Isaiah 34:9

New Living Translation

The streams of Edom will be filled with burning pitch, and the ground will be covered with fire.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch,her soil into sulfur;her land will become burning pitch.

Hebrew Names Version
The streams of [Edom] shall be turned into zehfet, and the dust of it into sulfur, and the land of it shall become burning zehfet.

King James Version
And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.

English Standard Version
And the streams of Edom shall be turned into pitch, and her soil into sulfur; her land shall become burning pitch.

New American Standard Bible
Its streams will be turned into pitch, And its loose earth into brimstone, And its land will become burning pitch.

New Century Version
Edom's rivers will be like hot tar. Its dirt will be like burning sulfur. Its land will be like burning tar.

Amplified Bible
The streams [of Edom] will be turned into pitch, And its dust into brimstone, And its land will become burning pitch.

World English Bible
The streams of [Edom] shall be turned into pitch, and the dust of it into sulfur, and the land of it shall become burning pitch.

Geneva Bible (1587)
And the riuers thereof shall be turned into pitche, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shalbe burning pitch.

Legacy Standard Bible
And its streams will be turned into pitch,And its dust into brimstone,And its land will become burning pitch.

Berean Standard Bible
Her streams will be turned to tar, and her soil to sulfur; her land will become a blazing pitch.

Contemporary English Version
Edom's streams will turn into tar and its soil into sulfur— then the whole country will go up in flames.

Complete Jewish Bible
Its streams will be changed to tar, its dust to sulfur, its land burning tar

Darby Translation
And the torrents thereof shall be turned into pitch, and its dust into brimstone; yea, the land thereof shall become burning pitch:

Easy-to-Read Version
Edom's rivers will be like hot tar. Edom's ground will be like burning sulfur.

George Lamsa Translation
And its streams shall be turned into pitch and its soil into brimstone, and its land shall become burning pitch.

Good News Translation
The rivers of Edom will turn into tar, and the soil will turn into sulfur. The whole country will burn like tar.

Lexham English Bible
And its streams shall be changed to pitch and its soil to sulfur, and its land shall become like burning pitch.

Literal Translation
And its torrents shall be turned to pitch, and its dust to brimstone; and its land shall become burning pitch.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Thy floudes shalbe turned to pytch, and thine earth to brymstone, & therwith shal the londe be kyndled,

American Standard Version
And the streams of Edom shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.

Bible in Basic English
And its streams will be turned into boiling oil, and its dust into burning stone, and all the land will be on fire.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.

King James Version (1611)
And the streames thereof shalbe turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And his fluddes shalbe turned to pitch, and his earth to brimstone, and therewith shall the lande be kindled.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And her valleys shall be turned into pitch, and her land into sulphur; and her land shall be as pitch burning night and day;

English Revised Version
And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And the strondis therof schulen be turned in to pitche, and the erthe therof in to brymstoon; and the lond therof schal be in to brennyng pitch, niyt and dai.

Update Bible Version
And the streams of [Edom] shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.

Webster's Bible Translation
And its streams shall be turned into pitch, and its dust into brimstone, and its land shall become burning pitch.

New English Translation
Edom's streams will be turned into pitch and her soil into brimstone; her land will become burning pitch.

New King James Version
Its streams shall be turned into pitch, And its dust into brimstone; Its land shall become burning pitch.

New Life Bible
Edom's rivers will be turned into tar, and its dust into sulphur. Her land will become burning tar.

New Revised Standard
And the streams of Edom shall be turned into pitch, and her soil into sulfur; her land shall become burning pitch.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Then shall the torrents thereof be turned into pitch, And the dust thereof, into brimstone, - So shall her land become burning pitch:

Douay-Rheims Bible
And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the ground thereof into brimstone: and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.

Revised Standard Version
And the streams of Edom shall be turned into pitch, and her soil into brimstone; her land shall become burning pitch.

Young's Literal Translation
And turned have been her streams to pitch, And her dust to brimstone, And her land hath become burning pitch.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Its streams will be turned into pitch, And its loose earth into brimstone, And its land will become burning pitch.

Contextual Overview

⁹ The streams of Edom will be filled with burning pitch, and the ground will be covered with fire. ¹⁰ This judgment on Edom will never end; the smoke of its burning will rise forever. The land will lie deserted from generation to generation. No one will live there anymore. ¹¹ It will be haunted by the desert owl and the screech owl, the great owl and the raven. For God will measure that land carefully; he will measure it for chaos and destruction. ¹² It will be called the Land of Nothing, and all its nobles will soon be gone. ¹³ 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. ¹⁴ Desert animals will mingle there with hyenas, their howls filling the night. Wild goats will bleat at one another among the ruins, and night creatures will come there to rest. ¹⁵ There the owl will make her nest and lay her eggs. She will hatch her young and cover them with her wings. And the buzzards will come, each one with its mate. ¹⁶ Search the book of the Lord , and see what he will do. Not one of these birds and animals will be missing, and none will lack a mate, for the Lord has promised this. His Spirit will make it all come true. ¹⁷ He has surveyed and divided the land and deeded it over to those creatures. They will possess it forever, from generation to generation.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Genesis 19:28, Deuteronomy 29:23, Job 18:15, Psalms 11:6, Luke 17:29, Jude 1:7, Revelation 19:20, Revelation 21:8

Reciprocal: Psalms 107:33 - turneth Isaiah 1:7 - burned Isaiah 1:31 - and they Isaiah 30:27 - burning Isaiah 33:14 - everlasting Jeremiah 49:13 - a desolation Jeremiah 49:17 - Edom Jeremiah 49:33 - a dwelling Zephaniah 2:9 - as Gomorrah Malachi 1:3 - laid Revelation 14:10 - be Revelation 18:9 - the smoke

Cross-References

Genesis 6:2
The sons of God saw the beautiful women and took any they wanted as their wives.

Genesis 19:14
So Lot rushed out to tell his daughters' fiancés, "Quick, get out of the city! The Lord is about to destroy it." But the young men thought he was only joking.

Genesis 24:3
Swear by the Lord , the God of heaven and earth, that you will not allow my son to marry one of these local Canaanite women.

Genesis 27:46
Then Rebekah said to Isaac, "I'm sick and tired of these local Hittite women! I would rather die than see Jacob marry one of them."

Deuteronomy 7:3
You must not intermarry with them. Do not let your daughters and sons marry their sons and daughters,

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch,.... The Septuagint render it, "the valleys"; the word signifying both rivers and valleys, most render it rivers or streams. The Targum is express,

"the rivers of Rome shall be turned into pitch;''

by which may be meant the maritime places belonging to the Romish jurisdiction, the same on which the third vial will be poured, by which the rivers and fountains of waters will become blood; and which refers to this very time, when blood shall be given to the whore of Rome to drink, Revelation 16:4. The allusion, in this and some following clauses, is to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; see

Jeremiah 49:17:

and the dust thereof into brimstone; and so easily take fire:

and the land thereof shall become burning pitch: plainly pointing to the destruction of Rome by fire, Revelation 17:16.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And the streams thereof - The idea here is, that there would be as great and awful a destruction as if the streams everywhere should become pitch or resin, which would be set on fire, and which would fill the land with flame. This image is very striking, as we may see by supposing the rivers and streams in any land to flow not with water, but with heated pitch, turpentine, or tar, and that this was all suddenly kindled into a flame. It cannot be supposed that this is to be taken literally. The image is evidently taken from the destruction of Sodom and Gamorrah (Genesis 19:25-28), an image which is more fully used in reference to the same subject in Jeremiah 49:17-18 : ‘And Edom shall be a desolation;... as in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the neighbor cities thereof, saith the Lord, no man shall abide there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it.’

And the dust thereof into brimstone - The ruin shall be as entire as if all the soil were turned into brimstone, which should be ignited and left burning.