Isaiah 34:14

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

The wild beasts of the desert: Heb. Ziim, Isaiah 13:21, *marg.

the wild beasts of the island: Heb. Ijim, Isaiah 13:22, *marg.

screech owl: or, night-monster

Reciprocal: Psalms 44:19 - in the Malachi 1:3 - the

Cross-References

Genesis 17:11
You are to circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and this will be a sign of the covenant between Me and you.

Genesis 17:14
But if any male is not circumcised, he will be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant."

Genesis 34:1
Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the daughters of the land.

Genesis 34:2
When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the region, saw her, he took her and lay with her by force.

Genesis 34:9
Intermarry with us; give us your daughters, and take our daughters for yourselves.

1 Samuel 14:6
Jonathan said to the young man bearing his armor, "Come, let us cross over to the outpost of these uncircumcised men. Perhaps the LORD will work on our behalf. Nothing can hinder the LORD from saving, whether by many or by few."

1 Samuel 17:26
David asked the men who were standing with him, "What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Just who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?"

1 Samuel 17:36
Your servant has killed lions and bears; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God."

2 Samuel 1:20
Tell it not in Gath; proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, and the daughters of the uncircumcised exult.

2 Samuel 15:7
After four years had passed, Absalom said to the king, "Please let me go to Hebron to fulfill a vow I have made to the LORD.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the islands,.... In Rome, and take up their abode there; of these creatures, the first of which the Targum renders monstrous ones, and the latter wild cats, :-:

and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; or the "hairy" one r; from which word the goat has its name; and these creatures are described by the ancients as half goats and half men; of which

:-. The Targum renders it demons; and with this well agrees the account of Babylon or Rome as fallen, that it shall be the habitation of, devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, Revelation 18:2:

the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest; there being no inhabitants to disturb her. By the name "Lilith", it appears to be a night bird, which flies and is heard in the night. The Jews call a she demon by this name, which, they say s, has a human face, and has wings, and destroys children as soon as born; and therefore the Jews, especially in Germany, write upon the four corners of the bed of a new mother, Adam, Eve, out Lilith t; the same with the Lamia of the Romans; and so the Vulgate Latin here renders it.

r שעיר "pilosus", a שער "capillus." s T. Bab. Nidda, fol. 24. 2. t Vid. Buxtorf. Lex. Rab. col. 1140.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The wild beasts of the desert - There is in the original here a paronomasia, which cannot be conveyed in a translation. The word rendered, ‘wild beasts of the desert’ (ציים tsı̂yı̂ym), is rendered by the Septuagint, δαιμόνια daimonia, ‘demons.’ On the meaning of the word, see the note at Isaiah 13:21.

The wild beasts of the island - Margin, ‘Ijim.’ Hebrew, איּים 'ı̂yym (see the note at Isaiah 13:22). Probably the term denotes the jackal. Gesenius supposes it is so called from its howl, or nocturnal cry - from an Arabia word signifying to howl.

And the satyr - (see the note at Isaiah 13:21).

Shall cry to his fellow - A most striking description of the desolation, when all that is heard among the ruins shall be the doleful cry of wild beasts.

The screech-owl - Margin, ‘Night-monster.’ The word לילית lı̂ylı̂yt (from ליל layil, night) properly denotes a night-spectre - a creature of Jewish superstition. The rabbis describe it in the form of a female elegantly dressed that lay in wait for children at night - either to carry them off, or to murder them. The Greeks had a similar idea respecting the female ἔμπουτα empouta, and this idea corresponds to the Roman fables respecting the Lamice, and Striges, and to the Arabic notions of the Ghules, whom they described as female monsters that dwell in deserts, and tear men to pieces (see Gesenius, Com. in loc; and Bochart, Hieroz. ii. 831). The margin in our version expresses the correct idea. All this is descriptive of utter and perpetual desolation - of a land that should be full of old ruins, and inhabited by the animals that usually make such ruins their abode.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 34:14. The wild beasts of the desert — ציים tsiyim, the mountain cats. - Bochart.

Wild beasts of the island — איים aiyim, the jackals.

The satyr — שעיר seir, the hairy one, probably the he-goat.

The screech owl — לילית lilith, the night-bird, the night-raven, nyctycorax, from ליל layil, or לילה lailah, the night.