Isaiah 34 – Skeptic's Annotated Bible answered

A response and reply to the notes on Isaiah 34 in the Skeptic's Annotated Bible (SAB).

King James Version

SAB comment

My comment


1 Come near, ye nations, 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.

2 For the indignation of the LORD is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter.

(34:2-3) "He hath delievered them to the slaughter. Their stink shall come up out of their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood." "His fury upon all their armies.
Does God ever get furious?
Some suggestions for the next Left Behind game
God will get furious with his enemies, but not with his people, see chapter 27:4.

3 Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood.

4 And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.

"The host of heaven shall be dissolved ... and ... shall fall down"
The stars will dissolve and fall from the sky.
The sun, moon and stars are frequently used in the Bible to denote persons of power, see for example Gen. 37:9. See also Sir Isaac Newton on this subject, Matthew 24:29.

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.

"For my sword shall be bathed in heaven."
Sounds like a place to stay away from.
Heaven is indeed a place to stay away from if you are an enemy of God. The meaning of “bathed in heaven” is that this sword is prepared in heaven. But it used on earth, see the next verse (verse 6).

6 The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for the LORD hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea.

(34:6-8)"The sword of the LORD is filled with blood ... their land shall be soaked with blood."
The author of the SAB objects against the day of the Lord's vengeance (verse 8). Shall sin and iniquity be left unpunished?

7 And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.

"And the unicorns shall come down with them."
On unicorns, see Deut. 33:17.

8 For it is the day of the LORD’S vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.

9 And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.

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.

11 But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness.

"The cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it."
Edom will become a birdwatcher's paradise.
As is indicated in verse 2 this prophesy is a general one about all nations that oppose God. In verse 5 Idumea is mentioned as the most well-known example of the implacable enemies of the Jews, but God's vengeance is not restricted to them.

12 They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing.

13 And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls.

(34:13-14) Dragons and satyrs may not seem real to you, but they did to the author of these verses.
The word dinosaur was only coined long after the King James translated was finished, so understand dinosaur for the word dragon.

14 The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest.

 
On satyr, see chapter 13:21.

15 There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate.

16 Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them.

17 And he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath divided it unto them by line: they shall possess it for ever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein.