Isaiah 34:15

There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate. THE GREAT OWL - qipowz (H7091); or, the darting tree serpent [the akontias of AElian, the jaculus of Lucan]. Avicenna uses the cognate Arabic term kipaz for the same. The arrow-snake, so called from its darting on its prey (Gesenius). But the context favours a bird: for 'gathering under her shadow' applies best to a mother-bird fostering her young under her wings. The English version therefore is best. The Septuagint, Chaldaic, Arabic, Syriac, and Vulgate read qipowd (H7090), 'hedgehog.' Song of Solomon 6:1 Hebrew MSS. (Michael...

9-17 Those who aim to ruin the church, can never do that, but will ruin themselves. What dismal changes sin can make! It turns a fruitful land into barrenness, a crowded city into a wilderness. Let us compare all we discover in the book of the Lord, with the dealings of providence around us, that we may be more diligent in seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness. What the mouth of the Lord has commanded, his Spirit will perform. And let us observe how the evidences of the truth continually increase, as one prophecy after another is fulfilled, until these awful scenes bring in more happy days. As Israel was a figure of the Christian church, so the Edomites, their bitter enemies, represent the enemies of the kingdom of Christ. God's Jerusalem may be laid in ruins for a time, but the enemies of the church shall be desolate for ever....

Verse Isaiah 34:15. _THE GREAT OWL_] קפוז _kippoz_, the ακοντιας, or _darter_, a serpent so called because of its suddenly leaping up or _darting_ on its prey. Probably the _mongoz_ or _ichneumon_ may be intended. _THE VULTURES_] דיות _daiyoth_, the _black vultures_. My old MS. Bible renders these names curiously: _And ageyn cumen schul_ _devylis: the beste, party of an asse, and party of a mam: and the_ _wodwose, the tother schal crien to the tother. There schal byn_ _lamya, that is, thrisse, or a beste, havynge the body liic a_ _woman, and hors feet. Ther hadde dichis, the yrchoun, and nurshide_ _out littil chittis. There ben gadred kiitis, the top to the top._ What language! _EVERY ONE WITH HER MATE._] A MS. adds אל _el_ after אשה _ishshah_, which seem

THERE SHALL THE GREAT OWL - (קפוז _qı̂pôz_). Gesenius supposes that this is the arrow-snake, so called from its darting or springing, in the manner of the rattle-snake - from an obsolete root to draw oneself together, to contract. Bochart (Hieroz. ii. 3. 11. 408-419) has examined the meaning of the word at length, and comes to the conclusion that it means the serpent which the Greeks called acontias, and the Latins, jaculus - the arrow-snake. The serpent is oviparous, and nourishes its young. The ancient versions, however, understand it in the same sense as the קפד _qippôd_ in Isaiah 34:11 - the hedgehog or porcupine. UNDER HER SHADOW - This might be done by the serpent that should coil up and cherish her young....

SECTION 11. THE DIVINE JUDGMENT ON THE WORLD, AND THE GLORY OF THE CHURCH CONSEQUENT UPON IT (Isaiah 34:1; Isaiah 35:1.). EXPOSITION Isaiah 34:1 and Isaiah 35:1. are generally recognized as constituting a distinct prophecy, complete in itself, and only slightly connected with what precedes. The passage is, as Bishop Lowth observes, "an entire, regula

THERE SHALL THE GREAT OWL MAKE HER NEST,.... Jarchi, Kimchi, and Ben Melech, say that "kippoz" here is the same with "kippod", rendered "bittern" in Isaiah 34:11 but Aben Ezra takes them to be two different birds; it is hard to say what is designed by it. Bochart thinks that one kind of serpent is here meant, so called from its leaping up, and which may be said to make nests, lay eggs and hatch them, as follows: AND LAY, AND HATCH, AND GATHER UNDER HER SHADOW; lay its eggs, sit upon them, and hatch them; or "break" them u, that is, the eggs, by sitting on them, when the young ones spring out of them; and then being hatched, and running about, gather them under their wing, especially when in any danger: THERE SHALL THE VULTURES ALSO BE GATHERED, EVERYONE WITH HER MATE; which creatures usually gather together where dead carcasses lie. u יבקע

CHAPTER 34 The Day of Jehovah 1. _Addressed to the world: Jews and Gentiles involved (Isaiah 34:1)_ 2. _The shaking of the earth and the heavens (Isaiah 34:2)_ 3. _The day of vengeance (Isaiah 34:9)_ This is one of the darkest Chapter s in the Bible. A worldwide judgment is described such as has never taken place in the history of the world. The indignation of the Lord is then upon all nations and upon their armies. Like chapter 33, it tells of the great judgments to come....

Edom is near to the Dead Sea, and the country is volcanic, and these facts suggest this lurid picture of judgment. Edom's rivers will be turned to pitch, its dust to brimstone, the land shall be a smoking, desolate wilderness for ever and ever. Pelican and bittern (Isaiah 14:23 *), owl and raven, shall dwell in it; it shall be reduced to utter chaos. Satyrs shall dwell in it, its rulers shall be destroyed. The palaces will be overrun with thorns and thistles, and be the dwelling-place of wild beasts and uncanny monsters. Let those who read this book verify the description for themselves, for Yahweh has allotted Edom to these creatures as their promised land, just as He allotted Canaan to the tribes of Israel. ISAIAH 34:11_ b_. CONFUSION AND EMPTINESS are the words which describe the prime

The fate of the land of Edom is next represented under two incompatible images, first that of a perpetual conflagration (Isaiah 34:9), and second that of a dreary solitude, peopled only by "doleful creatures" (Isaiah 34:11 ff.)....

AND THE STREAMS THEREOF, &C.— The prophet, whose copiousness of speaking is every where inexhausted, paints, in the most chosen figures, an image of the land and city desolated by war, wasted by fire, and devoted to eternal devastation, by the divine judgment; which should not only be deprived of its inhabitants, and left to impure beasts and birds, accustomed to dwell in desarts and desolate places, but also, by the desolation brought upon it, should be rendered _uninhabitable,_ and present the appearance of the infernal flame, like another Sodom and Gomorrah, sending forth continually black smoke and horrid smells. This is the sense of the period, as must be plain to every one. See ch. Isaiah 13:19, &c. where the desolation of Babylon is set forth in similar terms. Though Rome pagan, and the Roman powers, have already suffered great desolation from the Goths and others, yet Vi