Passage

Isaiah 34.2-5

Book: Isaiah · ASV

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"1. Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye peoples: let the earth hear, and the fulness thereof; the world, and all things that come forth from it."

"2. For Jehovah hath indignation against all the nations, and wrath against all their host: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter. 3. Their slain also shall be cast out, and the stench of their dead bodies shall come up; 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 fade away, as the leaf fadeth from off the vine, and as a fading leaf from the fig-tree. 5. For my sword hath drunk its fill in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Edom, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment."

"6. The sword of Jehovah is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for Jehovah hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom. 7. And the wild-oxen shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls: and their land shall be drunken with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness." (Isaiah 34:1-7, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"1. Come near, you nations, to hear! Listen, you peoples. Let the earth and all it contains hear; the world, and everything that comes from it."

"2. For Yahweh is enraged against all the nations, and angry with all their armies. He has utterly destroyed them. He has given them over for slaughter. 3. Their slain will also be cast out, and the stench of their dead bodies will come up; and the mountains will melt in their blood. 4. All of the army of the sky will be dissolved. The sky will be rolled up like a scroll, and all its armies will fade away, as a leaf fades from off a vine or a fig tree. 5. For my sword has drunk its fill in the sky. Behold, it will come down on Edom, and on the people of my curse, for judgment."

"6. Yahweh’s sword is filled with blood. It is covered with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for Yahweh has a sacrifice in Bozrah, And a great slaughter in the land of Edom. 7. The wild oxen will come down with them, and the young bulls with the mighty bulls; and their land will be drunken with blood, and their dust made greasy with fat." (Isaiah 34:1-7, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"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. ^{all that: Heb. the fulness thereof}"

"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. 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. 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."

"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. 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. ^{unicorns: or, rhinocerots} ^{soaked: or, drunken}" (Isaiah 34:1-7, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"1. Come near, ye nations, to hear, And ye peoples, give attention, Hear doth the earth and its fulness, The world, and all its productions."

"2. For wrath [is] to Jehovah against all the nations, And fury against all their host, He hath devoted them to destruction, He hath given them to slaughter. 3. And their wounded are cast out, And their carcases cause their stench to ascend, And melted have been mountains from their blood. 4. And consumed have been all the host of the heavens, And rolled together as a book have been the heavens, And all their hosts do fade, As the fading of a leaf of a vine, And as the fading one of a fig-tree. 5. For soaked in the heavens was My sword, Lo, on Edom it cometh down, On the people of My curse for judgment."

"6. A sword [is] to Jehovah, it hath been full of blood, It hath been made fat with fatness, With blood of lambs and he-goats. With fat of kidneys of rams, For a sacrifice [is] to Jehovah in Bozrah, And a great slaughter in the land of Edom. 7. And come down have reems with them, And bullocks with bulls, And soaked hath been their land from blood, And their dust from fatness is made fat." (Isaiah 34:1-7, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: Isaiah, in the eschatological-judgment vision of Isa 34
Audience: all nations and peoples; cosmically, all the earth
Location: prophetic horizon; Edom as the typological-representative of the rebellious-nations
Time period: 8th century BC composition; eschatological-judgment horizon

Theological reading

Isa 34 is the OT's most-vivid eschatological-judgment-of-the-nations vision, pairing with the Isa 35 restoration-vision (often read as a single composition with two contrasting panels). V. 2 deploys [[H2763 - charam|charam]] explicitly: YHWH has utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter. V. 5 names Edom (Esau-typology) as the load-bearing typological-target: "upon the people of my curse (ḥermi)", the cognate-noun construction with the cherem-root. Edom-as-type does not name only the historical Edomite people; it names the rebellious-nations-as-such in the typological-frame Isaiah develops at 34; 63:1-6; Obadiah; Mal 1:2-5; Joel 3; into NT vocabulary in Rev 19's divine-warrior. Three features are theologically-decisive. (1) Cosmic-scope: the host-of-heaven-dissolved + heavens-rolled-as-scroll language is the apocalyptic-cosmic-judgment register (parallels Joel 2:10, 30-31; Mt 24:29; Mk 13:25; Rev 6:13-14); the eschatological-charam extends beyond historical-Israel-vs-Canaan into cosmic-judgment-on-rebellion. (2) YHWH as direct executor: as at Isa 11:15, YHWH wields the sword Himself; the eschatological-charam operates without instrumental-mediation. (3) Edom-typology: from this chapter forward, "Edom" in the apocalyptic-prophetic stream names the cumulative-rebellious-civilization opposed to YHWH (continued into Obadiah, Mal 1:2-5, the NT's "Babylon" of Rev 17-18). The chapter ends (vv. 11-17) with Edom's desolation made permanent, uninhabitable, given over to creatures of the wild. The chapter is the OT's most-developed eschatological-charam set-piece, anticipating the final-judgment of Rev 19-20.

Key words

H2763 - charam, heḥerimam (v. 2) + ḥermi (v. 5, cognate-noun construction), the eschatological-charam deployment.
H2764 - cherem, the noun-counterpart at v. 5.

Quoted in

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.