Isaiah 34:9
7 And the wild oxen will fall with them, the young bulls with the strong ones. Their land will be drenched with blood, and their soil will be soaked with fat.
8 For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
Edom’s streams will be turned to tar, and her soil to sulfur; her land will become a blazing pitch.
10 It will not be quenched—day or night. Its smoke will ascend forever. From generation to generation it will lie desolate; no one will ever again pass through it.
11 The 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.
This was said to Israel at a particular time, so it is wise to read it together with the surrounding text. Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.
Compare
- BSB
- Edom’s streams will be turned to tar, and her soil to sulfur; her land will become a blazing pitch.
- KJV
- And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.
- WEB
- Its streams will be turned into pitch, its dust into sulfur, and its land will become burning pitch.
- ASV
- And the streams of [Edom] shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.
- DARBY
- And the torrents thereof shall be turned into pitch, and its dust into brimstone; yea, the land thereof shall become burning pitch:
- BLB
- And her streams will be turned to pitch, and her dust to brimstone, and her land will become a burning pitch.
- ÅB
- Og Edoms bekker skal bli til bek, og dets jord til svovel; dets land skal bli til brennende bek.
- OTB
- Dens bekker skal bli til bek, og dens støv til brennende svovel; dens land skal bli til brennende bek.
- B1930
- Og Edoms bekker skal bli til bek, og dets jord til svovel; dets land skal bli til brennende bek.
Study notes (Tyndale)
Original text and word study
Cross references
Deuteronomy 29:23
All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown and unproductive, with no plant growing on it, just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in His fierce anger.
Read in contextRevelation 21:8
But to the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.”
Read in contextPsalms 11:6
On the wicked He will rain down fiery coals and sulfur; a scorching wind will be their portion.
Read in contextLuke 17:29
But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.
Read in contextRevelation 19:20
But the beast was captured along with the false prophet, who on its behalf had performed signs deceiving those who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. Both the beast and the false prophet were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur.
Read in contextJob 18:15
Fire resides in his tent; burning sulfur rains down on his dwelling.
Read in contextGenesis 19:28
He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of the plain, and he saw the smoke rising from the land like smoke from a furnace.
Read in contextJude 1:7
In like manner, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, who indulged in sexual immorality and pursued strange flesh, are on display as an example of those who sustain the punishment of eternal fire.
Read in context