Isaiah 34:5 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

For my sword shall be bathed in heaven— The meaning of this period is, that on a certain day of judgment, which is elsewhere called the great day of the Lord's vengeance, a mighty slaughter shall be made of the hardened enemies of the church, a long time oppressed and afflicted by them, with the effusion of much blood, and the destruction of many great, noble, and powerful men. The figure is taken from the master of a family, who, preparing a great feast, and a sacrifice, finds it necessary to slay many lambs, rams, and fatted animals, so that his knife may be said to be inebriated with the blood and fat of the slain. The passage is clear enough in this view. The meaning of the phrase, My sword shall be bathed, or inebriated in heaven, is, "It shall be sharpened or made ready in heaven, to bathe itself on earth." The verse may be rendered, When my sword in heaven is bathed, behold, it shall sink deep into Idumaea, into the people whom I have devoted to destruction. In Isaiah 34:7 instead of unicorns, Bishop Lowth reads wild goats, which, together with the bullocks, &c. should come down to be sacrificed in the land of Idumaea. The place of this sacrifice is said to be Bozrah, which was a city of Edom, (see ch. Isaiah 63:1.) and both Bozrah and Idumaea are, as the whole context shews, to be taken figuratively. See Revelation 6:15; Revelation 19:17-18. Vitringa is of opinion, as we before remarked, that Rome and the Roman power are here meant; and he observes, that Rome, which in the Hebrew signifies fortification, well answers to Bozrah, which signifies a fortified city. See Deuteronomy 3:5 in the Hebrew. Instead of, for the controversy of Zion, some read, for the avenging of, or to avenge Zion.