Isaiah 34:13

Bible in Basic English

And thorns will come up in her fair houses, and waste plants in her strong towers: and foxes will make their holes there, and it will be a meeting-place for ostriches.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Her palaces will be overgrown with thorns;her fortified cities, with thistles and briers.She will become a dwelling for jackals,an abode for ostriches.

Hebrew Names Version
Thorns shall come up in its palaces, nettles and thistles in the fortresses of it; and it shall be a habitation of jackals, a court for ostriches.

King James Version
And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls.

English Standard Version
Thorns shall grow over its strongholds, nettles and thistles in its fortresses. It shall be the haunt of jackals, an abode for ostriches.

New American Standard Bible
Thorns will come up in its fortified towers, Weeds and thistles in its fortified cities; It will also be a haunt of jackals And a habitat of ostriches.

New Century Version
Thorns will take over the strong towers, and wild bushes will grow in the walled cities. It will be a home for wild dogs and a place for owls to live.

Amplified Bible
Thorns will come up in its fortified palaces, Nettles and brambles in its fortified cities; It will be a haunt for jackals, An abode for ostriches.

World English Bible
Thorns shall come up in its palaces, nettles and thistles in the fortresses of it; and it shall be a habitation of jackals, a court for ostriches.

Geneva Bible (1587)
And it shall bring foorth thornes in the palaces thereof, nettles and thistles in the strong holdes thereof, and it shall be an habitation for dragons, and a court for ostriches.

Legacy Standard Bible
And thorns will come up in its fortified towers,Weeds and thistles in its fortified cities;It will also be a haunt of jackalsAnd an abode of ostriches.

Berean Standard Bible
Her towers will be overgrown with thorns, her fortresses with thistles and briers. She will become a haunt for jackals, an abode for ostriches.

Contemporary English Version
Its palaces and fortresses will be covered with thorns; only wolves and ostriches will make their home there.

Complete Jewish Bible
Thorns will overgrow its palaces, nettles and thistles its fortresses; it will become a lair for jackals, an enclosure for ostriches.

Darby Translation
And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in her fortresses; and it shall be a dwelling-place of wild dogs, a court for ostriches.

Easy-to-Read Version
Thorns and wild bushes will grow in all the beautiful homes there. Wild dogs and owls will live in them. Wild animals will make their homes there. Big birds will live in the grasses that grow there.

George Lamsa Translation
And thorns shall sprout up in her palaces, nettles and thistles in the fortresses thereof; and it shall be a habitation of dragons and a pasture for ostriches.

Good News Translation
Thorns and thistles will grow up in all the palaces and walled towns, and jackals and owls will live in them.

Lexham English Bible
And thorns shall go up her citadel fortress, weeds and thistle plants in her fortresses; and it shall be the settlement of jackals, green grass for the daughters of an ostrich.

Literal Translation
And thorns shall grow in her palaces, nettles and thistles in its fortresses; and it shall be a home for jackals, a court for daughters of ostriches.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Thornes shal growe in their palaces, nettels & thistles in their stronge holdes, yt the dragons maye haue their pleasure therin, & that they maye be a courte for Estriches.

American Standard Version
And thorns shall come up in its palaces, nettles and thistles in the fortresses thereof; and it shall be a habitation of jackals, a court for ostriches.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and thistles in the fortresses thereof; and it shall be a habitation of wild-dogs, an enclosure for ostriches.

King James Version (1611)
And thornes shall come vp in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shalbe an habitation of dragons, and a court for owles.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Thornes shall growe in their palaces, nettles & thistles in their strong holdes, that the dragons may haue their pleasure therin, and that they may be a court for Estriches.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And thorns shall spring up in their cities, and in her strong holds: and they shall be habitations of monsters, and a court of ostriches.

English Revised Version
And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and thistles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of jackals, a court for ostriches.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And thornes and nettlis schulen growe in the housis therof, and a tasil in the strengthis therof; and it schal be the couche of dragouns, and the lesewe of ostrichis.

Update Bible Version
And thorns shall come up in its palaces, nettles and thistles in the fortresses thereof; and it shall be a habitation of jackals, a court for ostriches.

Webster's Bible Translation
And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in her fortresses, and it shall be a habitation of dragons, [and] a court for owls.

New English Translation
Her fortresses will be overgrown with thorns; thickets and weeds will grow in her fortified cities. Jackals will settle there; ostriches will live there.

New King James Version
And thorns shall come up in its palaces, Nettles and brambles in its fortresses; It shall be a habitation of jackals, A courtyard for ostriches.

New Living Translation
Thorns will overrun its palaces; nettles and thistles will grow in its forts. The ruins will become a haunt for jackals and a home for owls.

New Life Bible
Thorns will grow in its strong towers. Thistles will grow in cities where battles were fought. It will be a place for wild dogs, and a home for ostriches.

New Revised Standard
Thorns shall grow over its strongholds, nettles and thistles in its fortresses. It shall be the haunt of jackals, an abode for ostriches.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Then shall come up, in her palaces thorns Nettles and thistles in her fortresses, - And she shall become A home for wild dogs, An enclosure for ostriches;

Douay-Rheims Bible
And thorns and nettles shall grow up in its houses, and the thistle in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be the habitation of dragons, and the pasture of ostriches.

Revised Standard Version
Thorns shall grow over its strongholds, nettles and thistles in its fortresses. It shall be the haunt of jackals, an abode for ostriches.

Young's Literal Translation
And gone up her palaces have thorns, Nettle and bramble [are] in her fortresses, And it hath been a habitation of dragons, A court for daughters of an ostrich.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Thorns will come up in its fortified towers, Nettles and thistles in its fortified cities; It will also be a haunt of jackals And an abode of ostriches.

Contextual Overview

⁹ And its streams will be turned into boiling oil, and its dust into burning stone, and all the land will be on fire. ¹⁰ It will not be put out day or night; its smoke will go up for ever: it will be waste from generation to generation; no one will go through it for ever. ¹¹ But the birds of the waste land will have their place there; it will be a heritage for the bittern and the raven: and it will be measured out with line and weight as a waste land. ¹² The jackals will be there, and her great ones will be gone; they will say, There is no longer a kingdom there, and all her chiefs will have come to an end. ¹³ And thorns will come up in her fair houses, and waste plants in her strong towers: and foxes will make their holes there, and it will be a meeting-place for ostriches. ¹⁴ And the beasts of the waste places will come together with the jackals, and the evil spirits will be crying to one another, even the night-spirit will come and make her resting-place there. ¹⁵ The arrowsnake will make her hole and put her eggs there, and get her young together under her shade: there the hawks will come together by twos. ¹⁶ See what is recorded in the book of the Lord: all these will be there, not one without the other: the mouth of the Lord has given the order, and his spirit has made them come together. ¹⁷ And he has given them their heritage, and by his hand it has been measured out to them: it will be theirs for ever, their resting-place from generation to generation.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

thorns: Isaiah 32:13, Isaiah 32:14, Hosea 9:6, Zephaniah 2:9

an habitation: Isaiah 13:21, Isaiah 13:22, Isaiah 35:7, Jeremiah 9:11, Jeremiah 10:22, Jeremiah 49:33, Jeremiah 50:39, Jeremiah 50:40, Jeremiah 51:37, Malachi 1:3, Revelation 18:2, Revelation 18:20-24

owls: or, ostriches, Heb. daughters of the owl

Reciprocal: 2 Kings 14:9 - The thistle Psalms 44:19 - in the Isaiah 24:10 - city Hosea 10:8 - the thorn

Cross-References

Genesis 34:18
And their words were pleasing to Hamor and his son Shechem.

Genesis 34:20
Then Hamor and Shechem, his son, went to the meeting-place of their town, and said to the men of the town,

Genesis 34:23
Then will not their cattle and their goods and all their beasts be ours? so let us come to an agreement with them so that they may go on living with us.

Genesis 34:24
Then all the men of the town gave ear to the words of Hamor and Shechem his son; and every male in the town underwent circumcision.

Genesis 34:26
And Hamor and his son they put to death with the sword, and they took Dinah from Shechem's house and went away.

Genesis 34:27
And the sons of Jacob came on them when they were wounded and made waste the town because of what had been done to their sister;

Genesis 34:28
They took their flocks and their herds and their asses and everything in their town and in their fields,

Genesis 34:29
And all their wealth and all their little ones and their wives; everything in their houses they took and made them waste.

Judges 15:3
Then Samson said to them, This time I will give payment in full to the Philistines, for I am going to do them great evil.

Job 13:4
But you put a false face on things; all your attempts to put things right are of no value.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And thorns shall come up in her palaces,.... Where their kings and princes dwelt, and kept their courts, popes and cardinals; here will be the tokens of God's curse, as thorns are, these being the people of his curse, as in Isaiah 34:5:

nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof; alluding to "Bozrah" which signifies a fortress; referring to the towers and fortifications of the city of Rome, and all other fortified cities within its jurisdiction:

and it shall be a habitation of dragons; literally, as it figuratively had been the seat of the old dragon, the devil, and of the beast to whom the dragon gave his power, seat, and authority; and who, though he looked like a lamb, spoke like a dragon, Revelation 12:3:

[and] a court for owls; or, "daughters of the owl"; or "ostriches", as some render it.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And thorns ... - (see the note at Isaiah 5:6)

It shall be an habitation of dragons - On the meaning of the word ‘dragons,’ see the note at Isaiah 13:22.

Court for owls - A place of resort, a residence of owls. The word rendered ‘court’ (חציר châtsı̂yr) means a dwelling-place, a habitation, as well as an enclosure or court. The margin is, ‘Daughters of the owl,’ or ‘ostriches’ (see the note at Isaiah 13:21). ‘I would,’ says Stephens, when standing amidst the ruins of Petra, the capital of Idumea (see the note at Isaiah 16:1), and with this passage of Isaiah in his eye, ‘I would that the sceptic could stand as I did, among the ruins of this city among the rocks, and there open the sacred book, and read the words of the inspired penman, written when this desolate place was one of the greatest cities in the world. I see the scoff arrested, his cheek pale, his lip quivering, and his heart quaking with fear, as the ancient city cries out to him in a voice loud and powerful as one risen from the dead; though be would not believe Moses and the prophets, he believes the hand-writing of God himself, in the desolation and eternal ruin around him.’ (Incidents of Travel in Egypt, etc., vol. ii. p. 76.)

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 34:13. And thorns shall come up in her palaces — ועלו בארמנותיה vealu bearmenotheyha; so read all the ancient versions.

A court for owls. — יענה yaanah, the ostrich, from ענה anah, to cry, because of the noise it makes. "They roar," says Dr. Shaw, "sometimes like a lion-sometimes like a bull. I have often heard them groan as if in the utmost distress."