Isaiah 34:13

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

⁹Her streams will be turned to tar, and her soil to sulfur; her land will become a blazing pitch. ¹⁰It will not be quenched-day or night. Its smoke will ascend forever. From generation to generation it will lie desolate; no one will ever pass through it again. ¹¹The desert owl and screech owl will possess it, and the great owl and raven will dwell in it. The LORD will stretch out over Edom a measuring line of chaos and a plumb line of destruction. ¹²No nobles will be left to proclaim a king, and all her princes will come to nothing. ¹³Her towers will be overgrown with thorns, her fortresses with thistles and briers. She will become a haunt for jackals, an abode for ostriches.¹⁴The desert creatures will meet with hyenas, and one wild goat will call to another. There the nocturnal creature will settle and find her place of repose. ¹⁵There the owl will make her nest; she will lay and hatch her eggs and gather her brood under her shadow. Even there the birds of prey will gather, each with its mate. ¹⁶Search and read the scroll of the LORD: Not one of these will go missing, not one will lack her mate, because He has ordered it by His mouth, and He will gather them by His Spirit. ¹⁷He has allotted their portion; His hand has distributed it by measure. They will possess it forever; they will dwell in it 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
Their offer seemed good to Hamor and his son Shechem.

Genesis 34:20
So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city and addressed the men of their city:

Genesis 34:23
Will not their livestock, their possessions, and all their animals become ours? Only let us consent to them, and they will dwell among us."

Genesis 34:24
All the men who went out of the city gate listened to Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male of the city was circumcised.

Genesis 34:26
They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with their swords, took Dinah out of Shechem's house, and went away.

Genesis 34:27
Jacob's other sons came upon the slaughter and looted the city, because their sister had been defiled.

Genesis 34:28
They took their flocks and herds and donkeys, and everything else in the city or in the field.

Genesis 34:29
They carried off all their possessions and women and children, and they plundered everything in their houses.

Judges 15:3
Samson said to them, "This time I will be blameless in doing harm to the Philistines."

Job 13:4
You, however, smear with lies; you are all worthless physicians.

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."