Yesaya 34:5-6

34:5 He says, ¹  “Indeed, my sword has slaughtered heavenly powers. ² 

Look, it now descends on Edom, ³ 

on the people I will annihilate in judgment.”

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

it is covered ⁴  with fat;

it drips ⁵  with the blood of young rams and goats

and is covered ⁶  with the fat of rams’ kidneys.

For the Lord is holding a sacrifice ⁷  in Bozrah, ⁸ 

a bloody ⁹  slaughter in the land of Edom.

Yesaya 34:11

34:11 Owls and wild animals ¹⁰  will live there, ¹¹ 

all kinds of wild birds ¹²  will settle in it.

The Lord ¹³  will stretch out over her

the measuring line of ruin

and the plumb line ¹⁴  of destruction. ¹⁵ 

Yeremia 50:11-13

50:11 “People of Babylonia, ¹⁶  you plundered my people. ¹⁷ 

That made you happy and glad.

You frolic about like calves in a pasture. ¹⁸ 

Your joyous sounds are like the neighs of a stallion. ¹⁹ 

50:12 But Babylonia will be put to great shame.

The land where you were born ²⁰  will be disgraced.

Indeed, ²¹  Babylonia will become the least important of all nations.

It will become a dry and barren desert.

50:13 After I vent my wrath on it Babylon will be uninhabited. ²² 

It will be totally desolate.

All who pass by will be filled with horror and will hiss out their scorn

because of all the disasters that have happened to it. ²³ 

Ratapan 4:21

The Prophet Speaks:

ש (Sin/Shin)

4:21 Rejoice and be glad for now, ²⁴  O people of Edom, ²⁵ 

who reside in the land of Uz.

But the cup of judgment ²⁶  will pass ²⁷  to you also;

you will get drunk and take off your clothes.

Yehezkiel 32:29

32:29 “Edom is there with her kings and all her princes. Despite their might they are laid with those killed by the sword; they lie with the uncircumcised and those who descend to the pit.

[34:5]  ¹ tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The Lord speaks at this point.

[34:5]  ² 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]  ³ sn Edom is mentioned here as epitomizing the hostile nations that oppose God.

[34:6]  ⁴ tn The verb is a rare Hotpaal passive form. See GKC 150 §54.h.

[34:6]  ⁵ tn The words “it drips” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

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

[34:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “for there is a sacrifice to the Lord.”

[34:6]  ⁸ sn The Lord’s judgment of Edom is compared to a bloody sacrificial scene.

[34:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “great” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[34:11]  ¹⁰ tn קָאַת (qa’at) refers to some type of bird (cf. Lev 11:18; Deut 14:17) that was typically found near ruins (see Zeph 2:14). קִפּוֹד (qippod) may also refer to a type of bird (NAB “hoot owl”; NIV “screech owl”; TEV “ravens”), but some have suggested a rodent may be in view (cf. NCV “small animals”; ASV “porcupine”; NASB, NRSV “hedgehog”).

[34:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “will possess it” (so NIV).

[34:11]  ¹² tn The Hebrew text has יַנְשׁוֹף וְעֹרֵב (yanshof vÿ’orev). Both the יַנְשׁוֹף (“owl”; see Lev 11:17; Deut 14:16) and עֹרֵב (“raven”; Lev 11:15; Deut 14:14) were types of wild birds.

[34:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[34:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “stones,” i.e., the stones used in a plumb bob.

[34:11]  ¹⁵ sn The metaphor in v. 11b emphasizes that God has carefully planned Edom’s demise.

[50:11]  ¹⁶ tn The words “People of Babylonia” are not in the text but they are implicit in the reference in the next verse to “your mother” which refers to the city and the land as the mother of its people. These words have been supplied in the translation to identify the referent of “you” and have been added for clarity.

[50:11]  ¹⁷ tn Or “my land.” The word can refer to either the land (Jer 2:7, 16:8) or the nation/people (Jer 12:7, 8, 9).

[50:11]  ¹⁸ tc Reading כְּעֶגְלֵי דֶשֶׁא (kÿ’egle deshe’) or כְּעֵגֶל בַּדֶּשֶׁא (kÿ’egel baddeshe’) as presupposed by the Greek and Latin versions (cf. BHS note d-d) in place of the reading in the Hebrew text כְּעֶגְלָה דָשָׁה (kÿ’eglah dashah, “like a heifer treading out the grain”) which does not fit the verb (פּוּשׁ [push] = “spring about” [BDB 807 s.v. I פּוּשׁ] or “paw the ground” [KBL 756 s.v. פּוּשׁ] and compare Mal 3:20 for usage). This variant reading is also accepted by J. Bright, J. A. Thompson, F. B. Huey, and G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, T. G. Smothers.

[50:11]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Though you rejoice, though you exult, you who have plundered my heritage, though you frolic like calves in a pasture and neigh like stallions, your mother…” The particle כִּי (ki) introduces a concessive protasis according to BDB 473 s.v. כִּי 2.c(a). Many interpret the particle as introducing the grounds for the next verse, i.e., “because…” The translation here will reflect the concessive by beginning the next verse with “But.” The long protasis has been broken up and restructured to better conform with contemporary English style.

[50:12]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Your mother will be utterly shamed, the one who gave you birth…” The word “mother” and the parallel term “the one who gave you birth” are used metaphorically for the land of Babylonia. For the figure compare the usage in Isa 50:1 (Judah) and Hos 2:2, 5 (2:4, 7 HT) and see BDB 52 s.v. אֵם 2 and 408 s.v. יָלַד Qal.2.c.

[50:12]  ²¹ tn Heb “Behold.” For the use of this particle see the translator’s note on 1:6.

[50:13]  ²² tn Heb “From [or Because of] the wrath of the Lord it will be uninhabited.” The causal connection is spelled out more clearly and actively and the first person has been used because the speaker is the Lord. The referent “it” has been spelled out clearly from the later occurrence in the verse, “all who pass by Babylon.”

[50:13]  ²³ sn Compare Jer 49:17 and the study note there and see also the study notes on 18:16 and 19:8.

[4:21]  ²⁴ tn The phrase “for now” is added in the translation to highlight the implied contrast between the present joy of the Gentiles (4:21a) and their future judgment (4:21b).

[4:21]  ²⁵ tn Heb “O Daughter of Edom.”

[4:21]  ²⁶ tn Heb “the cup.” Judgment is often depicted as a cup of wine that God forces a person to drink, causing him to lose consciousness, red wine drooling out of his mouth – resembling corpses lying on the ground as a result of the actual onslaught of the Lord’s judgment. The drunkard will reel and stagger, causing bodily injury to himself – an apt metaphor to describe the devastating effects of God’s judgment. Just as a cup of poison kills all those who are forced to drink it, the cup of God’s wrath destroys all those who must drink it (e.g., Ps 75:9; Isa 51:17, 22; Jer 25:15, 17, 28; 49:12; 51:7; Lam 4:21; Ezek 23:33; Hab 2:16).

[4:21]  ²⁷ tn The imperfect verb “will pass” may also be a jussive, continuing the element of request, “let the cup pass…”