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Isaiah

About this book
Chapter 34

1 Come near, you nations, and listen! Pay attention, you people! The earth and everything it contains must listen, the world and everything that lives in it. 2 For the Lord is angry at all the nations and furious with all their armies. He will annihilate them and slaughter them. 3 Their slain will be left unburied, their corpses will stink; the hills will soak up their blood. 4 All the stars in the sky will fade away,⁠ the sky will roll up like a scroll;⁠ all its stars will wither, like a leaf withers and falls from a vine or a fig withers and falls from a tree.⁠ 5 He says, “Indeed, my sword has slaughtered heavenly powers. Look, it now descends on Edom, on the people I will annihilate in judgment.” 6 The Lord’s sword is dripping with blood, it is covered with fat; it drips with the blood of young rams and goats and is covered with the fat of rams’ kidneys. For the Lord is holding a sacrifice in Bozrah,⁠ a bloody slaughter in the land of Edom.⁠ 7 Wild oxen will be slaughtered along with them, as well as strong bulls. Their land is drenched with blood, their soil is covered with fat. 8 For the Lord has planned a day of revenge, a time when he will repay Edom for her hostility toward Zion.⁠ 9 Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch⁠ and her soil into brimstone; her land will become burning pitch. 10 Night and day it will burn; 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 will live there, all kinds of wild birds will settle in it.⁠ The Lord will stretch out over her the measuring line of ruin and the plumb line of destruction. 12 Her nobles will have nothing left to call a kingdom, and all her officials will disappear. 13 Her fortresses will be overgrown with thorns; thickets and weeds will grow in her fortified cities. Jackals will settle there; ostriches will live there. 14 Wild animals and wild dogs will congregate there; wild goats will bleat to one another.⁠ Yes, nocturnal animals will rest there and make for themselves a nest. 15 Owls will make nests and lay eggs there; they will hatch them and protect them. Yes, hawks will gather there, each with its mate. 16 Carefully read the scroll of the Lord! Not one of these creatures will be missing, none will lack a mate. For the Lord has issued the decree, and his own Spirit gathers them. 17 He assigns them their allotment; he measures out their assigned place. They will live there permanently; they will settle in it through successive generations.

Texts in conversation

Compare Isaiah 34:4 and Pseudo Philo, Biblical Antiquities 11:5

Hebrew Bible · Classical

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Summary

Pseudo-Philo’s retelling of the giving of the Torah at Sinai draws on Isaiah 34’s imagery of the sky rolling up and the stars fading during cosmic judgment, using this imagery to add additional emphasis to its significance.

Passages

Isaiah 34:4

Hebrew Bible
2 For the Lord is angry at all the nations and furious with all their armies. He will annihilate them and slaughter them. 3 Their slain will be left unburied, their corpses will stink; the hills will soak up their blood. 4 All the stars in the sky will fade away, the sky will roll up like a scroll; all its stars will wither, like a leaf withers and falls from a vine or a fig withers and falls from a tree. 5 He says, “Indeed, my sword has slaughtered heavenly powers. Look, it now descends on Edom, on the people I will annihilate in judgment.” 6 The Lord’s sword is dripping with blood, it is covered with fat; it drips with the blood of young rams and goats and is covered with the fat of rams’ kidneys. For the Lord is holding a sacrifice in Bozrah, a bloody slaughter in the land of Edom.
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

Pseudo Philo, Biblical Antiquities 11:5

Classical
3 Moses did as God commanded him, and he consecrated the people and said to them, “Be ready on the 3rd day, for after 3 days God will make his covenant with you.” And the people were consecrated. 4 On the 3rd day there were sounds of thunder and the brightness of lightning and the sound of instruments sounding aloud. And there was fear on all the people who were in the camp. And Moses brought the people out to meet God. 5 The mountains burned with fire, the earth shook, the hills were moved and the mountains overthrown; the depths boiled, and all the inhabited places were shaken; the heavens were folded up and the clouds drew up water. Flames of fire shone out, thunder and lightning multiplied, and winds and storms made a roaring; the stars gathered together, and the angels ran ahead, until God established the law of an everlasting covenant with the children of Israel and gave them an eternal commandment that would not pass away.
1–100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Pseudo Philo, Biblical Antiquities

References

"... Obviously, this Pseudo-Philo description of the Sinai event has been colored with dyes from other theophany texts, which deal with, e.g., the Day of Yahweh. One such text is Isaiah 34, where verse 4 mentions the folding up of the skies. A main function of the theophany here might be to stress the majesty of the God who gives the Law and establishes the covenant with his people ..."
Lars Hartman, Asking for a Meaning: A Study of 1 Enoch 1-5 (Lund: LiberLäromedel/Gleerup, 1979), 43.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Isaiah 34:4 and Pseudo Philo, Biblical Antiquities 11:5

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