Discovery BoxIsaiah 34:9-12 
Context34:9 Edom’s 1 streams will be turned into pitch
and her soil into brimstone;
her land will become burning pitch.
34:10 Night and day it will burn; 2
its smoke will ascend continually.
Generation after generation it will be a wasteland
and no one will ever pass through it again.
34:11 Owls and wild animals 3 will live there, 4
all kinds of wild birds 5 will settle in it.
The Lord 6 will stretch out over her
the measuring line of ruin
and the plumb line 7 of destruction. 8
34:12 Her nobles will have nothing left to call a kingdom
and all her officials will disappear. 9
1 tn Heb “her”; the referent (Edom) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 tn Heb “it will not be extinguished.”
3 tn קָאַת (qa’at) 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”).
4 tn Heb “will possess it” (so NIV).
5 tn The Hebrew text has יַנְשׁוֹף וְעֹרֵב (yanshof vÿ’orev). 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.
6 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
7 tn Heb “stones,” i.e., the stones used in a plumb bob.
8 sn The metaphor in v. 11b emphasizes that God has carefully planned Edom’s demise.
9 tn Heb “will be nothing”; NCV, TEV, NLT “will all be gone.”
