A Prophecy of Esau and Jacob

“The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again” Isaiah 24:20

“The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He has executed and till He has performed the thoughts of His heart; in the latter days ye shall understand it perfectly” Jeremiah 23:20

Isaiah 33

¹ Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled; and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! when thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled; and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee.

— thou shalt be spoiled; this was literally fulfilled when the Assyrian monarchy lost its splendor and power and was finally taken over by the more mighty Babylon empire.

— they shall deal treacherously with thee; that is, ‘thou shalt be dealt with in a treacherous manner.’ The result was that Sennacherib was treacherously slain by his own sons as he was ‘worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god’ Isaiah 37:38, and thus the prophecy was literally fulfilled.

² O Lord, be gracious unto us; we have waited for Thee; be Thou their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble.

— we, the house of Israel, have waited for thee; time after time, year after year, in the use of means; hoping for his kind appearance; expecting help and salvation.

— be thou their arm every morning; when they pray unto thee, the morning being the time of prayer; and also be their arm all the day long, to lean and depend upon, to support, protect and defend them; and the Targum, “our strength every day, our salvation also in the time of distress.”

³ At the noise of the tumult the people fled; at the lifting up of Thyself the nations were scattered.

— at the noise of the tumult; which shall be made upon the angel’s destroying the army; the people fled; those of the army who escaped that stroke. At the lifting up of thyself to execute judgement, the people of many nations which made up Sennacherib’s army, and the nations were scattered.

⁴ And your spoil shall be gathered like the gathering of the caterpillar; as the running to and fro of locusts shall he run upon them.

— and your spoil; the treasure which you have raked by spoiling diverse people; shall be gathered; but you shall be forced to flee with all possible speed, leaving your spoils behind like the gathering of the caterpillar; as caterpillars gather and devour all the fruits of the earth;

— or as the running to and fro of locusts; as locusts, especially when they are armed by a commission from God, come with great force, devouring every thing before them;

— or like the Russian oligarchs, who are charged complicit in crimes, that sail their superyachts (private jets, posh homes, football clubs and other trophies) scurrying away like rats to places of refuge like Dubai, Bahrain, Doha or other safe havens before being seized by Western officials after their wealth are deemed stolen from the Russian people!

⁵ The Lord is exalted, for He dwelleth on high; He hath filled Zion with judgement and righteousness.

— the Lord is exalted; by the destruction of so potent an army and by the defence of his people. For he dwelleth on high; he is, and will appear to be, superior to his; he dwelleth in heaven, whence he can easily and irresistibly pour down judgements upon his enemies.

⁶ And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times and strength of salvation; the fear of the Lord is his treasure.

— and wisdom and knowledge; to govern thyself and the people well; the fear of the Lord is his treasure; thy chief treasure and delight shall be in promoting the fear and worship of God.

⁷ Behold, their valiant ones shall cry without; the ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly.

— behold, their valiant ones shall cry outside: the ambassadors of peace to beg peace for the Assyrian shall weep bitterly.

⁸ The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth; he hath broken the covenant, he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man.

— the highways lie waste; in the consternation and alarm that was produced by his approach, the roads that had been usually thronged were now solitary and still. A mournful desolation already prevailed and they apprehended still greater calamities and hence they wept;

— he hath broken the covenant; Sennacherib broke his oath given to Hezekiah of departing for a sum of money, II Kings 18:14,17; he hath despised the cities; the defenced cities of Judah which he despised and easily took; he regarded no man; either to spare them or to fear them.

⁹ The earth mourneth and languisheth; Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down. Sharon is like a wilderness, and Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits.

¹⁰ “Now will I rise,” saith the Lord; “now will I be exalted; now will I lift up Myself.

— now will God be exalted; that is, in his power by the destruction of the enemies of the elect; and in the hearts and mouths of his people, on account of their deliverance and salvation;

— now will God lift himself up, higher than they, and reduce them to a low estate and condition. The repetition of the word “now” has its emphasis and is designed to observe the time of God’s appearing in the cause of his people and the firmness of his resolution to do it without delay.

¹¹ Ye shall conceive chaff, ye shall bring forth stubble; your breath, as fire, shall devour you.

— ye, O ye Assyrians! shall conceive chaff, ye shall bring forth stubble, instead of solid corn. Your great hopes and designs, O ye Assyrians! shall be utterly disappointed;

— your breath, as fire, shall devour you; your rage against my people shall bring ruin upon yourselves.

¹² And the people shall be as the burnings of lime; as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire.

— and the people shall be as the burnings of lime; like chalk stones that are burnt to make lime of; which may denote not only their hardness and impenitency which brought upon them and issued in the wrath of God;

— as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire; thorns are a fit simile to express the unfruitfulness, uselessness and harmfulness of wicked men and these “cut up” and so not green and moist, but dry and fit fuel for the fire, which burn the more easily and quickly.

¹³ Hear, ye that are far off, what I have done, and ye that are near, acknowledge My might.”

— hear, ye that are far off, all ye nations that are afar off, indicating that the destruction of the Assyrian army would be to signal that it would be known to distant nations and would constitute a similar warning to them.

¹⁴ The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites: “Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?”

— sinners in Zion; who had the guise and form of religion but not the power of it and were for fleeing to Egypt and trusting in Pharaoh but not in the Lord; these are pretenders with a false religion disguised as the elect.

¹⁵ He that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly, he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;

— he that walks righteously; this describes the characteristics of the righteous who put their confidence in God; and speaks uprightly; his words are well-ordered, words which are not false, perfidious, slanderous or obscene; for an individual his words are simple, honest and true; for a magistrate his decisions are according to justice;

— he that despise the gain of oppressions; by ‘Deceits’ – he abhors the gain that is the result of imposition, false dealing and false weights.

— or if it means oppressions as the word usually does, he does not oppress the poor or take advantage of their needy condition or affix exorbitant prices or extort payment in a manner that is harsh and cruel.

¹⁶ he shall dwell on high; his place of defense shall be the fortifications of rocks; bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure.

— he, those with wealth, shall dwell on high; or high places were usually places of safety, being inaccessible to an enemy; he should be safe from the anger, wrath and consuming fire.

¹⁷ Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty; they shall behold the land that is very far off.

— thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty in his royal robes and with a cheerful countenance, as a King reigning gloriously before his elects in Jerusalem;

— the Targum says, “thine eyes shall see the Shekinah of the King of worlds in his praise;” that is, the glory of the Majesty of God.

¹⁸ Thine heart shall meditate terror: “Where is the scribe? Where is the receiver? Where is he that counted the towers?”

— thine heart shall meditate terror: this is either premonition concerning a future judgement as if he said, Before these glorious promises, thou shalt be brought into great straits and troubles.

— or rather, a thankful acknowledgment of deliverance from a former danger; as if he had said, When thou art delivered, thou shalt with pleasure and thankfulness recall to mind thy former terrors and miseries;

— the world of the Jews in their distress, they ask where is the scribe? who enrolled and pay the army; or who prescribed the tribute to be paid; or who kept an account of the spoil; perhaps being given the charge of reviewing an army and who made an estimate of the strength of Jerusalem.

¹⁹ Thou shalt not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech than thou canst perceive, of a stammering tongue that thou canst not understand.

— fierce people; the Assyrians shall not be allowed to enter Jerusalem. Or, thou shalt no longer see fierce enemies threatening thee as previously; such as the Babylonians, Romans or any endtime enemies that is yet to assail Jerusalem;

— a people of a deeper speech; a people whose language is so deep, that is, so dark or obscure that it cannot be understood by you. This refers to the army of the Assyrians, who spoke the Syrian language, which was understood by some of the Jews, but which was unintelligible to the masses.

²⁰ Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities; thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken.

— look upon Zion; contemplate Zion’s beauty and safety, and her glorious and peculiar privileges; it is an object worthy of thy deepest meditation;

— the city of our solemnities: the chief part of Zion’s glory and happiness that God was solemnly ordained and the solemn assemblies and feasts kept in Zion. A quiet habitation which was but very obscurely and imperfectly fulfilled in an earlier Zion;

— but it would clearly and fully be accomplished in a latter Zion, the kingdom of God in the times of the Millennium against which we are assured that the gates of hell shall not prevail.

²¹ But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams, wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby.

— during the Millennium, there in and around Zion the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams: as if we were surrounded with such great rivers as the Nile or Euphrates, which were a great security to Egypt and Babylon;

— wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby; but they shall have from God the security of a great river yet they shall be freed from the disadvantage of it.

²² For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; He will save us. — that is, “The Lord, our judge, the Lord, our lawgiver . . . He will save us.”

²³ Thy tacklings are loosed; they could not well strengthen their mast, they could not spread the sail; then is the prey of a great spoil divided; the lame take the prey.

— thy tacklings are loosed; God directs his speech to the Assyrians; and having tacitly designed their army under the notion of a gallant ship;

— he represents their broken and undone condition by the metaphor of a ship tossed in a tempestuous sea, having her cables broken and all her tacklings loose, and out of order so as she could have no benefit of her masts and sails; and therefore is quickly broken or swallowed up by the sea;

— they, the Assyrians, then is the prey of a great spoil divided; the lame take the prey; they who came to spoil and prey upon my people shall become a prey to them and shall be forced to flee away so suddenly;

— the general sense of the place is, that God’s people shall be victorious over all their enemies.

²⁴ And the inhabitant shall not say, “I am sick”; the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.

— the inhabitant of Jerusalem, God’s people shall not say, I am sick; shall have no cause to complain of any sickness or calamity; shall be fully delivered from all their enemies and evil occurrences; shall enjoy perfect tranquility and prosperity.

Isaiah 34

¹ Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people! let the earth hear, and all that is therein, the world, and all things that come forth from it.

— the Judgement on all nations are concerned, but particularly nearby nations such as of Edom or Idumea; Moab and Ammon; Lebanon and Syria; but countries afar are not excluded;

— let the earth hear and all that is therein: not just the land of Judea but all the earth and the inhabitants of it: the world and all things that come forth of it; which may either be understood of those that dwell in it, as the Targum interprets it;

² For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and His fury upon all their armies; He hath utterly destroyed them; He hath delivered them to the slaughter.

— for the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations; all the nations of the earth which have committed fornication with either the Assyrians, the Chaldeans, the Persians, the Greeks or the whore of Rome, or have given in to her false worship, superstition and idolatry; which is the reason of God’s wrath.

³ Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stench shall come up out of their carcasses, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood.

— their slain shall be cast out into the fields where they shall lie unburied and be left for a prey to all ravenous birds and beasts; whereby he implies, either the vast numbers which shall be slain so as they could not have time or place to bury them; or the curse of God upon them;

— shall be melted with their blood; shall be filled with their blood which shall run down abundantly from the mountains with great force and dissolve and carry down part of the earth of the mountains with it as great showers of rain frequently do.

⁴ And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll; and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.

— and all the host of heaven: the sun, moon and stars; shall be dissolved; also in the prophetic language the heavenly luminaries represent kings, empires and states:

— shall be dissolved; so great shall be the confusion and consternation of mankind as if all the frame of the creation were broken into pieces as of the general judgement;

— the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll, Heb. as a book; for books were then written in scrolls, which they usually rolled up together; and when they were so no man could read any word in it; and no more shall any man be able to see those truths and lights of heaven for they shall all be obscured and confounded.

⁵ “For My sword shall be bathed in heaven; behold, it shall come down upon Edom and upon the people of My curse in judgement.”

— for my Sword shall be bathed in heaven; that is, the Sword of the Lord, as it is called in the next verse Isaiah 34:6, and it is he that is speaking; it designs the vengeance of the Lord, the punishment he will inflict on the wicked,

— said to be “bathed in heaven” because it was determined and prepared there; the allusion may be to the bathing of Swords in some sort of liquor to harden or brighten them, and so fit them for use;

— it shall come down upon Idumea; upon the Edomites, who, though they were nearly related to the Israelites yet were their implacable enemies. But these are named for all the enemies of God’s elects, of whom they were an eminent type;

— Chabad Bible: “upon the nation with whom I contend [with], for judgment” – in great probability this would refer to the house of Jacob and not so much to Edom; if so this few verses would be tied to Ezekiel 20:45 to 21:5 where the Sword of the Lord or My Sword is similarly mentioned.

⁶ The sword of the Lord is filled with blood; it is made fat with fatness and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for the Lord hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

— is filled with blood; shall drink its fill of blood. The metaphor is here taken from a great glutton or drunkard, who is almost insatiable with meat and drink;

— with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: by lambs and goats and rams, he means people of all ranks and conditions, high and low, rich and poor. A sacrifice; so he calleth this bloody work because it was done by God’s command, and for his honour; and therefore was a service acceptable to him.

— Bozrah, the capital city of Idumea; see further Isaiah 63:1, a parallel text; where Edom and Bozrah are mentioned. Could this be connected to The Flaming Sword and Fire from the South! in Ezekiel 20:45 to 21:5?

⁷ And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.

— and the unicorns shall come down with them; together with the bullocks and bulls, which are also mentioned in Deuteronomy 33:17

“His (singular; that is, only one unit as Joseph) glory is like the firstling of his bullock and his horns are like the horns of unicorns. With them (with his brothers) he (singular: Joseph) shall push the people together to the ends of the earth; and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim and they are the thousands of Manasseh.”

For a detailed study, see (1) The Birthrights (2) Ephraim and Manasseh (3) Ephraim as the Thirteenth Tribe (4) Who is this lying Ephraim? (5) The Ox with horns of a Unicorn

⁸ For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion.

— the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion; the long-delayed day of retribution should come at last; this would be the outcome from the hand of the Almighty God for the persistent hostility of the Edomites to the city which he had chosen.

⁹ And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.

— the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch; the imagery of the punishment which is to fall on Edom is suggested partly by the scenery of the Dead Sea, partly by the volcanic character of Edom itself with its extinct craters and streams of lava.

¹⁰ It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever. From generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.

— and Petra, first inhabited by the Edomites, then the Ishmaelites, shall be a desolation as in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbouring cities thereof.

¹¹ But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it; and He shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion and the stones of emptiness.

— but the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the word for “cormorant” is rendered a “pelican” in Psalm 102:6 they were both unclean fowls; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it; which were likewise unclean creatures.

¹² They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing.

— the idea is that the kingdom would be desolate; there would be no people to rule. Or, there will be no nobles there who shall survive the destruction to undertake the government of the state.

¹³ And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof; and it shall be a habitation of dragons and a court for owls.

— an habitation of dragons and a court for owls; the wild creatures named are identified, as elsewhere, with “jackals” (“wild dogs”) and “ostriches” like the ruins of Petra.

¹⁴ The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there and find for herself a place of rest.

— and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; or the “hairy” one; from which word the goat has its name; and these creatures are described by the ancients as half goats and half men;

— the Targum renders it demons (Rashi: the name of a female demon); and with this well agrees the account of Babylon or Rome as fallen, that it shall be the habitation of devils and the hold of every foul spirit.

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.

— there shall the great owl make her nest: there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate; signifying that Idumea (like the wilderness of Petra) would be a horrible desolation and barren wilderness.

¹⁶ Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read: No one of these shall fail, none shall lack her mate; for My mouth, it hath commanded, and His Spirit, it hath gathered them.

— seek ye out of the book of the Lord; of the law of Moses and of the prophets; which being consulted, it will appear that punishment was threatened to be inflicted on the enemies of God’s people; of all enemies, but particularly the Edomites.

¹⁷ And He hath cast the lot for them, and His hand hath divided it unto them by line; they shall possess it for ever; from generation to generation shall they dwell therein.

— God hath divided the land to them, as it were by lot and line as Canaan was divided among the Israelites. The Targum says, “by His Word hath cast the lot for them” and his hand hath divided it unto them by line; the same adds, “He hath divided it unto them by line; they shall possess it for ever; from generation to generation they shall dwell therein.”

After the Flood and the Confusion at Babel, the Land was divided:

This is a commitment by an oath; an expanded version could be found in the Book of Jubilees:

And thus the sons of Noah divided unto their sons in the presence of Noah their father, and he bound them all by an oath, imprecating a curse on every one that sought to seize the portion which had not fallen (to him) by his lot.

And they all said, “So be it; so be it,” for themselves and their sons for ever throughout their generations Book of Jubilees Chapter 9:18-19

And here onto the next chapter, the reason is being given in the Chapter 10:

³⁹ In the fourth week in the first year in the beginning thereof in the four and thirtieth jubilee, were they dispersed from the land of Shinar.

⁴⁰ And Ham and his sons went into the land which he was to occupy, which he acquired as his portion in the land of the south.

⁴¹ But Canaan saw the land of Lebanon to the river of Egypt that it was very good, and he went not into the land of his inheritance to the west (that is to) the sea,

⁴² and he dwelt in the land of Lebanon, eastward and westward from the border of Jordan and from the border of the sea.

⁴³ And Ham, his father, and Cush and Mizraim, his brothers, said unto him: “Thou hast settled in a land which is not thine, and which did not fall to us by lot:

⁴⁴ do not do so; for if thou dost do so, thou and thy sons will fall in the land and (be) accursed through sedition;

⁴⁵ for by sedition ye have settled, and by sedition will thy children fall, and thou shalt be rooted out for ever.

⁴⁶ Dwell not in the dwelling of Shem; for to Shem and to his sons did it come by their lot.

⁴⁷ Cursed art thou, and cursed shalt thou be beyond all the sons of Noah, by the curse by which we bound ourselves by an oath in the presence of the holy judge, and in the presence of Noah our father.”

⁴⁸ But he (Canaan) did not hearken unto them, and dwelt in the land of Lebanon from Hamath to the entering of Egypt, he and his sons until this day. And for this reason that land is named Canaan. Book of Jubilees Chapter 10:39-48

— and that Land was allocated to Shem; then later to Abraham and onto the children of Jacob, or specifically the Israelites. The Hezbollah or Hamas today or any other Lebanese or Palestinians wouldn’t have a chance.

~ by Joel on August 17, 2025.

Posted in Isaiah