32:4 I will leave you on the ground,
I will fling you on the open field,
I will allow 1 all the birds of the sky to settle 2 on you,
and I will permit 3 all the wild animals 4 to gorge themselves on you.
32:5 I will put your flesh on the mountains,
and fill the valleys with your maggot-infested carcass. 5
33:27 “This is what you must say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: As surely as I live, those living in the ruins will die 6 by the sword, those in the open field I will give to the wild beasts for food, and those who are in the strongholds and caves will die of disease.
34:2 For the Lord is angry at all the nations
and furious with all their armies.
He will annihilate them and slaughter them.
34:3 Their slain will be left unburied, 7
their corpses will stink; 8
the hills will soak up their blood. 9
34:4 All the stars in the sky will fade away, 10
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. 11
34:5 He says, 12 “Indeed, my sword has slaughtered heavenly powers. 13
Look, it now descends on Edom, 14
on the people I will annihilate in judgment.”
34:6 The Lord’s sword is dripping with blood,
it is covered 15 with fat;
it drips 16 with the blood of young rams and goats
and is covered 17 with the fat of rams’ kidneys.
For the Lord is holding a sacrifice 18 in Bozrah, 19
a bloody 20 slaughter in the land of Edom.
34:7 Wild oxen will be slaughtered 21 along with them,
as well as strong bulls. 22
Their land is drenched with blood,
their soil is covered with fat.
34:8 For the Lord has planned a day of revenge, 23
a time when he will repay Edom for her hostility toward Zion. 24
15:3 “I will punish them in four different ways: I will have war kill them. I will have dogs drag off their dead bodies. I will have birds and wild beasts devour and destroy their corpses. 25
19:17 Then 26 I saw one angel standing in 27 the sun, and he shouted in a loud voice to all the birds flying high in the sky: 28
“Come, gather around for the great banquet 29 of God,
19:18 to eat 30 your fill 31 of the flesh of kings,
the flesh of generals, 32
the flesh of powerful people,
the flesh of horses and those who ride them,
and the flesh of all people, both free and slave, 33
and small and great!”
19:19 Then 34 I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to do battle with the one who rode the horse and with his army. 19:20 Now 35 the beast was seized, and along with him the false prophet who had performed the signs on his behalf 36 – signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. Both of them were thrown alive into the lake of fire burning with sulfur. 37 19:21 The 38 others were killed by the sword that extended from the mouth of the one who rode the horse, and all the birds gorged 39 themselves with their flesh.
1 tn Or “cause.”
2 tn Heb “live.”
3 tn Or “cause.”
4 tn Heb “the beasts of the field,” referring to wild as opposed to domesticated animals.
5 tc The Hebrew text is difficult here, apparently meaning “your height.” Following Symmachus and the Syriac, it is preferable to emend the text to read “your maggots.” See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:203.
6 tn Heb “fall.”
7 tn Heb “will be cast aside”; NASB, NIV “thrown out.”
8 tn Heb “[as for] their corpses, their stench will arise.”
9 tn Heb “hills will dissolve from their blood.”
10 tc Heb “and all the host of heaven will rot.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa inserts “and the valleys will be split open,” but this reading may be influenced by Mic 1:4. On the other hand, the statement, if original, could have been omitted by homoioarcton, a scribe’s eye jumping from the conjunction prefixed to “the valleys” to the conjunction prefixed to the verb “rot.”
11 tn Heb “like the withering of a leaf from a vine, and like the withering from a fig tree.”
12 tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The Lord speaks at this point.
13 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.”
14 sn Edom is mentioned here as epitomizing the hostile nations that oppose God.
15 tn The verb is a rare Hotpaal passive form. See GKC 150 §54.h.
16 tn The words “it drips” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
17 tn The words “and is covered” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
18 tn Heb “for there is a sacrifice to the Lord.”
19 sn The Lord’s judgment of Edom is compared to a bloody sacrificial scene.
20 tn Heb “great” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).
21 tn Heb “will go down”; NAB “shall be struck down.”
22 tn Heb “and bulls along with strong ones.” Perhaps this refers to the leaders.
23 tn Heb “for a day of vengeance [is] for the Lord.”
24 tn Heb “a year of repayment for the strife of Zion.” The translation assumes that רִיב (riv) refers to Edom’s hostility toward Zion. Another option is to understand רִיב (riv) as referring to the Lord’s taking up Zion’s cause. In this case one might translate, “a time when he will repay Edom and vindicate Zion.”
25 tn The translation attempts to render in understandable English some rather unusual uses of terms here. The verb translated “punish” is often used that way (cf. BDB 823 s.v. פָּקַד Qal.A.3 and compare usage in Jer 11:22, 13:21). However, here it is accompanied by a direct object and a preposition meaning “over” which is usually used in the sense of appointing someone over someone (cf. BDB 823 s.v. פָּקַד Qal.B.1 and compare usage in Jer 51:27). Moreover the word translated “different ways” normally refers to “families,” “clans,” or “guilds” (cf. BDB 1046-47 s.v. מִשְׁפָּחָה for usage). Hence the four things mentioned are referred to figuratively as officers or agents into whose power the
26 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.
27 tn The precise significance of ἐν (en) here is difficult to determine.
28 tn On μεσουρανήματι (mesouranhmati) here see L&N 1.10: “high in the sky, midpoint in the sky, directly overhead, straight above in the sky.” The birds mentioned here are carrion birds like vultures, circling high overhead, and now being summoned to feast on the corpses.
29 tn This is the same Greek word (δεῖπνον, deipnon) used in 19:9.
30 tn The ἵνα (Jina) clause, insofar as it is related to the first imperative, has the force of an imperative.
31 tn The idea of eating “your fill” is evident in the context with the use of χορτάζω (cortazw) in v. 21.
32 tn Grk “chiliarchs”; normally a chiliarch was a military officer commanding a thousand soldiers, but here probably used of higher-ranking commanders like generals (see L&N 55.15; cf. Rev 6:15).
33 tn See the note on the word “servants” in 1:1.
34 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.
35 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the introduction of an unexpected development in the account: The opposing armies do not come together in battle; rather the leader of one side is captured.
36 tn For this meaning see BDAG 342 s.v. ἐνώπιον 4.b, “by the authority of, on behalf of Rv 13:12, 14; 19:20.”
37 tn Traditionally, “brimstone.”
38 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
39 tn On the translation of ἐχορτάσθησαν (ecortasqhsan) BDAG 1087 s.v. χορτάζω 1.a states, “of animals, pass. in act. sense πάντα τὰ ὄρνεα ἐχορτάσθησαν ἐκ τῶν σαρκῶν αὐτῶν all the birds gorged themselves with their flesh Rv 19:21 (cp. TestJud. 21:8).”