Bilangan 24:18

24:18 Edom will be a possession,

Seir, ¹  his enemies, will also be a possession;

but Israel will act valiantly.

Mazmur 137:7

137:7 Remember, O Lord, what the Edomites did

on the day Jerusalem fell. ² 

They said, “Tear it down, tear it down, ³ 

right to its very foundation!”

Yesaya 34:5-6

34:5 He says, ⁴  “Indeed, my sword has slaughtered heavenly powers. ⁵ 

Look, it now descends on Edom, ⁶ 

on the people I will annihilate in judgment.”

34:6 The Lord’s sword is dripping with blood,

it is covered ⁷  with fat;

it drips ⁸  with the blood of young rams and goats

and is covered ⁹  with the fat of rams’ kidneys.

For the Lord is holding a sacrifice ¹⁰  in Bozrah, ¹¹ 

a bloody ¹²  slaughter in the land of Edom.

[24:18]  ¹ sn Seir is the chief mountain range of Edom (Deut 33:2), and so the reference here is to the general area of Edom.

[137:7]  ² tn Heb “remember, O Lord, against the sons of Edom, the day of Jerusalem.”

[137:7]  ³ tn Heb “lay [it] bare, lay [it] bare.”

[34:5]  ⁴ tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The Lord speaks at this point.

[34:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “indeed [or “for”] my sword is drenched in the heavens.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has תראה (“[my sword] appeared [in the heavens]”), but this is apparently an attempt to make sense out of a difficult metaphor. Cf. NIV “My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens.”

[34:5]  sn In v. 4 the “host of the heaven” refers to the heavenly luminaries (stars and planets, see, among others, Deut 4:19; 17:3; 2 Kgs 17:16; 21:3, 5; 23:4-5; 2 Chr 33:3, 5) that populate the divine/heavenly assembly in mythological and prescientific Israelite thought (see Job 38:7; Isa 14:13). As in 24:21, they are viewed here as opposing God and being defeated in battle.

[34:5]  ⁶ sn Edom is mentioned here as epitomizing the hostile nations that oppose God.

[34:6]  ⁷ tn The verb is a rare Hotpaal passive form. See GKC 150 §54.h.

[34:6]  ⁸ tn The words “it drips” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[34:6]  ⁹ tn The words “and is covered” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[34:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “for there is a sacrifice to the Lord.”

[34:6]  ¹¹ sn The Lord’s judgment of Edom is compared to a bloody sacrificial scene.

[34:6]  ¹² tn Heb “great” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).