Isaiah 34:11-12

11, 12. The picture of a solitary, foul, and marshy land, and of disgusting animals and birds, taking complete possession thereof, is a favourite one with Isaiah, (see Isaiah 13:20-22; Isaiah 14:23,) and others copy him. See Zephaniah 2:14. The cormorant is possibly the pelican, though it be a sea fowl; the bittern is, in the opinion of most, the crane, or heron, though some read hedgehog. And this is the condition of the punished Edom.

The line of confusion And he, or one, stretches a line upon it an architectural idea denoting exact measurement of justice upon Edom. Stones of emptiness, may mean waste stones, desert stones, stones of dark flint, with which the whole desert land there is strewed. These were picked up and used as, or for, a plummet, with the measuring line. So desolate is every thing there that one visiting the region, either in mockery or in mournful seeming, calls out, Where are the once great nobles, or dukes, (Genesis 36:40,) that ruled here? But no answer. Only the same sad question is mockingly echoed back.