Discovery BoxIsaiah 34:5 
Context34:5 He says, 1 “Indeed, my sword has slaughtered heavenly powers. 2
Look, it now descends on Edom, 3
on the people I will annihilate in judgment.”
Isaiah 34:10
Context34:10 Night and day it will burn; 4
its smoke will ascend continually.
Generation after generation it will be a wasteland
and no one will ever pass through it again.
1 tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The Lord speaks at this point.
2 tn Heb “indeed [or “for”] my sword is drenched in the heavens.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa has תראה (“[my sword] appeared [in the heavens]”), but this is apparently an attempt to make sense out of a difficult metaphor. Cf. NIV “My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens.”
sn In v. 4 the “host of the heaven” refers to the heavenly luminaries (stars and planets, see, among others, Deut 4:19; 17:3; 2 Kgs 17:16; 21:3, 5; 23:4-5; 2 Chr 33:3, 5) that populate the divine/heavenly assembly in mythological and prescientific Israelite thought (see Job 38:7; Isa 14:13). As in 24:21, they are viewed here as opposing God and being defeated in battle.
3 sn Edom is mentioned here as epitomizing the hostile nations that oppose God.
4 tn Heb “it will not be extinguished.”
