A Day of Retribution

Now the prophecy singles out a nation that exists in Isaiah's day-Edom.  The Edomites are descendants of Esau (Edom), who sold his birthright to his twin brother, Jacob, for bread and lentil stew.  (Genesis 25:24-34) Because Esau became filled with hatred for his brother.  Later the nation of Edom and the nation of Israel became enemies, even though they descended from twin brothers.  For this hostility against God's people, Edom has incurred the wrath of Jehovah, who now says:  "In the heavens my sword will certainly be drenched.  Look! Upon Edom it will descend, and upon the people devoted by me to destruction in justice.  Jehovah has a sword; it must be filled with blood; it must be made greasy with the fat, with the blood of young rams and he-goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams.  For Jehovah has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and  a great slaughtering in the land of Edom." -Isaiah 34:5, 6. 

Edom occupies a high, mountainous region.  (Jeremiah 49:16; Obadiah 8, 9, 19, 21)  Nevertheless, even these natural fortifications will be of no help when Jehovah wields his sword of judgment "in the heavens," abasing Edom's rulers from their elevated position.  Edom is heavily militarized, and its armed forces march through high mountain ranges to safeguard the country.  But powerful Edom furnishes no assistance when Judah is attacked by the armies of Babylon.  Rather, Edom is overjoyed to see the tumbling of the kingdom of Judah and urges her conquerors  on.  (Psalm 137:7) Edom even chases down Jews running for their lives and hands them over to the Babylonians.  (Obadiah 11-14) The Edomites plan to take over the abandoned country of the Israelites, and they speak boastfully against Jehovah. -Ezekiel 35:10-15. 

Does Jehovah overlook this unbrotherly conduct on the part of the Edomites?  No. Rather, he foretells of Edom: "The wild bulls must come down with them, and  young bulls with the powerful ones; and their land must be drenched with blood, and their very dust will be made greasy with the fat."  (Isaiah 34:7) Jehovah speaks of the greater ones and the lesser ones in the nation as symbolic wild bulls and young bulls, as young rams and he-goats.  The land of this bloodguilty nation must be drenched with the people's blood by means of the executional "sword' of Jehovah.

God purposes to punish Edom for what has maliciously been done to His earthly organization, called Zion.  Says the prophecy:  "Jehovah has a day of vengeance, a year of retributions for the legal case over Zion."  (Isaiah  34:8)  Not long after the destruction of Jerusalem in 607 B.C.E., Jehovah begins to express by means of the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar.  (Jeremiah 25:15-17, 21)  When  Babylon's armies move against Edom, nothing can save the Edomites!  It is  "a year of retributions" upon that mountainous land, Jehovah foretells through the prophet Obadiah:  "Because of the violence to your brother Jacob, shame will cover you, and you will have to be cut off to time indefinite. . . .In the way that you have done, it will be done to you.  Your sort of treatment will return upon your own head." -Obadiah 10, 15; Ezekiel 25:12-14.

Next time: Christendom's Bleak Future

From the Book Isaiah's Prophecy Light for all Mankind, 2000