God's Judgment on All Nations
Study note
Isaiah summons every nation on earth to listen. God's anger is directed at all nations and their armies. The slain will be thrown out and the mountains will flow with blood. Even the heavens will be affected, as the stars fall like withered leaves from a vine. This language is similar to other biblical descriptions of the final Day of the Lord.
1 Come close, every nation, and listen! Pay attention, all you peoples! Let the earth hear, along with everything in it. Let the world hear, along with everything it produces. 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 The Lord is furious at every nation and enraged at all their armies. He will completely wipe them out and hand them over to be slaughtered. 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 The dead will be thrown out in the open. The stench from their bodies will rise, and blood will flow down the mountains. 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 All the stars in the sky will dissolve, and the heavens will be rolled up like a scroll. Every star will drop away like shriveled leaves falling from a vine, like dried-up figs tumbling from a fig tree. 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.
The Destruction of Edom
Study note
Edom (also called Idumea) was the territory of Esau's descendants, located southeast of the Dead Sea. The Edomites were Israel's neighbors and relatives through Jacob and Esau, but they were persistent enemies. Bozrah was Edom's chief city. God's sword will be bathed in their blood. The destruction is described as a great sacrifice. The 'unicorns' in the KJV likely refer to wild oxen. The land will burn like pitch and sulfur, never to be put out.
5 The Lord's sword has been readied in heaven. Watch as it comes sweeping down on Edom, on the people he has sentenced to judgment. 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 Lord's sword drips with blood and is coated with fat — the blood of lambs and goats, the fat of rams. The Lord has a sacrifice to carry out in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom. 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 Wild oxen will fall alongside them, together with young bulls and powerful animals. Their land will be soaked with blood and their soil drenched with fat. 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 the Lord has set a day for getting even — a year of payback to defend the cause of Zion. For it is the day of the LORD's vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.
9 Edom's streams will turn to tar, and its dust will become burning sulfur. The whole land will blaze like hot pitch. And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.
10 The fire will burn day and night and never go out. Its smoke will climb upward forever. Generation after generation, the land will lie in ruins. No one will ever pass through it again. 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.
An Eternal Wasteland
Study note
Wild birds and animals will take over Edom's ruins. God will stretch out over it the measuring line of chaos and emptiness. Its nobles and princes will be no more. Thorns will grow in its palaces, and it will become a home for jackals and owls. God himself has assigned this territory to these creatures, and his word in Scripture guarantees it. They will possess it forever.
11 Desert birds and owls will move in. Screech owls and ravens will make it their home. God will measure it out for chaos and empty it out for nothingness. 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 Its nobles will have no kingdom left to rule. All its princes will be gone. They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing.
13 Thorns will cover its palaces. Weeds and briers will fill its strongholds. It will become a home for jackals and a haunt for owls. 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 Wild desert creatures will meet up with howling animals, and wild goats will call to one another there. Night creatures will settle down and find a resting place. 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 Owls will nest there, lay their eggs, hatch their chicks, and gather them safely under their wings. Vultures will also meet there, each one paired with its mate. 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 Search the Lord's scroll and read it. Not one of these creatures will be missing. None will lack a mate. The Lord himself has commanded it, and his Spirit has brought them all together. 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 He has assigned each one its place and marked out its territory. They will own it forever and live there from one generation to the next. 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.