcasts taking shelter under them.
The animals carry the same message. Older translations read "dragons" here, where newer ones read "jackals."
It may signify any great serpent or sea monster, symbolic of a huge destructive creature. Scripture says that nations doomed to destruction and desolation, including Jerusalem, become homes of dragons. Isaiah 34:13; Isaiah 35:7; Jeremiah 9:11; Jeremiah 10:22; Jeremiah 51:37.
The second creature is also debated. The Hebrew bath yaanah means "daughter of howling." Older translations render it "owl" eight times, including here, though the ostrich is probably meant. It is a bird "characterised by dwelling in waste places, and also by its wailing cry" (Morrish Bible Dictionary).
The thorns come up where the strength and splendour once stood. In verse 12 they call for the nobles, and no one is there. Kelly sums up the scene:
a terrible picture of vast emptiness where man once was, handed over, as it were, only to ravenous beasts and birds of prey and reptiles.
Edom nested high in the rocks, and some writers draw a lesson from that.
Mount Seir is the stronghold of the flesh, the fortress of godless man. But God would pull Edom down from his high nest (see Obadiah). At his end He would drive him from his high perch and bring him low. And so all proud thoughts and boastful strongholds of the flesh will be laid in the dust!
Edom today is a ruin. So some say the prophecy has already come true, and that its strongest words were only poetry. Grant answers that:
This is only saying that the language is that of poetic exaggeration. We utterly and absolutely deny it. The present condition of Edom is not what Isaiah prophesies of. He speaks of a time still future, as verses 2-8 clearly show. Then this terrible judgment will come true. If Scripture language were so deceptive, who could trust it?
The desolation is not the last word in Isaiah. The creatures of verse 13 come back in the next chapter, but everything is reversed. Where the jackals lay down, there will be grass, reeds and rushes (W. T. P. Wolston). Kelly points to the pairing. The same day that empties Edom opens Israel's blessing, and God "will form a large and enlarging scene for His own glory, where once there was misery and barrenness" (William Kelly).
- Cause. Edom hated Israel without letting up, and the chapter answers that. God waited nearly a thousand years, then traced the end back to Esau's beginning.
- Scale. Idumea is the particular target, but the nations gathered against Jerusalem fall there too.
- Sign. Thorns, nettles and jackals are Scripture's standard shorthand for a place deserted and given over to desolation.
- Reach. The weeds grow in palaces and fortresses. God pulls down the flesh at its strongest and lays it in the dust.
- Reversal. Commentators hold that this awaits a future day. Where the jackals lay down, the next chapter puts grass, reeds and rushes.
And there shall the beasts of the desert meet with the jackals, and the wild goat shall cry to his fellow; the lilith also shall settle there, and find for herself a place of rest.
Isaiah 34 announces the Lord's judgment on Edom, the nation descended from Esau. Verse 14 shows what is left once that judgment has done its work: no people, only creatures of the waste. The question the verse forces is whether this is poetry about ruin, a picture of demonic haunting, or both.
The chapter widens from Edom to the whole world, then narrows again to one land singled out for the sword. One writer sets the scene by pointing to the reason given in verse 8:
In the last book of the Old Testament we find God saying that He hated Esau, and one of the shorter prophets, Obadiah, is taken up entirely with predictions against him. We find the same thing here. Verse 8 tells us that vengeance falls on them in payment for "the cause of Zion." In Zion God chose to show mercy to Jacob, while Edom chased them with a hatred that never let up, as we see in Psalm 83:3-6. So judgments of special severity will fall on the land of Idumea (Edom), and the rest of chapter 34 gives us the solemn details.
One writer sets the whole scene in the future:
It has not been fulfilled up to now, but it will be fulfilled when "the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom" (verse 6) — that is, in the coming day of the Lord. Then comes the complete desolation of Edom (Isaiah 34:9-17).
The word behind "the wild goat" is sair, which older Bibles render "satyr". Its everyday sense is plain, but what it points to here is disputed:
The word is sair, which means 'hairy one,' and so 'a he-goat.' It is translated 'goat' and 'kid' many times. In Leviticus 17:7 and 2 Chronicles 11:15 it is translated 'devils,' but 'demons' would have been better. There it means the gods the nations worshipped without knowing it: compare 1 Corinthians 10:20. The word is translated 'satyr' in Isaiah 13:21 and Isaiah 34:14. Both passages speak of places brought to complete desolation. So either wild beasts, owls and possibly 'wild goats' are meant; or the desolation would be so great that men would avoid these places as if unearthly beings haunted them.
The last creature in the verse is harder still. A word found nowhere else in the Bible stands behind "the night bird":
There is also lilith, in Isaiah 34:14 only, translated 'screech owl' (the margin and the Revised Version have 'night-monster'). What it refers to is doubtful.
The same word carried an old belief about empty places:
Sair means 'rough, hairy,' and in particular a he-goat. From this comes "a goat-shaped deity, which people worshipped as an idol . . . . They believed that such hostile beings lived in the deserts and woods (Isaiah 13:21; Isaiah 34:14), and that they had to be appeased by divine worship".
In verse 11 God stretches over Edom "the line of confusion" and "the plumb line of emptiness". The two Hebrew words are tohu and bohu, the words used of the earth in Genesis 1:2. One writer builds an argument on that link:
No one can say that this describes the original state of the land of Edom. It is a condition to which God's judgment brought it down. This confirms the meaning already given to Genesis 1:2… the way the terms are used elsewhere (as in Isaiah 34) shows that there they fit a condition God assigned to what He had made. They do not describe the state in which He made or created it.
So the desert beasts, the wild goat and the night bird are squatters in a land that judgment emptied.
The next chapter turns the picture over:
Set strikingly beside this terrible picture of a vast waste empty of people, given over, as it were, only to hungry beasts, birds of prey and reptiles, God shows that the day which sees this desolation for Edom opens Israel's blessing. And it is not only Israel rejoicing: the LORD will make a large and growing scene for His own glory, where once there was misery and barrenness.
Writing on the fall of Babylon in Revelation 18, one commentator explains its unclean birds from this passage:
We gather that the demons and unclean spirits spoken of in our text are personal beings. The unclean birds, birds of prey and of darkness, stand for the many and varied agents of Satan (Matthew 13:4, 32; Jeremiah 5:27; especially Isaiah 34:11-15), agents of a deeply harmful and destructive kind.
- Cause — the judgment falls for "the cause of Zion". Edom chased Jacob with a hatred that never let up, and the sentence answers it.
- Condition — the desert beasts, the wild goat and the night bird do not show how the land was made. They show the state God's judgment brought it down to.
- Uncertainty — the words sair and lilith are disputed. They may mean real wild goats and an owl, or a place so ruined that men avoid it as haunted.
- Echo — Revelation borrows this scene of ruin for Babylon, where the unclean birds stand for the agents of Satan.
- Contrast — the same day that leaves Edom to the beasts opens Israel's blessing, and the LORD makes a growing scene for His own glory where there was misery.
There shall the arrow-snake make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow; there also shall the vultures be gathered one with another.
Isaiah 34 pictures the land of Edom after God's judgment falls on it. Verse 15 shows the result. The ruins are not empty: nesting creatures and paired birds of prey settle where a proud nation once lived. Two questions follow. When does this happen, and why does God single out Edom?
Commentators read this scene as history still ahead, not as poetry about a past event. William Kelly warns that fitting it to the days of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar breaks either the text or the facts:
Keep in mind that this judgement is still future. If anyone applied it strictly and in full to the times of Nebuchadnezzar, confusion must result, twisting either Scripture or the facts. The opposite was seen then. The nations had it all their own way. The real fulfilment will be at the end of the age.
Kelly also points to travellers who crossed Idumea, the land of Edom, and lived to tell of it. That fact, he says, shows the prophecy is still waiting, not broken:
Many travellers have passed through Idumea and lived to write and publish their accounts... So even on the plainest ground of fact, it became clear that the prophecy had not failed. Its time of fulfilment is still future. It is to be a land where people no longer dwell, and where no strangers pass through for ever.
One Hebrew word here has puzzled translators. A reference work sets out the choices they made for the creature that nests in these ruins:
The word qippoz appears in Isa. 34:15 only. It is translated 'great owl' (R.V. 'arrowsnake'; LXX and Vulgate 'hedgehog'...). There are several well-known species of owl, but we cannot say with certainty which of them these various words mean.
The birds that gather at the end of the verse take their name from where they live. The same dictionary calls the Hebrew dayyah "a bird inhabiting ruins," a kite (Morrish Bible Dictionary).
The chapter is not a random act of severity. Kelly reads it as the closing of a family story that began with twin brothers:
In chapter 34 the Spirit of God has brought together the two extremes on earth: judgement without sparing and mercy without any mixture... These nations, the one judged and the other blessed, sprang from the same stock, the same father and the same mother. They branched out into twin brothers: Esau on the one hand and Jacob on the other. The land of Idumea is the centre of the one picture, as of the other is Zion.
God promises other nations a return from captivity. He makes no such promise here, and the coming age of joy leaves this land as it is:
Unlike the hope held out to some other enemies, Jehovah does not say that He will bring them back from captivity in the latter days... their fate is sealed though for different reasons. The joy of the age to come will not reverse its sad sentence. As long as the earth lasts, Idumea will lie desolate. The unrelenting, unforgiving hate of Edom's sons for the Jews will bring on them the destruction they deserve.
The verse ends with each bird beside its mate. The next verse tells the reader to check that list against God's own book, and Kelly makes that check a test of prophecy itself:
What was then accomplished became the earnest of all that remains to be fulfilled... In that day we will search the book of Jehovah and read, and not one of them will be missing; none will lack its mate. For His mouth has commanded, and His Spirit has gathered these mournful witnesses of His final judgments. One of the commonest forms of unbelief... is to use what was fulfilled in the past to set aside the far greater times still to come.
In Revelation, fallen Babylon becomes a home for unclean birds. Walter Scott ties those birds back to this chapter:
The unclean birds, birds of prey and of darkness, signify the many and varied agents of Satan (Matt. 13:4, 32; Jer. 5:27; especially Isa. 34:11-15), those, of course, being very harmful and destructive.
- Cause — Edom and Israel came from one family. The lasting hatred of Esau's line for Jacob's brings this sentence.
- Sentence — nesting creatures and paired birds of prey take over the land. Writers admit the Hebrew names are uncertain, but the picture of reoccupied ruins is clear.
- Timing — writers place the full blow at the end of the age, not in Nebuchadnezzar's day. Travellers who crossed the land showed the prophecy still waits.
- Permanence — God promises no return from captivity here, and the coming age of joy will not lift the desolation.
- Certainty — the verse's own footnote is the book of the Lord: not one creature missing, not one without its mate.
Search ye in the book of Jehovah and read not one of these shall fail, one shall not have to seek for the other; for my mouth, it hath commanded, and his Spirit, it hath gathered them.
The chapter has just filled Edom with owls, jackals and thorns. Then, mid-scene, the prophet stops describing. He tells his hearers to go and check the written record. The verse turns a prophecy about a foreign nation into a test case for the trustworthiness of a book.
The desolation the reader must check has not yet happened. Kelly explains why the timing matters:
after-note: three sentences saying one thing; vague "breaks something"
There will be one destruction on the mountains of Israel, but another special slaughter in Edom. It is important to keep in mind that this is a future judgment. Apply it strictly, and in full, to the times of Nebuchadnezzar, and confusion must result. It twists either Scripture or the facts. The opposite happened then: the nations had it all their own way. God held no great sacrifice of all nations at that time, though treacherous Edom suffered. The real fulfilment will be at the end of the age.
after-note: DELETE
Darby, answering a question about Edom, dates the chapter by another prophecy:
There is no doubt that Edom is the special object of judgment in the last days... Isaiah 63 clearly speaks of Christ's personal coming. Isaiah 34 belongs just as fully to the end.
Some scholars limit "the book of the LORD" to the law of Moses. Whitfield rejects that limit. When Scripture means the law alone, it says so plainly:
Isaiah 34:16 is of interest. Westcott says the Book of the Lord here means the Law alone, because before the exile in Babylon the Law was the part "open to all and authoritative." We do not see why. When Scripture means the "Book of the Law" alone, it says so with precision: see 2 Chronicles 17:9; compare 34:30, the "Book of the Covenant."
He adds that the prophets' writings were not locked away with experts:
We may believe that the prophets' writings were open to all as well, even if people did not treat them with the same reverence as the scrolls of the law of Moses... Westcott seems right that some collections of the words of the Prophets had already been made. We can see this from the way Jeremiah appeals to the writings of those before him.
Isaiah does not call it his own scroll. That ownership settles the question of reliability before the reader even opens it:
Isaiah refers to the book of the LORD: "Seek and read from the book of the LORD" (Isaiah 34:16). If it is the LORD's book, who can accuse it of error?
The verse says His mouth commanded and His Spirit gathered. The writers of Scripture describe their own work the same way:
The Lord charged Isaiah, Jeremiah and Habakkuk to put their predictions in writing... "And the LORD answered me: Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it" (Habakkuk 2:2). These passages show the authority behind what the writers recorded. They also show that they wrote what the Lord commanded them to write. And this is not limited to the prophets. David the psalmist claims that he wrote by the Spirit of the LORD: "The Spirit of the LORD speaks by me; His word is on my tongue" (2 Samuel 23:2).
The promise is small in scale: every creature named will be there, and each will have its pair. Kelly reads that detail as proof that what God has already done is only a down payment on what is still to come:
What was accomplished then became the pledge of all that remains to be fulfilled. Much of it is marked out for that day by clear signs. On that day, of all we seek and read from the book of the LORD, not one shall be missing, and none shall lack its mate. For His mouth has commanded, and His Spirit has gathered these sad witnesses of His final judgments. Where scepticism is not extreme, one of the commonest forms of unbelief is to misuse the part accomplished in the past to set aside the far more important times to come.
The verse tells the reader to seek and read. Darby answers those who treat what God has revealed as off-limits:
I do say it is the privilege of the saints to know what is revealed. It is mere unbelief, and rejection of the promise, "He will declare to you the things that are to come"; and again, "these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit."
Yet the aim of such reading is not information. Writing on another book full of future things, one commentator sets the guard:
We have to beware, in reading the book, of doing so to satisfy the natural love of prying into the future, and seek rather that this wonderful and searching unfolding of the future may have a moral effect upon our lives in the present.
- Look ahead — this desolation belongs to the end of the age, when Christ comes. Force it into ancient history and you twist either the text or the facts.
- Look it up — the prophet points to a written record already in hand. Commentators differ over how much "the book of the LORD" covered, but the prophets' writings were open to ordinary readers.
- Look closely — the guarantee reaches down to single creatures and their mates. What God has already done is only the pledge of what still stands written.
- Look at the Author — it is His book, His mouth that commanded, His Spirit that gathered. The writers say they wrote what the Lord told them to write.
- Look at yourself — knowing what God has revealed is the privilege of His people; treating it as off-limits is unbelief.
For he himself hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath divided it unto them with the line they shall possess it for ever; from generation to generation shall they dwell therein.
Isaiah 34 ends with God acting as surveyor over the ruins of Edom. He casts the lot, runs the measuring line, and hands the land over to the wild creatures. Two questions follow. Whose hand decides who holds a country, and how long is this "forever"?
Land was handed out by lot and measuring line. God claims that right over every nation, not only over Israel, and Israel had to learn it about Edom:
Israel might imagine that all they had to do was seize the lands of the Edomite. But they had to learn something very different. They had to be taught that the Most High rules among the nations. The whole earth belongs to Him, and He portions it out to one nation or another as He pleases.
Esau picked his own country, and its name tells you what he picked.
Mount Seir is Edom's possession, a "rough," or "rugged place," as the word means. Esau has chosen for himself; therefore he has not chosen well. Does anyone ever choose well who chooses for himself?
Earlier in the chapter God stretches a line and a plummet over Edom. These are builder's tools, used here in reverse. The same two Hebrew words, tohu and bohu, stand in Genesis 1:2, and one writer uses Edom to settle what they mean:
In describing the judgment on the land of Edom, we read that wild birds and beasts will possess it and live in it, and that He will stretch out over it the line of confusion (tohu) and the stones of emptiness (bohu). No one can say that this describes the original state of the land of Edom. It is a condition to which God's judgment brought it down. This confirms how Genesis 1:2 should be read. The way these words are used here shows that they describe a state God brought His creation down to. They certainly do not describe the state in which He created it.
Some readers treat the ruin of Edom as finished business. One writer answers them from the reports of travellers who crossed Idumea, the land of Edom:
Many people have believed that anyone who tried to travel through the land of Idumea must surely die. That was a mistake. Quite a few travellers have passed through Idumea and have lived to write and publish their accounts. So even judged by plain facts, it became clear that the prophecy had not failed. The time for it to be fulfilled is still future. Idumea is to be a land where people no longer live, and where no strangers pass through, forever. God will make it a striking example before the whole world of complete destruction under His unsparing wrath.
Commentators differ over how much has already happened:
Then comes the utter desolation of Edom (Isaiah 34:9-17)... Obadiah's prophecy has been partly fulfilled, but it still waits for its final fulfilment in the day of the Lord.
Scripture sets Edom beside Egypt. The two teach opposite lessons:
God offers Edom no word of hope. Edom has followed in the footsteps of godless Esau and found no place for repentance... If Egypt is a witness to the goodness of God, Edom is a witness to His severity.
The name of the nation points past the nation itself:
Edom is the same name as Adam, only slightly disguised. So the nation stands for the flesh, and "Those who are in the flesh cannot please God."
Isaiah does not leave the reader staring at ruins. The timing of what comes next matters:
Alongside this terrible picture of a vast emptiness where no one lives, given over to beasts of prey, birds of prey and reptiles, God then shows something more. The day that sees this desolation for Edom begins Israel's blessing. And Israel is not the only one rejoicing. The Lord will make a large and growing scene for His own glory where once there was misery and barrenness.
- Measured — the lot and line are God's tools. He rules among the nations and hands out the earth as He pleases.
- Chosen — Esau picked Mount Seir for himself. No one who chooses for himself chooses well.
- Emptied — the line of confusion and plummet of emptiness mark a state God's judgment brought the land down to. They do not describe how He first made it.
- Forever — travellers have crossed Idumea and lived. So the full desolation is still ahead, though commentators differ on how much has already begun.
- Answered — the day that hands Edom to the wild creatures opens Israel's blessing. Edom witnesses to God's severity, Egypt to His goodness.