Yesaya 34:5

34:5 He says, ¹  “Indeed, my sword has slaughtered heavenly powers. ² 

Look, it now descends on Edom, ³ 

on the people I will annihilate in judgment.”

Yeremia 47:6

47:6 How long will you cry out, ⁴  ‘Oh, sword of the Lord,

how long will it be before you stop killing? ⁵ 

Go back into your sheath!

Stay there and rest!’ ⁶ 

[34:5]  ¹ tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The Lord speaks at this point.

[34:5]  ² 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]  ³ sn Edom is mentioned here as epitomizing the hostile nations that oppose God.

[47:6]  ⁴ tn The words “How long will you cry out” are not in the text but some such introduction seems necessary because the rest of the speech assumes a personal subject.

[47:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “before you are quiet/at rest.”

[47:6]  ⁶ sn The passage is highly figurative. The sword of the Lord, which is itself a figure of the destructive agency of the enemy armies, is here addressed as a person and is encouraged in rhetorical questions (the questions are designed to dissuade) to “be quiet,” “be at rest,” “be silent,” all of which is designed to get the Lord to call off the destruction against the Philistines.