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Isaiah 34 · a question people ask

Why Edom? What reason does the chapter give?

In the text

The chapter calls Edom "the people of my curse" (34:5), and it gives one reason for its day: "a year of recompense for the cause of Zion" (34:8). It doesn't say what the cause was, and these notes don't supply it. In Hebrew curse is cherem, which Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as "devoted thing"; Isaiah has it once more, and there it is said of Jacob: "I will make Jacob a curse, and Israel an insult" (Isaiah 43:28). Genesis says who Edom is: "Esau is Edom" (Genesis 36:8). Other prophets also speak of Edom, among them Jeremiah (Jeremiah 49:7-22); this chapter doesn't name them, and these notes don't read their words into 34:8. Isaiah names Edom and Bozrah together again at the start of chapter 63 (Isaiah 63:1).

The verses

“For my sword has drunk its fill in the sky. Behold, it will come down on Edom, and on the people of my curse, for judgment.”
Isaiah 34:5 · World English Bible
“For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.”
Isaiah 34:8 · World English Bible
“Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary; and I will make Jacob a curse, and Israel an insult.””
Isaiah 43:28 · World English Bible
“Esau lived in the hill country of Seir. Esau is Edom.”
Genesis 36:8 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Isaiah 34

Isaiah 34: Rolled up like a scroll

The scroll the sky is rolled up like (34:4) and "the book of the LORD" (34:16) are one Hebrew word, sefer. The confusion and emptiness of 34:11 are tohu and bohu, the "formless and empty" of Genesis 1:2. And the emptied land is shared out by lot and measuring line, to the pelican and the porcupine (34:11, 34:17).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions