Yesaya 27:1

27:1 At that time ¹  the Lord will punish

with his destructive, ²  great, and powerful sword

Leviathan the fast-moving ³  serpent,

Leviathan the squirming serpent;

he will kill the sea monster. ⁴ 

Yesaya 34:1-6

The Lord Will Judge Edom

34:1 Come near, you nations, and listen!

Pay attention, you people!

The earth and everything it contains must listen,

the world and everything that lives in it. ⁵ 

34:2 For the Lord is angry at all the nations

and furious with all their armies.

He will annihilate them and slaughter them.

34:3 Their slain will be left unburied, ⁶ 

their corpses will stink; ⁷ 

the hills will soak up their blood. ⁸ 

34:4 All the stars in the sky will fade away, ⁹ 

the sky will roll up like a scroll;

all its stars will wither,

like a leaf withers and falls from a vine

or a fig withers and falls from a tree. ¹⁰ 

34:5 He says, ¹¹  “Indeed, my sword has slaughtered heavenly powers. ¹² 

Look, it now descends on Edom, ¹³ 

on the people I will annihilate in judgment.”

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

it is covered ¹⁴  with fat;

it drips ¹⁵  with the blood of young rams and goats

and is covered ¹⁶  with the fat of rams’ kidneys.

For the Lord is holding a sacrifice ¹⁷  in Bozrah, ¹⁸ 

a bloody ¹⁹  slaughter in the land of Edom.

Yesaya 63:1-6

The Victorious Divine Warrior

63:1 Who is this who comes from Edom, ²⁰ 

dressed in bright red, coming from Bozrah? ²¹ 

Who ²²  is this one wearing royal attire, ²³ 

who marches confidently ²⁴  because of his great strength?

“It is I, the one who announces vindication,

and who is able to deliver!” ²⁵ 

63:2 Why are your clothes red?

Why do you look like someone who has stomped on grapes in a vat? ²⁶ 

63:3 “I have stomped grapes in the winepress all by myself;

no one from the nations joined me.

I stomped on them ²⁷  in my anger;

I trampled them down in my rage.

Their juice splashed on my garments,

and stained ²⁸  all my clothes.

63:4 For I looked forward to the day of vengeance,

and then payback time arrived. ²⁹ 

63:5 I looked, but there was no one to help;

I was shocked because there was no one offering support. ³⁰ 

So my right arm accomplished deliverance;

my raging anger drove me on. ³¹ 

63:6 I trampled nations in my anger,

I made them drunk ³²  in my rage,

I splashed their blood on the ground.” ³³ 

Yesaya 66:15-16

66:15 For look, the Lord comes with fire,

his chariots come like a windstorm, ³⁴ 

to reveal his raging anger,

his battle cry, and his flaming arrows. ³⁵ 

66:16 For the Lord judges all humanity ³⁶ 

with fire and his sword;

the Lord will kill many. ³⁷ 

[27:1]  ¹ tn Heb “in that day” (so KJV).

[27:1]  ² tn Heb “hard, severe”; cf. NAB, NRSV “cruel”; KJV “sore”; NLT “terrible.”

[27:1]  ³ tn Heb “fleeing” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV). Some translate “slippery” or “slithering.”

[27:1]  ⁴ tn The description of Leviathan should be compared with the following excerpts from Ugaritic mythological texts: (1) “Was not the dragon (Ugaritic tnn, cognate with Hebrew תַנִּין [tannin, translated “sea monster” here]) vanquished and captured? I did destroy the wriggling (Ugaritic ’qltn, cognate to Hebrew עֲקַלָּתוֹן [’aqallaton, translated “squirming” here]) serpent, the tyrant with seven heads (cf. Ps 74:14).” (See CTA 3 iii 38-39.) (2) “for all that you smote Leviathan the slippery (Ugaritic brh, cognate to Hebrew בָּרִחַ [bariakh, translated “fast-moving” here]) serpent, [and] made an end of the wriggling serpent, the tyrant with seven heads” (See CTA 5 i 1-3.)

[27:1]  sn In the Ugaritic mythological texts Leviathan is a sea creature that symbolizes the destructive water of the sea and in turn the forces of chaos that threaten the established order. Isaiah here applies imagery from Canaanite mythology to Yahweh’s eschatological victory over his enemies. Elsewhere in the OT, the battle with the sea motif is applied to Yahweh’s victories over the forces of chaos at creation and in history (cf. Pss 74:13-14; 77:16-20; 89:9-10; Isa 51:9-10). Yahweh’s subjugation of the chaos waters is related to His kingship (cf. Pss 29:3, 10; 93:3-4). Apocalyptic literature employs the imagery as well. The beasts of Dan 7 emerge from the sea, while Rev 13 speaks of a seven-headed beast coming from the sea.

[34:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “the world and its offspring”; NASB “the world and all that springs from it.”

[34:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “will be cast aside”; NASB, NIV “thrown out.”

[34:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “[as for] their corpses, their stench will arise.”

[34:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “hills will dissolve from their blood.”

[34:4]  ⁹ tc Heb “and all the host of heaven will rot.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a inserts “and the valleys will be split open,” but this reading may be influenced by Mic 1:4. On the other hand, the statement, if original, could have been omitted by homoioarcton, a scribe’s eye jumping from the conjunction prefixed to “the valleys” to the conjunction prefixed to the verb “rot.”

[34:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “like the withering of a leaf from a vine, and like the withering from a fig tree.”

[34:5]  ¹¹ tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The Lord speaks at this point.

[34:5]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ sn Edom is mentioned here as epitomizing the hostile nations that oppose God.

[34:6]  ¹⁴ tn The verb is a rare Hotpaal passive form. See GKC 150 §54.h.

[34:6]  ¹⁵ tn The words “it drips” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[34:6]  ¹⁶ tn The words “and is covered” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[34:6]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “for there is a sacrifice to the Lord.”

[34:6]  ¹⁸ sn The Lord’s judgment of Edom is compared to a bloody sacrificial scene.

[34:6]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “great” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[63:1]  ²⁰ sn Edom is here an archetype for the Lord’s enemies. See 34:5.

[63:1]  ²¹ tn Heb “[in] bright red garments, from Bozrah.”

[63:1]  ²² tn The interrogative particle is understood by ellipsis; note the first line of the verse.

[63:1]  ²³ tn Heb “honored in his clothing”; KJV, ASV “glorious in his apparel.”

[63:1]  ²⁴ tc The Hebrew text has צָעָה (tsa’ah), which means “stoop, bend” (51:14). The translation assumes an emendation to צָעַד (tsa’ad, “march”; see BDB 858 s.v. צָעָה).

[63:1]  ²⁵ tn Heb “I, [the one] speaking in vindication [or “righteousness”], great to deliver.”

[63:2]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and your garments like one who treads in a vat?”

[63:3]  ²⁷ sn Nations, headed by Edom, are the object of the Lord’s anger (see v. 6). He compares military slaughter to stomping on grapes in a vat.

[63:3]  ²⁸ tn Heb “and I stained.” For discussion of the difficult verb form, see HALOT 170 s.v. II גאל. Perhaps the form is mixed, combining the first person forms of the imperfect (note the alef prefix) and perfect (note the תי- ending).

[63:4]  ²⁹ tn Heb “for the day of vengeance was in my heart, and the year of my revenge came.” The term גְּאוּלַי (gÿ’ulai) is sometimes translated here “my redemption,” for the verbal root גאל often means “deliver, buy back.” A גֹּאֵל (go’el, “kinsman-redeemer”) was responsible for protecting the extended family’s interests, often by redeeming property that had been sold outside the family. However, the responsibilities of a גֹּאֵל extended beyond financial concerns. He was also responsible for avenging the shed blood of a family member (see Num 35:19-27; Deut 19:6-12). In Isa 63:4, where vengeance is a prominent theme (note the previous line), it is probably this function of the family protector that is in view. The Lord pictures himself as a blood avenger who waits for the day of vengeance to arrive and then springs into action.

[63:5]  ³⁰ sn See Isa 59:16 for similar language.

[63:5]  ³¹ tn Heb “and my anger, it supported me”; NIV “my own wrath sustained me.”

[63:6]  ³² sn See Isa 49:26 and 51:23 for similar imagery.

[63:6]  ³³ tn Heb “and I brought down to the ground their juice.” “Juice” refers to their blood (see v. 3).

[66:15]  ³⁴ sn Chariots are like a windstorm in their swift movement and in the way that they kick up dust.

[66:15]  ³⁵ tn Heb “to cause to return with the rage of his anger, and his battle cry [or “rebuke”] with flames of fire.”

[66:16]  ³⁶ tn Heb “flesh” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); NIV “upon all men”; TEV “all the people of the world.”

[66:16]  ³⁷ tn Heb “many are the slain of the Lord.”