Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 34:7
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.
7. For unicorns render with R.V. wild oxen.
come down ] sc. to the place of slaughter, Jer 48:15, &c.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And the unicorns – Margin, Rhinoceros ( re’emym from re’em). This was evidently an animal well known in Palestine, since it is frequently mentioned in the Old Testament (Num 23:22; Deu 33:17; Job 39:9-10; Psa 22:21; Psa 29:6; Psa 92:10, in all which places it is translated unicorn, or unicorn). The derivation of the word is uncertain, and it has been regarded as doubtful what animal is intended. The corresponding Arabic word denotes the oryx, a large and fierce species of the antelope. Gesenius, Schultens, De Wette, and Rosenmuller suppose that the buffalo is intended by the word. Bochart regards it as denoting the gazelle, or a species of the antelope. It can hardly, however, be regarded as so small an animal as the gazelle. The gazelle is common in the neighborhood of mount Sinai; and when Laborde passed through that region his companions killed four, the father and mother, and two little animals a fortnight old. He says of them: These creatures, which are very lively in their movements, endeavored to bite when they were caught; their hair is a brown yellow, which becomes pale and long as the animals grows old.
In appearance they resemble the Guinea pig. Their legs are of the same height, but the form of their feet is unique; instead of nails and claws, they have three toes in front and four behind, and they walk. like rabbits, on the whole length of the foot. The Arabs call it El Oueber, and know no other name for it. It lives upon the scanty herbage with which the rain in the neighborhood of springs supplies it. It does not burrow in the earth, its feet not being calculated for that purpose; but it conceals itself in the natural holes or clefts which it finds in the rocks. (Journey through Arabia Petrea, pp. 106, 107. Lond. 8vo. 1836.) Taylor (Heb. Con.) supposes it means the rhinoceros; a fierce animal that has a single horn on the nose, which is very strong, and which sometimes grows to the height of thirty-seven inches. The ancient versions certainly regarded the word as denoting an animal with a single horn. It denotes here, evidently, some strong, fierce, and wild animal that was horned Psa 22:21, but perhaps it is not possible to determine precisely what animal is meant. For a more full investigation in reference to the kind of animal denoted by the word reem, see the notes at Job 39:9. Here it represents that portion of the people which was strong, warlike, and hitherto unvanquished, and who regarded themselves as invincible.
Shall come down – Shall be subdued, humbled, destroyed.
With them – With the lambs and goats mentioned in Isa 34:6. All classes of the people shall be subdued and subjected to the slaughter.
And the bullocks with the bulls – The young bulls with the old. All shall come down together – the fierce and strong animals representing the fierce and strong people.
And their land shall be soaked with blood – Margin, Drunken; the same word which is rendered bathed in Isa 34:5.
Their dust made fat – Their land manured and made rich with the slain. A battlefield is usually distinguished afterward for its fertility. The field of Waterloo has thus been celebrated, since the great battle there, for producing rank and luxuriant harvests.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 7. The unicorns shall come down] reemim, translated wild goats by Bishop Lowth. The reem Bochart thinks to be a species of wild goat in the deserts of Arabia. It seems generally to mean the rhinoceros.
With blood – “With their blood”] middamam; so two ancient MSS. of Kennicott’s the Syriac, and Chaldee.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The unicorns, Heb. the reemim. But what kind of beast this is, whether that beast which is commonly called an unicorn, which seems to be but a fiction in the judgment of the learned, or a rhinoceros, or a wild ox or bull, it is needless to trouble the ordinary reader about it; and the learned may consult my Latin Synopsis upon Num 23:22 about it. It is confessed that it was a beast of great strength and fierceness; and it is certain that it is metephorically used in this place, to signify their princes and potentates.
Shall come down; shall be humbled and cast down. The LXX. and Syriac render it,
they shall fall down, as such beasts do when they have received a deadly blow. With them; with the lambs, and goats, and rams, last mentioned, Isa 34:6.
With fatness; with the fat of the slain sacrifices, which shall he mingled with it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. unicornsHebrew, reem:conveying the idea of loftiness, power, and pre-eminence (see on Job39:9), in the Bible. At one time the image in the term answers toa reality in nature; at another it symbolizes an abstraction. Therhinoceros was the original type. The Arab rim is two-horned:it was the oryx (the leucoryx, antelope, bold and pugnacious);but when accident or artifice deprived it of one horn, the notion ofthe unicorn arose. Here is meant the portion of the Edomites whichwas strong and warlike.
come downrather, “falldown,” slain [LOWTH].
with themwith the”lambs and goats,” the less powerful Edomites (Isa34:6).
bullocks . . . bullstheyoung and old Edomites: all classes.
dustground.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the unicorns shall come down with them,…. With the lambs, goats, and rams; that is, either the rhinoceros, as some, there being no such creature as the unicorn; or the buffaloes, as m others; these “shall fall”, as the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions render it, they shall be slain, as well as the rest; meaning, that along with the common soldiers, and inferior officers, the general officers should fall; and so the Targum,
“and the mighty shall be slain with them.”
R. Abraham Seba says n he read in a certain book, that the word here should not be read , “unicorns”, but , “the Romans shall come down”, c.:
and the bullocks with the bulls: or, as the Targum,
“and the rulers with the princes”
the same with the kings, captains, and mighty men in Re 19:18:
and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness; Or, “their land shall be inebriated” o, or made drunk, with blood; and the dust thereof thickened by it, and made clods of with it, as the parched earth is watered with a plentiful shower, and the dust laid with it: this is a just retaliation to the whore of Rome, who has been made drunk with the blood of the saints, and now blood shall be given her to drink, even her own, with which she shall be filled, and welter and wallow in the clods of it, Re 17:6.
m So Gussetius understands it of a larger sort of oxen, Comment. Ebr. p. 783. n Tzeror Hammor, fol. 47. 3. o “et inebriabitur”, Pagninus, Montanus, Piscator.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
7. And the unicorns shall come down with them. This verse is closely connected with the former, for he adds nothing new, but proceeds with the same figure, amplifying what he had said about “rams” and “goats,” to which he adds not only bullocks but wild and savage beasts. It amounts to this, that the vengeance of heaven will be so unrelenting as to spare neither age nor rank, and to mark; for slaughter even cruel giants, notwithstanding their silly fierceness, just as if one were preparing a sacrifice which consisted indiscriminately of every kind of animals. It ought not to be thought strange that lambs are mingled with cruel beasts, for the term “lambs” is not employed in commendation of their mildness or harmlessness, but is applied comparatively to those who are feeble and who belong to the ordinary rank, which lays them under the necessity of having some appearance of modesty.
Although God may appear to be harsh in thus directing his hostility against all classes, yet, by the use of the word “sacrifice,” he claims for himself the praise of justice; and indeed no man, when he comes to the trial, will be found to be without blame, so that on good grounds all, without exception, are irrecoverably ruined. Such is the destruction which awaits all the reprobate, who of their own accord refuse to devote themselves to the service of God; irreligious hands shall offer them in sacrifice. (19)
אברים (abbirim) is translated strong by some commentators; I have preferred to follow those who explain it to mean bulls, which it means also in Psa 50:13, though in this passage the Prophet employs the word bulls to denote metaphorically those who are very strong and powerful.
(19) “ Ils seront sacrifiez par les mains d’aussi mecans qn’eux.” “They shall be sacrificed by the hands of persons as wicked as themselves.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(7) And the unicorns shall come down with them . . .Better, the aurochs, or wild bulls . . . The Hebrew, rem, which meets us in Deu. 33:17; Psa. 22:21, has been identified with the buffalo, the antelope (Antilope leucoryx), and by Mr. Houghton, a naturalist as well as a scholar, on the strength of Assyrian inscriptions, pointing to the land of the Khatti (Hittites) and the foot of the Lebanon as its habitat, and of bas-reliefs representing it, with the Bos primigenius of zoologists (Bible Educator, ii. 24-29). Here, the fierce wild beasts stand for the chiefs of the Edomites. (Comp. Psa. 22:12; Psa. 22:21.) The verb, shall come down, as in Jer. 48:15; Jer. 50:27; Jer. 51:40, implies going down to the shambles, or slaughtering house.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
‘And the wild oxen will come down with them,
And the bullocks with the mighty ones,
And their land will be drunk with blood,
and their dust made fat with fatness.’
Not only Edom but their wild neighbours will be included in the sacrifice, pictured in terms of wild oxen, representing their wilder roving neighbours, while the bullocks and mighty ones possibly represent their other, less wild, near neighbours. There will be so much blood spilled that the land will become drunk with it, with the dust cloyed together in the melted fat.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Isa 34:7 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.
Ver. 7. And the unicorns shall come down. ] Monocerotes, qui interimi possunt, capi non possunt, creatures of untameahle fierceness; or rhinoceros, as the margin hath it – he meaneth the great ones.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
unicorns: or, rhinocerots. Hebrew. re’emin.
soaked = drunken. Figure of speech Hyperbole.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
unicorns: or, rhinoceroses, Num 23:22, Num 24:8, Deu 33:17, Job 39:9, Job 39:10, Psa 92:10
the bullocks: Psa 68:30, Jer 46:21, Jer 50:11, Jer 50:27
soaked: or, drunken, Isa 34:3
Reciprocal: 2Sa 1:22 – the bow Psa 22:12 – strong Psa 22:21 – horns Eze 32:6 – water Eze 39:18 – of bullocks
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 34:7-8. And the unicorns shall come down The word , reemim, here rendered unicorns, is the same with that used Num 23:22, where see the note. Bishop Lowth renders it here, wild goats; and Dr. Waterland, stags. But many learned men prefer the marginal reading, rhinoceros. It is impossible to determine precisely what sort of a creature is meant, but it is allowed by all that it was a beast of great strength and fierceness, and that it is here used metaphorically, together with the bullocks and bulls, for princes and potentates, which should be brought down and humbled, or should fall down, as Bishop Lowth reads it, according to the LXX. and Syriac, namely, as beasts do when they have received a deadly blow; that is, they shall be sacrificed, with the lambs, goats, and rams, the inferior people, mentioned Isa 34:6. And their land shall be soaked with blood Hebrew, , watered, as with rain coming oft upon it, and in abundance; and their dust Their dry and barren land; made fat with fatness With the fat of the sacrifices, namely, of the slain men, mingled with it. For it is the day of the Lords vengeance This is the time which God hath long since appointed and fixed to vindicate the cause of his oppressed and persecuted people against all their enemies; for the controversy of Zion Dr. Waterland reads, for the avenging of Zion. Upon the whole, the meaning of this period, from Isa 34:5, is, that on a certain day of judgment, which is elsewhere called the great day of the Lords vengeance, a mighty slaughter should be made of the hardened enemies of the church, (which had been a long time oppressed and afflicted by them,) with the effusion of much blood, and the destruction of many great, noble, and powerful men. The figure is taken from the master of a family, who, preparing a great feast, and a sacrifice, finds it necessary to slay many lambs, rams, and fatted animals, so that his knife may be said to be inebriated with the blood and fat of the slain. As to the application of this prophecy, in which the Edomites are particularly mentioned, it may be observed that they, together with the rest of the neighbouring nations, were ravaged and laid waste by Nebuchadnezzar, and the general devastation spread through all these countries by him may be the event which the prophet had first in view in this chapter: but, as Bishop Lowth observes, this event, as far as we have any account of it in history, seems by no means to come up to the terms of the prophecy, or to justify so highly wrought and so terrible a description. And it is not easy to discover what connection the extremely flourishing state of the church or people of God, described in the next chapter, could have with those events, or how it could be the consequence of them, as it is there represented to be. By a figure, very common in the prophetical writings, any city or people, remarkably distinguished as enemies of the people and kingdom of God, is put for those enemies in general. This seems here to be the case with Edom and Bozra. It seems, therefore, reasonable to suppose, with many learned expositors, that this prophecy has a further view to events still future; to some great revolutions to be effected in later times, antecedent to that more perfect state of the kingdom of God upon earth, and serving to introduce it, which the Scriptures warrant us to expect. Vitringa is of opinion, that Papal, as well as heathen Rome, red or drunken with the blood of the saints and martyrs of Jesus, is here meant. And he observes, that Rome, which, in the Hebrew, signifies fortification, well answers to Bozra, which signifies a fortified city. Is not the destruction of the anti-christian powers foretold in the xviith, xviiith, and xixth chapters of the Revelation by St. John, here intended by Isaiah? and especially the destruction in Armageddon, termed the great day of God Almighty, Rev 16:14, and that described Isa 19:17-19? Certainly these terrible destructions are to prepare the way for that millennial reign of Christ, described Revelation 20., and which seems to be intended in the next chapter of this prophecy.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
34:7 And the {h} unicorns shall come down with them, and the bulls with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.
(h) The mighty and rich will be as well destroyed as the inferiors.