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.”

Yesaya 63:1-6

The Victorious Divine Warrior

63:1 Who is this who comes from Edom, ⁴ 

dressed in bright red, coming from Bozrah? ⁵ 

Who ⁶  is this one wearing royal attire, ⁷ 

who marches confidently ⁸  because of his great strength?

“It is I, the one who announces vindication,

and who is able to deliver!” ⁹ 

63:2 Why are your clothes red?

Why do you look like someone who has stomped on grapes in a vat? ¹⁰ 

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

no one from the nations joined me.

I stomped on them ¹¹  in my anger;

I trampled them down in my rage.

Their juice splashed on my garments,

and stained ¹²  all my clothes.

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

and then payback time arrived. ¹³ 

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

I was shocked because there was no one offering support. ¹⁴ 

So my right arm accomplished deliverance;

my raging anger drove me on. ¹⁵ 

63:6 I trampled nations in my anger,

I made them drunk ¹⁶  in my rage,

I splashed their blood on the ground.” ¹⁷ 

Yeremia 25:21

25:21 all the people of Edom, ¹⁸  Moab, ¹⁹  Ammon; ²⁰ 

Yehezkiel 25:12-14

A Prophecy Against Edom

25:12 “This is what the sovereign Lord says: ‘Edom ²¹  has taken vengeance against the house of Judah; they have made themselves fully culpable ²²  by taking vengeance ²³  on them. ²⁴  25:13 So this is what the sovereign Lord says: I will stretch out my hand against Edom, and I will kill the people and animals within her, ²⁵  and I will make her desolate; from Teman to Dedan they will die ²⁶  by the sword. 25:14 I will exact my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel. They will carry out in Edom my anger and rage; they will experience ²⁷  my vengeance, declares the sovereign Lord.’”

[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.

[63:1]  ⁴ sn Edom is here an archetype for the Lord’s enemies. See 34:5.

[63:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “[in] bright red garments, from Bozrah.”

[63:1]  ⁶ tn The interrogative particle is understood by ellipsis; note the first line of the verse.

[63:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “honored in his clothing”; KJV, ASV “glorious in his apparel.”

[63:1]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Heb “I, [the one] speaking in vindication [or “righteousness”], great to deliver.”

[63:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and your garments like one who treads in a vat?”

[63:3]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ sn See Isa 59:16 for similar language.

[63:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and my anger, it supported me”; NIV “my own wrath sustained me.”

[63:6]  ¹⁶ sn See Isa 49:26 and 51:23 for similar imagery.

[63:6]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and I brought down to the ground their juice.” “Juice” refers to their blood (see v. 3).

[25:21]  ¹⁸ sn See further Jer 49:7-22 for the judgment against Edom. Edom, Moab, and Ammon were east of Judah.

[25:21]  ¹⁹ sn See further Jer 48:1-47 for the judgment against Moab.

[25:21]  ²⁰ sn See further Jer 49:1-6 for the judgment against Ammon.

[25:12]  ²¹ sn Edom was located south of Moab.

[25:12]  ²² tn Heb “and they have become guilty, becoming guilty.” The infinitive absolute following the finite verb makes the statement emphatic and draws attention to the degree of guilt incurred by Edom due to its actions.

[25:12]  ²³ tn Heb “and they have taken vengeance.”

[25:12]  ²⁴ sn Edom apparently in some way assisted in the destruction of Jerusalem in 587/6 b.c. (Ps 137:7; Lam 5:21, 23; Joel 3:19; Obadiah).

[25:13]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and I will cut off from her man and beast.”

[25:13]  ²⁶ tn Heb “fall.”

[25:14]  ²⁷ tn Heb “know.”