Isaiah 34:6 - Exposition

The sword of the Lord is filled ; or, glutted (Lowth). The tense is "the perfect of prophetic certainty." It is made fat with fatness . "Fed, as it were, on the fat of sacrifices" (see Le Isaiah 3:3 , Isaiah 3:4 , Isaiah 3:9 , Isaiah 3:10 , Isaiah 3:15 ; Isaiah 7:3 , etc.). Lambs … goats … rams . The lesser cattle represent the lower classes of those about to be slain, while the " unicorns " and " bullocks " of Isaiah 34:7 represent the upper classes—the great men and leaders. The Lord hath a sacrifice in Bozrah . This Bozrah, one of the principal cities of Idumaea, is to be distinguished from "Bozrah of Moab," which was known to the Romans as "Bostra." It lay in the hilly country to the south-cast of the Dead Sea, about thirty-five miles north of Petra, and was one of the earliest settlements of the descendants of Esau, being mentioned as a well-known place in Genesis 34:1-31 :33). The threats here uttered against it are repeated by Jeremiah ( Jeremiah 49:13 ), who says that "Bozrah shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; all the cities thereof [ i.e. the dependent cities] shall be perpetual wastes." Bozrah is probably identified with the modern El-Busaireh , a village of about fifty houses, occupying a site in the position above indicated, amid ruins which seem to be those of a considerable city.