Isaiah 34:9-11
New English Translation
9 Edom’s[a] streams will be turned into pitch
and her soil into brimstone;
her land will become burning pitch.
10 Night and day it will burn;[b]
its smoke will ascend continually.
Generation after generation it will be a wasteland,
and no one will ever pass through it again.
11 Owls and wild animals[c] will live there,[d]
all kinds of wild birds[e] will settle in it.
The Lord[f] will stretch out over her
the measuring line of ruin
and the plumb line[g] of destruction.[h]
Footnotes
- Isaiah 34:9 tn Heb “her”; the referent (Edom) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
- Isaiah 34:10 tn Heb “it will not be extinguished.”
- Isaiah 34:11 tn קָאַת (qaʾat) refers to some type of bird (cf. Lev 11:18; Deut 14:17) that was typically found near ruins (see Zeph 2:14). קִפּוֹד (qippod) may also refer to a type of bird (NAB “hoot owl”; NIV “screech owl”; TEV “ravens”), but some have suggested a rodent may be in view (cf. NCV “small animals”; ASV “porcupine”; NASB, NRSV “hedgehog”).
- Isaiah 34:11 tn Heb “will possess it” (so NIV).
- Isaiah 34:11 tn The Hebrew text has יַנְשׁוֹף וְעֹרֵב (yanshof veʿorev). Both the יַנְשׁוֹף (“owl”; see Lev 11:17; Deut 14:16) and עֹרֵב (“raven”; Lev 11:15; Deut 14:14) were types of wild birds.
- Isaiah 34:11 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
- Isaiah 34:11 tn Heb “stones,” i.e., the stones used in a plumb bob.
- Isaiah 34:11 sn The metaphor in v. 11b emphasizes that God has carefully planned Edom’s demise.
Isaiah 34:9-11
King James Version
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.
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