Isaiah 34 is the thirty-fourth chapter of the

Book of Isaiah The Book of Isaiah ( ) is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Major Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. It is identified by a superscription as the words of the 8th-century BC prophet Isaiah ben Amo ...

in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

of the

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

.Holman Illustrated Bible Handbook. Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee. 2012. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet Isaiah, and is one of the Books of the Prophets.Theodore Hiebert, et al. 1996. ''The New Interpreter's Bible: Volume VI''. Nashville: Abingdon. The

Jerusalem Bible ''The Jerusalem Bible'' (JB or TJB) is an English translation of the Bible published in 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd. As a Catholic Bible, it includes 73 books: the 39 books shared with the Hebrew Bible, along with the seven deuterocanonical ...

groups chapters 28-35 together as a collection of "poems on Israel and Judah", although this chapter is addressed to all nations and to

Edom Edom (; Edomite language, Edomite: ; , lit.: "red"; Akkadian language, Akkadian: , ; Egyptian language, Ancient Egyptian: ) was an ancient kingdom that stretched across areas in the south of present-day Jordan and Israel. Edom and the Edomi ...

in particular.

Text

The original text was written in the

Hebrew language Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and remained in regular use as a first language unti ...

. This chapter is divided into 17 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

are found among the

Dead Sea Scrolls The Dead Sea Scrolls, also called the Qumran Caves Scrolls, are a set of List of Hebrew Bible manuscripts, ancient Jewish manuscripts from the Second Temple period (516 BCE – 70 CE). They were discovered over a period of ten years, between ...

, i.e., the

Isaiah Scroll The Isaiah Scroll, designated 1QIsaa and also known as the Great Isaiah Scroll, is one of the seven Dead Sea Scrolls that were first discovered by Bedouin shepherds in 1947 from Qumran List of manuscripts from Qumran Cave 1, Cave 1. The scroll i ...

(1Qlsa; complete; 356-100 BCE), and of the

Masoretic Text The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; ) is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (''Tanakh'') in Rabbinic Judaism. The Masoretic Text defines the Jewish canon and its precise letter-text, with its vocaliz ...

tradition, which includes Codex Cairensis (895 CE), the Petersburg Codex of the Prophets (916),

Aleppo Codex The Aleppo Codex () is a medieval bound manuscript of the Hebrew Bible. The codex was written in the city of Tiberias in the tenth century CE (circa 920) under the rule of the Abbasid Caliphate, and was endorsed for its accuracy by Maimonides. ...

(10th century), Codex Leningradensis (1008). There is also a translation into

Koine Greek Koine Greek (, ), also variously known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek, Septuagint Greek or New Testament Greek, was the koiné language, common supra-regional form of Greek language, Greek spoken and ...

known as the

Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...

, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the

version include

Codex Vaticanus The Codex Vaticanus ( The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209), is a manuscript of the Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Old Testament and the majority of the New Testament. It is designated by siglum B or 03 in the Gregory-Aland numb ...

(B;

\mathfrak

^B; 4th century), Codex Sinaiticus (S; BHK:

\mathfrak

^S; 4th century),

Codex Alexandrinus The Codex Alexandrinus (London, British Library, Royal MS 1. D. V-VIII) is a manuscript of the Greek Bible,The Greek Bible in this context refers to the Bible used by Greek-speaking Christians who lived in Egypt and elsewhere during the early ...

(A;

\mathfrak

^A; 5th century) and Codex Marchalianus (Q;

\mathfrak

^Q; 6th century).

Parashot

The ''

parashah The term ''parashah'', ''parasha'' or ''parashat'' ( ''Pārāšâ'', "portion", Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian , Sephardi Hebrew, Sephardi , plural: ''parashot'' or ''parashiyot'', also called ''parsha'') formally means a section of a biblical book ...

'' sections listed here are based on the

. Isaiah 34 is a part of the ''Prophecies about Judah and Israel ( Isaiah 24 –35)''. : closed ''parashah''. : 34:1-17

Judgment on the nations (34:1–4)

Verses 1—4 give a horrifying picture of cosmic disaster that brings to an end not just enemy nations but also the 'host of heaven' and the skies.

Verse 1

: ''Come near, ye

nation A nation is a type of social organization where a collective Identity (social science), identity, a national identity, has emerged from a combination of shared features across a given population, such as language, history, ethnicity, culture, t ...

s, 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.'' This introductory summons recalls Psalm 49:1, painting a picture of cosmic disaster in a way of an apocalypse.

Judgment on Edom (34:5–17)

Starting verse 5, the judgment is specifically for Edom, who according to the tradition of Genesis 25:29–34, should have seen with Israel as brothers, but ending up having a bitter hatred with one another.

Verse 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.'' *"Quenched": from the Hebrew root: k-b-h (, ''kabah'', "to be quenched or extinguished, to go out"), is also used in Isaiah 1:31 and 66:24 for: "the fire that shall not be quenched"; of the servant in 42:3, that "a dimly burning wick ('smoking flax') he will not quench"; as well as in 43:17: 'those who oppose the LORD'S path are "quenched like a wick"'.

Verse 14

:''The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the jackals,'' ::''And the wild goat shall bleat to its companion;'' :''Also the night creature shall rest there,'' ::''And find for herself a place of rest.'' * "Jackals" (KJV: "the wild beasts of the island"): literally, "howling creatures" * "Night creature" (KJV: "screech owl"): translated from Hebrew: , ''lilith'', in this context certainly refers to 'some type of wild animal or bird', and appears to be related to , ''laylah'' (meaning "night"). Some interpret it as the name of a female night demon, on the basis of an apparent Akkadian cognate used as the name of a demon. Later Jewish legends also identified "

Lilith Lilith (; ), also spelled Lilit, Lilitu, or Lilis, is a feminine figure in Mesopotamian and Jewish mythology, theorized to be the first wife of Adam and a primordial she-demon. Lilith is cited as having been "banished" from the Garden of Eden ...

" as a demon.Note on Isaiah 34:14 in NET Bible

References

Sources

* *

External links

Jewish

Isaiah 34 Hebrew with Parallel English

Christian

Isaiah 34 English Translation with Parallel Latin Vulgate
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