Isaiah 34:7 NIV

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Isaiah 34:1-17

34:1-35:10 MORE ABOUT JUDGMENT AND SALVATIONJerusalem’s final triumph over Assyria is followed by further pictures of God’s final judgment on the world and the blessings that will follow. (See notes on the introduction to 24:1-27:13.) God’s enemies in this section are represented by one of Israel’s most ancient enemies, Edom.Punishment of the wicked (34:1-17)God calls sinners together to hear his judgment and receive his punishment. This judgment affects people worldwide, and involves the... read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Isaiah 34:7

unicorns: or, rhinocerots. Hebrew. re'emin. soaked = drunken. Figure of speech Hyperbole. read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Isaiah 34:5-8

Isaiah 34:5-8. For my sword shall be bathed in heaven— The meaning of this period is, that on a certain day of judgment, which is elsewhere called the great day of the Lord's vengeance, a mighty slaughter shall be made of the hardened enemies of the church, a long time oppressed and afflicted by them, with the effusion of much blood, and the destruction of many great, noble, and powerful men. The figure is taken from the master of a family, who, preparing a great feast, and a sacrifice, finds... read more

Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Isaiah 34:7

7. unicorns—Hebrew, reem: conveying the idea of loftiness, power, and pre-eminence (see on :-), in the Bible. At one time the image in the term answers to a reality in nature; at another it symbolizes an abstraction. The rhinoceros was the original type. The Arab rim is two-horned: it was the oryx (the leucoryx, antelope, bold and pugnacious); but when accident or artifice deprived it of one horn, the notion of the unicorn arose. Here is meant the portion of the Edomites which was strong and... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 34:5-17

Edom as an example 34:5-17The prophet now introduced Edom, as a case in point, whose end would be typical of the whole earth (cf. Isaiah 11:14; Isaiah 63:1-6). If Edom alone had been in view, Isaiah probably would have dealt with it as he did the other nations in the oracles earlier in the book (chs. 13-23). But why Edom? The Old Testament consistently treats Edom as the antithesis of Israel (cf. Obad.). Isaac told Esau that he would live in an infertile area (Genesis 27:39-40)."Recollecting... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 34:6-7

Using sacrificial imagery, the Lord will seek what is peculiarly His in judgment. He will take what He alone has a right to take. Sin is a matter of life and death. All sin must be atoned for with sacrificial blood (cf. Leviticus 4:1-12; Isaiah 53). Those who repudiate the sacrifice of Christ for their sins will forfeit their own lives as sacrifices to God. A sacrifice is necessary, therefore, third, if the demands of divine holiness are to be met. No rebel would be spared. Bozrah... read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 34:1-10

Sentence on the Nations. Blessings in Store for God’s PeopleThese chapters are now generally considered non-Isaianic and referred to the period of the exile, on two grounds: (a) the literary style is unlike Isaiah’s. (b) The strong feeling against Edom points to a date subsequent to the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, when the Edomites exulted in the city’s fall and sided against the Jews, conduct which provoked bitter resentment (Obadiah 1:10-16; Lamentations 4:21-22; Psalms... read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 34:1-17

4. Cp. 1 Isaiah 3:10. 5. Shall be bathed] RV ’hath drunk its fill.’ Idumea] RV ’Edom.’6. Bozrah] a strongly fortified city of Edom (Isaiah 63:1; Amos 1:12; Jeremiah 49:13). See the same imagery Jeremiah 46:10. The men slain by divine vengeance are compared to beasts offered in sacrifice.7. Unicorns] RV ’wild-oxen.’ Come down] i.e. to the shambles. 8. Controversy] ’quarrel.’ The calamity of Edom is a punishment from Jehovah for its hostility to Zion.9, 10. Imagery suggested by the fate of Sodom... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 34:7

(7) And the unicorns shall come down with them . . .—Better, the aurochs, or wild bulls . . . The Hebrew, rem, which meets us in Deuteronomy 33:17; Psalms 22:21, has been identified with the buffalo, the antelope (Antilope leucoryx), and by Mr. Houghton, a naturalist as well as a scholar, on the strength of Assyrian inscriptions, pointing to the land of the Khatti (Hittites) and the foot of the Lebanon as its habitat, and of bas-reliefs representing it, with the Bos primigenius of zoologists... read more

Arno Clemens Gaebelein

Arno Gaebelein's Annotated Bible - Isaiah 34:1-17

CHAPTER 34 The Day of Jehovah 1. Addressed to the world: Jews and Gentiles involved (Isaiah 34:1 ) 2. The shaking of the earth and the heavens (Isaiah 34:2-8 ) 3. The day of vengeance (Isaiah 34:9-17 ) This is one of the darkest chapters in the Bible. A worldwide judgment is described such as has never taken place in the history of the world. The indignation of the Lord is then upon all nations and upon their armies. Like chapter 33, it tells of the great judgments to come. read more