Isaias 34:5
For my sword is inebriated in heaven: behold it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my slaughter unto judgment.
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Quoniam inebriatus est in cælo gladius meus ; ecce super Idumæam descendet, et super populum interfectionis meæ, ad judicium.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἐμεθύσθη ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ ἡ μάχαιρὰ μου· ἰδοὺ ἐπὶ τὴν Ἰδουμαίαν καταβήσεται καὶ ἐπὶ τὸν λαὸν τῆς ἀπωλείας μετὰ κρίσεως.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- כִּֽי רִוְּתָ֥ה בַשָּׁמַ֖יִם חַרְבִּ֑י הִנֵּה֙ עַל אֱד֣וֹם תֵּרֵ֔ד וְעַל עַ֥ם חֶרְמִ֖י לְמִשְׁפָּֽט
Haydock's commentary
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)
Where a note speaks of the Jewish people, the Church teaches that the Passion cannot be charged against all the Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today, and that all sinners were its authors (CCC 597, 598).
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Jerome Against the Pelagians, Book II
Is. xxxiv. 5 . “My sword hath drunk its fill in the heavens. It will come down in Edom.” How much more is there wrath against sin on earth! Edom means blood, which cannot inherit the kingdom ( 1 Cor. xv. 50 ).