Yesaya 34:2-8

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

and furious with all their armies.

He will annihilate them and slaughter them.

34:3 Their slain will be left unburied, ¹ 

their corpses will stink; ² 

the hills will soak up their blood. ³ 

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

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. ⁵ 

34:5 He says, ⁶  “Indeed, my sword has slaughtered heavenly powers. ⁷ 

Look, it now descends on Edom, ⁸ 

on the people I will annihilate in judgment.”

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

it is covered ⁹  with fat;

it drips ¹⁰  with the blood of young rams and goats

and is covered ¹¹  with the fat of rams’ kidneys.

For the Lord is holding a sacrifice ¹²  in Bozrah, ¹³ 

a bloody ¹⁴  slaughter in the land of Edom.

34:7 Wild oxen will be slaughtered ¹⁵  along with them,

as well as strong bulls. ¹⁶ 

Their land is drenched with blood,

their soil is covered with fat.

34:8 For the Lord has planned a day of revenge, ¹⁷ 

a time when he will repay Edom for her hostility toward Zion. ¹⁸ 

Yesaya 43:2-4

43:2 When you pass through the waters, I am with you;

when you pass ¹⁹  through the streams, they will not overwhelm you.

When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned;

the flames will not harm ²⁰  you.

43:3 For I am the Lord your God,

the Holy One of Israel, ²¹  your deliverer.

I have handed over Egypt as a ransom price,

Ethiopia and Seba ²²  in place of you.

43:4 Since you are precious and special in my sight, ²³ 

and I love you,

I will hand over people in place of you,

nations in place of your life.

Yesaya 66:16-17

66:16 For the Lord judges all humanity ²⁴ 

with fire and his sword;

the Lord will kill many. ²⁵ 

66:17 “As for those who consecrate and ritually purify themselves so they can follow their leader and worship in the sacred orchards, ²⁶  those who eat the flesh of pigs and other disgusting creatures, like mice ²⁷  – they will all be destroyed together,” ²⁸  says the Lord.

[34:3]  ¹ tn Heb “will be cast aside”; NASB, NIV “thrown out.”

[34:3]  ² tn Heb “[as for] their corpses, their stench will arise.”

[34:3]  ³ tn Heb “hills will dissolve from their blood.”

[34:4]  ⁴ tc Heb “and all the host of heaven will rot.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a 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.”

[34:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “like the withering of a leaf from a vine, and like the withering from a fig tree.”

[34:5]  ⁶ tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The Lord speaks at this point.

[34:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “indeed [or “for”] my sword is drenched in the heavens.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has תראה (“[my sword] appeared [in the heavens]”), but this is apparently an attempt to make sense out of a difficult metaphor. Cf. NIV “My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens.”

[34:5]  sn 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.

[34:5]  ⁸ sn Edom is mentioned here as epitomizing the hostile nations that oppose God.

[34:6]  ⁹ tn The verb is a rare Hotpaal passive form. See GKC 150 §54.h.

[34:6]  ¹⁰ tn The words “it drips” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[34:6]  ¹¹ tn The words “and is covered” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[34:6]  ¹² tn Heb “for there is a sacrifice to the Lord.”

[34:6]  ¹³ sn The Lord’s judgment of Edom is compared to a bloody sacrificial scene.

[34:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “great” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[34:7]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “will go down”; NAB “shall be struck down.”

[34:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and bulls along with strong ones.” Perhaps this refers to the leaders.

[34:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “for a day of vengeance [is] for the Lord.”

[34:8]  ¹⁸ tn 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.”

[43:2]  ¹⁹ tn The verb is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[43:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “burn” (so NASB); NAB, NRSV, NLT “consume”; NIV “set you ablaze.”

[43:3]  ²¹ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[43:3]  ²² sn Seba is not the same as Sheba in southern Arabia; cf. Gen 1:10; 1 Chr 1:9.

[43:4]  ²³ tn Heb “Since you are precious in my eyes and you are honored.”

[66:16]  ²⁴ tn Heb “flesh” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); NIV “upon all men”; TEV “all the people of the world.”

[66:16]  ²⁵ tn Heb “many are the slain of the Lord.”

[66:17]  ²⁶ tn Heb “the ones who consecrate themselves and the ones who purify themselves toward the orchards [or “gardens”] after the one in the midst.” The precise meaning of the statement is unclear, though it is obvious that some form of idolatry is in view.

[66:17]  ²⁷ tn Heb “ones who eat the flesh of the pig and the disgusting thing and the mouse.”

[66:17]  ²⁸ tn Heb “together they will come to an end.”