Isaiah 34
1 Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it.
2 For the indignation of the LORD is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter.
3 Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood.
4 And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.
5 For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment.
6 The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for the LORD hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea.
7 And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.
8 For it is the day of the LORD'S vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.
9 And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.
10 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.
11 But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness.
12 They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing.
13 And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls.
14 The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest.
15 There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate.
16 Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them.
17 And he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath divided it unto them by line: they shall possess it for ever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein.
World Behind This Chapter
Explore the people, places, language, history, and material world connected to Isaiah 34.
What historical setting lies behind Isaiah 34?
The chapter is not anchored to a named king and is often read with chapter 35 as part of a later literary horizon.
How does Isaiah 34's divine-war poem shape the chapter?
Sword, sacrifice, burning land, wild creatures, and a transformed landscape use highly symbolic language.
Is Isaiah 34 describing a literal ecological future for Edom?
The chapter uses extreme poetic images—pitch, sulfur, endless smoke, and uncanny animals—to portray irreversible desolation. It should not be treated as a straightforward field survey.
Sources to ExploreCurated research paths for this chapter 3
History & Daily Life1
- Edom: Judah’s Southeastern NeighborBible Odyssey
Scholarly introduction to Edom’s territory, settlements, people, political history, and frequently hostile relationship with Judah. This gives historical substance to Isaiah 34’s transformation of Edom into an enduring landscape of violence, fire, abandonment, and wild animals.
Language & Literature2
- Cosmic Collapse, Dissolving Heavens, and a Rolled ScrollMechon Mamre
Presents the Hebrew wording of Isaiah’s cosmic metaphors. The heavens are rolled like a scroll and their host falls like withered leaves or shriveled fruit, using simile and hyperbole to portray the collapse of an entire political and moral order.
- Edom as the Symbolic Center of a Universal Judgment PoemSefaria
Presents the Hebrew chapter with translations and commentary. Isaiah begins by addressing all nations and the entire earth but then concentrates the imagery upon Edom, allowing a historical neighboring country to function as the representative landscape of wider judgment.
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