Isaiah 34:5

For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(5) My sword shall be bathed in heaven . . .—Literally, hath drunk to the full. The words find an echo in Deuteronomy 32:41-42, and Jeremiah 46:10. There, however, the sword is soaked, or made drunk with blood. Here it is “bathed in heaven,” and this seems to require a different meaning. We read in Greek poets, of the “dippings” by which steel was tempered. May not the “bathing” of Isaiah have a like significance?

It shall come down upon Idumea . . .—Better, for Edom, . . . here and in the next verse. No reason can be assigned for this exceptional introduction of the Greek form.

Benson Commentary

Isaiah 34:5-6. For my sword shall be bathed — In the blood of these people; in heaven — Where God dwells; in which this is said to be done, because it was there decreed and appointed. Or, it shall, as it were, be sharpened and made ready in heaven, to bathe itself on earth. It shall come down upon Idumea — Upon the Edomites, who, though they were nearly related to the Israelites, yet were their implacable enemies. But these are named for all the enemies of God’s church, of whom they were an eminent type. The people of my curse — Whom I have devoted to utter destruction, as the word properly signifies. The sword of the Lord is filled with blood — Shall drink its fill of blood. The metaphor is taken from a great glutton, who is almost insatiable, With the blood of lambs, &c. — By lambs, and goats, and rams, he means people of all ranks and conditions, high and low, rich and poor. Dr. Waterland renders the verse, “When my sword in heaven is bathed, behold it shall sink deep into Idumea, into the people whom I have devoted to judgment.” For the Lord hath a sacrifice — So the prophet terms this bloody work, because it was done by God’s command, and for the honour of his justice and righteous government, and therefore was a service acceptable to him; in Bozrah — A chief city of Edom, (Isaiah 63:1,) and a type of those cities which should be most hostile to God’s people.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

34:1-8 Here is a prophecy of the wars of the Lord, all which are both righteous and successful. All nations are concerned. And as they have all had the benefit of his patience, so all must expect to feel his resentment. The description of bloodshed suggests tremendous ideas of the Divine judgments. Idumea here denotes the nations at enmity with the church; also the kingdom of antichrist. Our thoughts cannot reach the horrors of that awful season, to those found opposing the church of Christ. There is a time fixed in the Divine counsels for the deliverance of the church, and the destruction of her enemies. We must patiently wait till then, and judge nothing before the time. Through Christ, mercy is exercised to every believer, consistently with justice, and his name is glorified.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For my sword shall be bathed in heaven - A sword is an instrument of vengeance, and is often so used in the Scriptures, because it was often employed in capital punishments (see the note at Isaiah 27:1). This passage bas given much perplexity to commentators, on account of the apparent want of meaning of the expression that the sword would be bathed in heaven. Lowth reads it:

For my sword is made bare in the heavens;

Following in this the Chaldee which reads תתגלי tı̂thgallı̂y, 'shall be revealed.' But there is no authority from manuscripts for this change in the Hebrew text. The Vulgate renders it, Quoniam inebriatus est in coelo gladius meuse - 'My sword is intoxicated in heaven.' The Septuagint renders it in the same way, Ἐμεθύσθη ἡ μάχαιρά μον ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ Emethusthē hē machaira mou en tō ouranō; and the Syriac and Arabic in the same manner. The Hebrew word רוּתה rivetâh, from רוה râvâh, means properly to drink to the full; to be satisfied, or sated with drink; and then to be full or satiated with intoxicating liquor, to be drunk. It is applied to the sword, as satiated or made drunk with blood, in Jeremiah 46:10 :

And the sword shall devour,

And it shall be satiate, and made drunk with their blood.

And thus in Deuteronomy 32:42, a similar figure is used respecting arrows, the instruments also of war and vengeance:

I will make mine arrows drunk with blood;

And my sword shall devour flesh.

A similar figure is often used in Oriental writers, where the sword is represented as glutted, satiated, or made drunk with blood (see Rosenmuller on Deuteronomy 32:42). Thus Bohaddinus, in the lift of Saladin, in describing a battle in which there was a great slaughter, says, 'The swords drank of their blood until they were intoxicated.' The idea here is, however, not that the sword of the Lord was made drunk with blood in heaven, but that it was intoxicated, or made furious with wrath; it was excited as an intoxicated man is who is under ungovernable passions; it was in heaven that the wrath commenced, and the sword of divine justice rushed forth as if intoxicated, to destroy all before it. There are few figures, even in Isaiah, that are more bold than this.

It shall come down upon Idumea - (see the Analysis of the chapter for the situation of Idumea, and for the causes why it was to be devoted to destruction).

Upon the people of my curse - The people devoted to destruction.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

5. sword—(Jer 46:10). Or else, knife for sacrifice for God does not here appear as a warrior with His sword, but as one about to sacrifice victims doomed to slaughter [Vitringa]. (Eze 39:17).

bathed—rather "intoxicated," namely, with anger (so De 32:42). "In heaven" implies the place where God's purpose of wrath is formed in antithesis to its "coming down" in the next clause.

Idumea—originally extending from the Dead Sea to the Red Sea; afterwards they obtained possession of the country east of Moab, of which Bozrah was capital. Petra or Selah, called Joktheel (2Ki 14:7), was capital of South Edom (see on [754]Isa 16:1). David subjugated Edom (2Sa 8:13, 14). Under Jehoram they regained independence (2Ch 21:8). Under Amaziah they were again subdued, and Selah taken (2Ki 14:7). When Judah was captive in Babylon, Edom, in every way, insulted over her fallen mistress, killed many of those Jews whom the Chaldeans had left, and hence was held guilty of fratricide by God (Esau, their ancestor, having been brother to Jacob): this was the cause of the denunciations of the prophets against Edom (Isa 63:1, &c.; Jer 49:7; Eze 25:12-14; 35:3-15; Joe 3:19; Am 1:11, 12; Ob 8, 10, 12-18; Mal 1:3,4). Nebuchadnezzar humbled Idumea accordingly (Jer 25:15-21).

of my curse—that is, doomed to it.

to judgment—that is, to execute it.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Shall be bathed in the blood of these people; Heb. is or shall be made drunk. In heaven; either,

1. In my church, which is called heaven, Daniel 8:10 Revelation 4:1 12:1, in and against which these enemies are said to be gathered together. Or,

2. In the highest heaven, where God dwells; in which this is said to be done, because it was there decreed and appointed to be done.

Upon Idumea; upon the Edomites, who, though they were nearly related to the Israelites, and were circumcised as well as they; yet were their most inveterate and implacable enemies, watching all opportunities, and being ready to join with all those that attempted, to destroy them; whereof we have many intimations and instances in Scripture. But these are not named exclusively, but rather comprehensively, and synecdochically, for all the enemies of God’s church, of whom they were a considerable part, and an eminent type.

Upon the people of my curse; to whom my curse belongs; or, whom I have cursed, and devoted to utter destruction, as this Hebrew word properly signifies.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For my sword shall be bathed in heaven,.... That is, the sword of the Lord, as it is called in the next verse Isaiah 34:6, and it is he that is speaking; it designs the vengeance of the Lord, the punishment he will inflict on the wicked, said to be "bathed in heaven", because determined and prepared there; the allusion may be to the bathing of swords in some sort of liquor, to harden or brighten them, and so fit them for use. Kimchi renders it, "my sword" which is "in heaven shall be bathed", that is, in the blood of the slain; "heaven" may denote the whole Roman Papal jurisdiction, as it does the whole Roman Pagan empire in Revelation 12:7 and may design the principal men in it, those that are in the highest places and offices, in whom the sword of the Lord shall be first drenched, and be as it were satiated and inebriated with the blood of them:

behold, it shall come down upon Idumea; with great weight, force, and vengeance, having a commission from heaven to execute. Idumea is here particularly mentioned, because the Edomites were implacable enemies to the Jews, and so are here put for all the enemies of God's church and people, all the antichristian states, particularly Rome, which the Jews, as Jerom observes, understand by Edom or Idumea here:

upon the people of my curse to judgment; a very descriptive character of the Papists, the people of God's curse, and righteously so; those who have anathematized his people, and cursed them with bell, book, and candle, are anathematized by him, devoted to destruction, and doomed to be accursed, sentenced to ruin, and on whom judgment shall pass, and shall be executed; they shall hear, "go, ye cursed", both here and hereafter, at the fall of Babylon, and at the general judgment. The Targum is,

"because my sword is revealed in heaven; behold, upon Edom it is revealed, and upon the people whom I have condemned to judgment.''

Geneva Study Bible

For my sword shall be {d} bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Edom, and upon the people of {e} my curse, to judgment.

(d) I have determined in my secret counsel and in the heavens to destroy them till my sword is weary with shedding blood.

(e) They had an opinion of holiness, because they came from the patriarch Isaac, but in effect were cursed by God, and enemies to his Church as the papists are.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5. my sword (see on ch. Isaiah 27:1) shall be bathed] Better: is drunk; i.e. not “with blood” (which suggests an idea foreign to this passage) but “with fury,” in preparation for its work, which is on earth.

Idumea] Read Edom with R.V. The A.V. uses this Greek form here and in Isaiah 34:6, and in Ezekiel 35:15; Ezekiel 36:5, without any justification.

the people of my curse] The last word is strictly ban (ḥçrem, cf. Isaiah 34:2): “the people on whom I have laid the ban.”

5–8. The slaughter of the inhabitants of Edom.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 5. - My sword shall be bathed in heaven; rather, has been bathed, or has been made drunken (ἐνεθύσθη, LXX.) in heaven. Some suppose a reference to the old" war in heaven," when the sword of Divine justice was drawn against the devil and his angels. Others regard the sword now to be used against the Idumeans as first, in heaven, "made drunken" with the Divine anger. It shall come down upon Idumea (comp. Isaiah 63:1-6). The Edomites first showed themselves enemies of Israel when they refused to allow the Israelites, under Moses, "a passage through their border" (Numbers 20:14-21). David subdued them (2 Samuel 9:14); but they revolted from Jehoram (2 Chronicles 21:8-10), and were thenceforward among the most bitter adversaries of the southern kingdom. They "smote Judah" in the reign of Ahaz (2 Chronicles 28:17), and were always ready to "shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity" (Ezekiel 35:5). Amos speaks of them very much in the same tone as Isaiah (Amos 1:11, 12). They ultimately "filled up the measure of their iniquities" by open rejoicing when Jerusalem was destroyed, and the people led away captive by Nebuchadnezzar (Psalm 137:7; Obadiah 1:10-14; Lamentations 4:21, 22; Ezekiel 35:10-13). In the present passage we must regard the Edomites as representative of the enemies of God's people generally (see the introductory paragraph). The people of my curse; i.e. "the people on whom I have laid a curse" - the Edomites. Esau was to "serve" Jacob (Genesis 25:23; Genesis 27:40), Edom to be "a possession" for Judah (Numbers 24:18). God had said of Edom, probably before Isaiah uttered the present prophecy, "For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof... but I will send a fire upon Teman, which shall devour the palaces of Bozrah" (Amos 1:11, 12). Thus Edom was under a curse. Isaiah 34:5

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

If we bear this in mind, we shall not be surprised that the prophet gives the following reason for the passing away of the present heavens. "For my sword has become intoxicated in the heaven; behold, it comes down upon Edom, and upon the people of my ban to judgment. The sword of Jehovah fills itself with blood, is fattened with fat, with blood of lambs and he-goats, with kidney-fat of rams; for Jehovah has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom. And buffaloes fall with them, and bullocks together with bulls; and their land become intoxicated with blood, and their dust fattened with fat." Just as in chapter 63 Jehovah is represented as a treader of the wine-press, and the nations as the grapes; so here He is represented as offering sacrifice, and the nations as the animals offered (zebhach: cf., Zephaniah 1:7; Jeremiah 46:10); Ezekiel 39:17.: all three passages founded upon this). Jehovah does not appear here in person as judge, as He does there, but His sword appears; just as in Genesis 3:24, the "sword which turned every way" is mentioned as an independent power standing by the side of the cherub. The sword is His executioner, which has no sooner drunk deeply of wrath in heaven, i.e., in the immediate sphere of the Deity (rivvethâh, an intensive form of the kal, like pittēăch, Isaiah 48:8; Ewald, 120, d), than it comes down in wild intoxication upon Edom, the people of the ban of Jehovah, i.e., the people upon whom He has laid the ban, and there, as His instrument of punishment, fills itself with blood, and fattens itself with fat. הדּשׁנה is the hothpaal equals התדּשׁנה, with the ת of the preformative syllable assimilated (compare הזּכּוּ in Isaiah 1:16, and אדּמּה in Isaiah 14:14). The penultimate has the tone, the nâh being treated as in the plural forms of the future. The dropping of the dagesh in the שׁ eht ni hse is connected with this. The reading מחלב, in Isaiah 34:6, is an error that has been handed down in modern copies (in opposition to both codices and ancient editions); for חלב (primary form, chilb) is the only form met with in the Old Testament. The lambs, he-goats, and rams, represent the Edomitish nation, which is compared to these smaller sacrificial animals. Edom and Bozrah are also placed side by side in Isaiah 63:1. The latter was one of the chief cities of the Edomites (Genesis 36:33; Amos 1:12; Jeremiah 49:13, Jeremiah 49:22) - not the Bozrah in Auranitis (Haurân), however, which is well known in church history, but Bozrah in the mountains of Edom, upon the same site as the village of Buzaire (i.e., Minor Bozrah), which is still surrounded by its ruins. In contrast with the three names of the smaller animals in Isaiah 34:6, the three names of oxen in Isaiah 34:7 represent the lords of Edom. They also will fall, smitten by the sword (yâredū: cf., Jeremiah 50:27; Jeremiah 51:40; also Jeremiah 48:15). The feast of the sword is so abundant, that even the earth and the dust of the land of Edom are satiated with blood and fat.