Isa 34:5

“To us this life is a race course: we contend here, we are crowned elsewhere. No one can lay aside fear while serpents and scorpions beset his path. The Lord says, "My sword has drunk its fill in heaven," and do you expect to find peace on the earth? No, the earth yields only thorns and thistles, and its dust is food for the serpent. "For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." We are hemmed in by hosts of foes; our enemies are upon every side. The weak flesh will soon be ashes: one against many, it fights against tremendous odds. Not till it has been dissolved, not till the prince of this world has come and found no sin therein, not till then may you safely listen to the prophet's words: "You shall not be afraid for the terror by night nor the arrow that flies by day; nor for the trouble which haunts you in darkness." … When the hosts of the enemy distress you, when your body is hot with fever and your passions roused, when you say in your heart, "What shall I do?" Then Elisha's words shall give you your answer, "Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them." He shall pray, "Lord, open the eyes of your handmaid that she may see." And then when your eyes have been opened, you shall see a fiery chariot like Elijah's waiting to carry you to heaven, and you shall joyfully sing, "Our soul has become free like a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken and we have been set free."”

“Because God did not spare the sinful angels who lost their heavenly home through their own fault, therefore does he say through Isaiah, "My sword in heaven is satiated." For every sinner among the people will die by the sword, yet not by a physical sword (there are many and varied ways to die other than by a sword) but by the spiritual sword with which all who fail to do penance must be stricken.”

“For My sword has become sated in the heaven To slay the heavenly princes, and afterward it shall descend on the nation Ishmael ([mss. and Kli Paz:] Edom) ([Warsaw ed.:] Babylonians) below, for no nation suffers until its prince suffers in heaven. the nation with whom I contend (עַם חֶרמִי), the nation with whom I battle. This is a Mishnaic expression: (Keth. 17b) They taught this in connection with time of strife (חֵרוּם). Comp. (I Kings 20:42) “The man with whom I contend (אִישׁ חֶרְמִי),” referring to Ahab.”

“Third, he shows the effect of both: for my sword, that is, my vengeance, is inebriated in heaven, that is, I have carried out vengeance on the demons abundantly: I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh (Deut 32:42). 737. Behold it shall come down upon Idumea. Here he threatens the Idumeans in particular, who came with the enemies against Jerusalem, as it says in Obadiah 1:11: when strangers carried away his army captive. And concerning this, he does three things: first, he threatens the slaughter of their men; second, the destruction of their land: and the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch (Isa 34:9); third, he sets out the confirmation of both of these threats, where it says, search diligently in the book of the Lord (Isa 34:16). 738. Concerning the first, he does three things. First, he describes the fairness of the punishment: behold it shall come down upon Idumea, to crush them; the people of my slaughter, deserving to be slaughtered by me: I have brought the destruction of Esau upon him (Jer 49:8).”

“Heaven. Casting down the rebel angels. (St. Jerome) — The resolution to destroy the Idumeans, for their cruelty to the Jews, has been taken long ago. All these expressions allude to the last judgment. (Calmet) — Idumea. Under the name of Idumea or Edom, a people that were enemies of the Jews, are here understood the wicked in general, the enemies of God and his Church. (Challoner) — Assaradon fell upon Edom two years after Sennacherib’s death. (Calmet) — No strong place like Bosra, shall rescue any from destruction at the last day. (Worthington)”

“sword-- (Jer 46:10). Or else, knife for sacrifice for God does not here appear as a warrior with His sword, but as one about to sacrifice victims doomed to slaughter [VITRINGA]. (Eze 39:17). bathed--rather "intoxicated," namely, with anger (so Deu 32:42). "In heaven" implies the place where God's purpose of wrath is formed in antithesis to its "coming down" in the next clause. Idumea--originally extending from the Dead Sea to the Red Sea; afterwards they obtained possession of the country east of Moab, of which Bozrah was capital. Petra or Selah, called Joktheel (Kg2 14:7), was capital of South Edom (see on Isa 16:1). David subjugated Edom (Sa2 8:13-14). Under Jehoram they regained independence (Ch2 21:8). Under Amaziah they were again subdued, and Selah taken (Kg2 14:7). When Judah was captive in Babylon, Edom, in every way, insulted over her fallen mistress, killed many of those Jews whom the Chaldeans had left, and hence was held guilty of fratricide by God (Esau, their ancestor, having been brother to Jacob): this was the cause of the denunciations of the prophets against Edom Isa 63:1, &c.; Jer 49:7; Eze 25:12-14; Eze 35:3-15; Joe 3:19; Amo 1:11-12; Oba 1:8, Oba 1:10, Oba 1:12-18; Mal 1:3-4). Nebuchadnezzar humbled Idumea accordingly (Jer 25:15-21). of my curse--that is, doomed to it. to judgment--that is, to execute it.”

“If we bear this in mind, we shall not be surprised that the prophet gives the following reason for the passing away of the present heavens. "For my sword has become intoxicated in the heaven; behold, it comes down upon Edom, and upon the people of my ban to judgment. The sword of Jehovah fills itself with blood, is fattened with fat, with blood of lambs and he-goats, with kidney-fat of rams; for Jehovah has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom. And buffaloes fall with them, and bullocks together with bulls; and their land become intoxicated with blood, and their dust fattened with fat." Just as in chapter 63 Jehovah is represented as a treader of the wine-press, and the nations as the grapes; so here He is represented as offering sacrifice, and the nations as the animals offered (zebhach: cf., Zep 1:7; Jer 46:10); Eze 39:17.: all three passages founded upon this). Jehovah does not appear here in person as judge, as He does there, but His sword appears; just as in Gen 3:24, the "sword which turned every way" is mentioned as an independent power standing by the side of the cherub. The sword is His executioner, which has no sooner drunk deeply of wrath in heaven, i.e., in the immediate sphere of the Deity (rivvethâh, an intensive form of the kal, like pittēăch, Isa 48:8; Ewald, 120, d), than it comes down in wild intoxication upon Edom, the people of the ban of Jehovah, i.e., the people upon whom He has laid the ban, and there, as His instrument of punishment, fills itself with blood, and fattens itself with fat. הדּשׁנה is the hothpaal = התדּשׁנה, with the ת of the preformative syllable assimilated (compare הזּכּוּ in Isa 1:16, and אדּמּה in Isa 14:14). The penultimate has the tone, the nâh being treated as in the plural forms of the future. The dropping of the dagesh in the שׁ eht ni hse is connected with this. The reading מחלב, in Isa 34:6, is an error that has been handed down in modern copies (in opposition to both codices and ancient editions); for חלב (primary form, chilb) is the only form met with in the Old Testament. The lambs, he-goats, and rams, represent the Edomitish nation, which is compared to these smaller sacrificial animals. Edom and Bozrah are also placed side by side in Isa 63:1. The latter was one of the chief cities of the Edomites (Gen 36:33; Amo 1:12; Jer 49:13, Jer 49:22) - not the Bozrah in Auranitis (Haurân), however, which is well known in church history, but Bozrah in the mountains of Edom, upon the same site as the village of Buzaire (i.e., Minor Bozrah), which is still surrounded by its ruins. In contrast with the three names of the smaller animals in Isa 34:6, the three names of oxen in Isa 34:7 represent the lords of Edom. They also will fall, smitten by the sword (yâredū: cf., Jer 50:27; Jer 51:40; also Jer 48:15). The feast of the sword is so abundant, that even the earth and the dust of the land of Edom are satiated with blood and fat.”