Week 28 Isaiah 34
At first I don’t pay much attention to the animals wandering through the ruins of depopulated cities and what’s left of a landscape that sounds like a post-nuclear wasteland.
At first it sounded like a worldwide apocalyptic event that effected everyone. But farther down it sounded like a specific end-of-existence forecast for Edom. I stalled trying to figure which it was. I think that’s maybe why my mind drifted to the animals.
I wondered if the twelve animals were from the Leviticus Unclean Food List. When I cross-checked I saw that pelicans owls ravens ostriches & hawks were prohibited. But not hedgehogs jackals desert-creatures wolves hairy-goats night-monsters or tree-snakes.
When I checked another version of the bible I saw that some of the names were different. I looked at a third and fourth version. The only name that was exactly the same in all four versions was Raven.
Some versions had kind-of comparable names (owl great-owl & screech-owl).
But some weren’t similar (pelican desert-owl horned-owl cormorant).
I saw one animal that was called Jackal in three versions but Dragon in the other.
Anyway I got sidetracked wondering about the animals.
In the end I remembered the point of the chapter. The Lord will bring chaos and destruction to that land. Burning pitch. Smoky skies. Deserted land. No one will live there anymore…It will be called the Land of Nothing. In Nothingland there’ll be nothing but wild animals.
Note: quotes from Isaiah 34:11 10 12 (NLT)