Discovery BoxEzekiel 31:12
Context31:12 Foreigners from the most terrifying nations have cut it down and left it to lie there on the mountains. In all the valleys its branches have fallen, and its boughs lie broken in the ravines of the land. All the peoples of the land 1 have departed 2 from its shade and left it.
Ezekiel 32:4-5
Context32:4 I will leave you on the ground,
I will fling you on the open field,
I will allow 3 all the birds of the sky to settle 4 on you,
and I will permit 5 all the wild animals 6 to gorge themselves on you.
32:5 I will put your flesh on the mountains,
and fill the valleys with your maggot-infested carcass. 7
Ezekiel 39:4-5
Context39:4 You will fall dead on the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops and the people who are with you. I give you as food to every kind of bird and every wild beast. 39:5 You will fall dead in the open field; for I have spoken, declares the sovereign Lord.
Isaiah 34:2-7
Context34:2 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, 8
their corpses will stink; 9
the hills will soak up their blood. 10
34:4 All the stars in the sky will fade away, 11
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. 12
34:5 He says, 13 “Indeed, my sword has slaughtered heavenly powers. 14
Look, it now descends on Edom, 15
on the people I will annihilate in judgment.”
34:6 The Lord’s sword is dripping with blood,
it is covered 16 with fat;
it drips 17 with the blood of young rams and goats
and is covered 18 with the fat of rams’ kidneys.
For the Lord is holding a sacrifice 19 in Bozrah, 20
a bloody 21 slaughter in the land of Edom.
34:7 Wild oxen will be slaughtered 22 along with them,
as well as strong bulls. 23
Their land is drenched with blood,
their soil is covered with fat.
[31:12] 1 tn Or “earth” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NIV, NRSV).
[32:4] 6 tn Heb “the beasts of the field,” referring to wild as opposed to domesticated animals.
[32:5] 7 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.
[34:3] 8 tn Heb “will be cast aside”; NASB, NIV “thrown out.”
[34:3] 9 tn Heb “[as for] their corpses, their stench will arise.”
[34:3] 10 tn Heb “hills will dissolve from their blood.”
[34:4] 11 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.”
[34:4] 12 tn Heb “like the withering of a leaf from a vine, and like the withering from a fig tree.”
[34:5] 13 tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The Lord speaks at this point.
[34:5] 14 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.”
[34:5] 15 sn Edom is mentioned here as epitomizing the hostile nations that oppose God.
[34:6] 16 tn The verb is a rare Hotpaal passive form. See GKC 150 §54.h.
[34:6] 17 tn The words “it drips” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[34:6] 18 tn The words “and is covered” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[34:6] 19 tn Heb “for there is a sacrifice to the Lord.”
[34:6] 20 sn The Lord’s judgment of Edom is compared to a bloody sacrificial scene.
[34:6] 21 tn Heb “great” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).
[34:7] 22 tn Heb “will go down”; NAB “shall be struck down.”
[34:7] 23 tn Heb “and bulls along with strong ones.” Perhaps this refers to the leaders.
