Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 34:14
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.
14. wild beasts the desert wild beasts of the island satyr ] See on ch. Isa 13:21 f.
the shrich owl ] The Hebr. is Llth, a fem. formation from Iil “night.” Render with Cheyne: the night-hag. Lilith appears to be a creation of the Babylonian demonology. “This Lilith plays a great part in the Talmudic demonology; the cabalistic Rabbis forged a whole legend in which this spirit is said to have taken a feminine form to deceive Adam, and to have united herself to him.” (Lenormant, Chaldan Magic, Engl. Tr. p. 38.) She is mentioned in the Bible only here.
find for herself a place of rest ] On the restlessness of evil spirits, cf. Mat 12:43, “walketh through dry places, seeking rest.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The wild beasts of the desert – There is in the original here a paronomasia, which cannot be conveyed in a translation. The word rendered, wild beasts of the desert ( tsyym), is rendered by the Septuagint, daimonia, demons. On the meaning of the word, see the note at Isa 13:21.
The wild beasts of the island – Margin, Ijim. Hebrew, ‘yym (see the note at Isa 13:22). Probably the term denotes the jackal. Gesenius supposes it is so called from its howl, or nocturnal cry – from an Arabia word signifying to howl.
And the satyr – (see the note at Isa 13:21).
Shall cry to his fellow – A most striking description of the desolation, when all that is heard among the ruins shall be the doleful cry of wild beasts.
The screech-owl – Margin, Night-monster. The word lylyt (from layil, night) properly denotes a night-spectre – a creature of Jewish superstition. The rabbis describe it in the form of a female elegantly dressed that lay in wait for children at night – either to carry them off, or to murder them. The Greeks had a similar idea respecting the female empouta, and this idea corresponds to the Roman fables respecting the Lamice, and Striges, and to the Arabic notions of the Ghules, whom they described as female monsters that dwell in deserts, and tear men to pieces (see Gesenius, Com. in loc; and Bochart, Hieroz. ii. 831). The margin in our version expresses the correct idea. All this is descriptive of utter and perpetual desolation – of a land that should be full of old ruins, and inhabited by the animals that usually make such ruins their abode.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 14. The wild beasts of the desert] tsiyim, the mountain cats. – Bochart.
Wild beasts of the island] aiyim, the jackals.
The satyr] seir, the hairy one, probably the he-goat.
The screech owl] lilith, the night-bird, the night-raven, nyctycorax, from layil, or lailah, the night.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The satyr shall cry to his fellow: See Poole “Isa 13:21“. See Poole “Isa 13:22“.
The screech owl also shall rest there, because there shall be no men left to disturb or affright them, Isa 17:2.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
14. wild beasts of the desert . . .islandrather, “wild cats . . . jackals” (Isa13:21).
screech owlrather,”the night specter”; in Jewish superstition a female,elegantly dressed, that carried off children by night. The text doesnot assert the existence of such objects of superstition, butdescribes the place as one which superstition would people with suchbeings.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the islands,…. In Rome, and take up their abode there; of these creatures, the first of which the Targum renders monstrous ones, and the latter wild cats, [See comments on Isa 13:22]:
and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; or the “hairy” one r; from which word the goat has its name; and these creatures are described by the ancients as half goats and half men; of which
[See comments on Isa 13:21]. The Targum renders it demons; 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, Re 18:2:
the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest; there being no inhabitants to disturb her. By the name “Lilith”, it appears to be a night bird, which flies and is heard in the night. The Jews call a she demon by this name, which, they say s, has a human face, and has wings, and destroys children as soon as born; and therefore the Jews, especially in Germany, write upon the four corners of the bed of a new mother, Adam, Eve, out Lilith t; the same with the Lamia of the Romans; and so the Vulgate Latin here renders it.
r “pilosus”, a “capillus.” s T. Bab. Nidda, fol. 24. 2. t Vid. Buxtorf. Lex. Rab. col. 1140.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
14. And the wild beasts shall meet with the satyrs. (20) These animals are thought by some commentators to mean fauns, by others screechowls or goblins, and by others satyrs; and it is not fully agreed what is the exact meaning of the Hebrew words; but it would serve no good purpose to give ourselves much uneasiness about them, for it is quite enough if we understand the meaning and design of the Prophet. He draws a picture of frightful desolation, as if he had said that Idumea shall be destroyed so as to be without inhabitants, and instead of men it shall be inhabited by frightful beasts. This reward is most justly reaped by the ambition of those who built costly palaces to be, as we have already said, monuments of their name and reputation. Yet this is also a punishment threatened against the cruelty of a wicked nation, which was eagerly bent on the oppression of neighbours and brethren.
Though we cannot absolutely determine whether the Prophet means witches, or goblins, or satyrs and fauns, yet it is universally agreed that these words denote animals which have the shape of men. We see also what various delusions are practiced by Satan, what phantoms and hideous monsters are seen, and what sounds and noises are heard. But of these we have already spoken under the thirteenth chapter. (21)
The sin which God punished so severely in a single nation, is common to almost every nation; for hardly ever are those splendid buildings reared without committing much violence and injustice against the poor, and giving great and numerous annoyances to others; so that the lime, and stones, and timber, are filled with blood in the sight of God. Therefore, as Habakkuk says,
“
the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall bear witness to it.” (Hab 2:11.)
Let us not wonder, therefore, at those dreadful changes, when ambition lays hold on plunder and wicked extortions, but let us contemplate the righteous judgments of God.
(20) “ Les bestes sauvages (assavoir Ziim avec Iim,) s’y rencontreront.” “The wild beasts (that is, the Ziim with the Iim) shall meet there.”
(21) [unclear Commentary on Isaiah, ] [unclear vol 1, p. 429 ] [unclear . ]
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(14) The wild beasts of the desert . . .Better, wild cats or hyenas shall meet wolves. The nouns that follow belong, apparently, to the region of mythical zoology. The English satyr expresses fairly enough the idea of a demon-brute haunting the waste places of the palaces of Edom, while the screech-owl is the Lilith, the she-vampire, who appears in the legends of the Talmud as having been Adams first wife, who left him and was turned into a demon. With the later Jews, Lilith, as sucking the blood of children, was the bugbear of the nursery. Night-vampire would, perhaps, be the best rendering.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
14. The desert animals, ( ziim,) hyenas, for example, (TRISTRAM’S Natural History,) there come in contact with the howlers, ( ijim,) jackals, called an island creature from its dwelling near the coast, and all inhabited, fertile spots.
The satyr Shaggy, fabulous animals, supposed to inhabit desert thickets, and hence called wood devils objected to by Alexander only because fabulous, but without reason here, for Isaiah employs the term poetically, basing his use of it upon Lev 17:7, “And they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils,” as the Hebrews had been accustomed to while resident in Egypt. It is the same word in the original, , ( s’irim,) rendered here “satyr,” and, in Lev 17:7, “devils.” The word means the hairy ones, shaggy animals. The goat was an object of worship in Egypt, according to Herodotus (ii, 46,) and from the shaggy, rough he-goat, sprang those ideal beings supposed to bear a resemblance to the goat, such as figured in the mythology of Greece at an early period, (when the Egyptian and Grecian religions began to mix,) under the names Pan, Satyr, Selene, etc. Real they doubtless were to the ignorant Israelites when in bondage, but ideal, hateful, and forbidding, both to Moses and Isaiah. No doubt Isaiah gave not the least countenance to them as facts in nature, but poetically used the word to express what was ideally horrible to every mind he addressed. The same is to be said of the screech owl, or some nightly sounding creature, though many expositors, and Delitzsch among them, favour the meaning of nocturnal spectres. The superstitions brought from Egypt lingered with the people of Israel till Monotheism in a large measure expelled them from the popular mind. Nevertheless, later in Jewish history, a crop of legends sprung out of them, and were easily moulded into those of Persian origin; and to this day, with the Arabs, the idea is persistent of still existing devils or ghuls and spectres in the desert. The mirages, the exciting air, and the monotony of desert landscapes generally, are very favourable to the persistence of such superstitions. See SPRINGER’S Leben und Lehre des Mohammed.
Isa 34:14 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.
Ver. 14. The wild beasts of the desert. ] Heb., Ziim et jiim. See Isa 13:21-22 , where these monstrous creatures are said to dance: whence Basil noteth, that men learned of devils to dance, and another a saith that a dance is a circle, the centre whereof is the devil, the circumference all his angels.
And the satyr shall cry to his fellow. a Conr. Clingius.
screech owl. Hebrew. Lilith. Used to-day of any being of the night, as the English “bogy” is used. Charms are used against it to-day in Palestine.
a place, &c. = a roost.
The wild beasts of the desert: Heb. Ziim, Isa 13:21, *marg.
the wild beasts of the island: Heb. Ijim, Isa 13:22, *marg.
screech owl: or, night-monster
Reciprocal: Psa 44:19 – in the Mal 1:3 – the
34:14 The wild beasts of the desert shall also {n} meet with the wild beasts of the isle, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest.
(n) Read Isa 13:21 .
So devoid of human population will the earth be that animals that people have tried to control in the past will be safe enough to multiply. Even the goat demon and the night monster, representing the most detestable animals, will roam the land. Lilith (lit. nocturnal) was a feminine night monster in Assyrian and Babylonian mythology that was especially hurtful to children (cf. Tob 8:3; Mat 12:43).
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)