Isaiah 34:14

Matthew Henry on Isaiah 34:9–end

This prophecy looks very black, but surely it looks so further than upon Edom and Bozrah. 1. It describes the melancholy changes that are often made by the divine Providence, in countries, cities, palaces, and families. Places that have flourished and been much frequented strangely go to decay. We know not where to find the places where many great towns, celebrated in history, once stood. Fruitful countries, in process of time, are turned into barrenness, and pompous populous cities into ruinous heaps. Old decayed castles look frightful, and their ruins are almost as much dreaded as ever their garrisons were. 2. It describes the destroying judgments which are the effects of God's wrath and t…

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Isaiah 34:14

wild beasts of the desert . . . island--rather, "wild cats . . . jackals" (Isa 13:21). screech owl--rather, "the night specter"; in Jewish superstition a female, elegantly dressed, that carried off children by night. The text does not assert the existence of such objects of superstition, but describes the place as one which superstition would people with such beings.

John Gill on Isaiah 34:14

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 Gill on Isaiah 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 Gill on Isaiah 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, Revelation 18:2, the screech owl also shall rest ther…

John Calvin on Isaiah 34:14-15