Ecclesiasticus 34:5

Nova Vulgata

Quoniam inebriatus est in caelo gladius meus: ecce super Edom descendet et super populum interfectionis meae ad iudicium.

Parallel Translations

Clementine Latin Vulgate (1592)
Quoniam inebriatus est in c�lo gladius meus ; ecce super Idum�am descendet, et super populum interfectionis me�, ad judicium.

Jerome's Latin Vulgate (405)
Quoniam inebriatus est in c�lo gladius meus;
ecce super Idum�am descendet,
et super populum interfectionis me�, ad judicium.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

my sword: Deuteronomy 32:14, Deuteronomy 32:42, Psalms 17:13, Jeremiah 46:10, Jeremiah 47:6, Ezekiel 21:3-5, Ezekiel 21:9-11, Zephaniah 2:12, Revelation 1:16

upon Idumea: Isaiah 63:1, Psalms 137:7, Jeremiah 49:7-22, Ezekiel 25:12-14, Amos 1:11, Amos 1:12, Obadiah 1:1-9, Malachi 1:4

the people: Deuteronomy 27:15-26, Deuteronomy 29:18-21, Matthew 25:41, 1 Corinthians 16:22, Galatians 3:10, 2 Peter 2:14

Reciprocal: Leviticus 26:25 - will bring Numbers 24:18 - General Deuteronomy 20:17 - thou shalt Deuteronomy 32:41 - whet Deuteronomy 33:29 - the sword Psalms 7:12 - he will Isaiah 11:14 - them of the east Isaiah 27:1 - with his Isaiah 34:6 - the Lord hath Isaiah 66:16 - General Ezekiel 31:12 - upon Ezekiel 35:15 - Idumea Joel 2:31 - sun Obadiah 1:9 - every Mark 3:8 - Idumaea Revelation 12:7 - war Revelation 14:20 - and blood

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For my sword shall be bathed in heaven,.... That is, the sword of the Lord, as it is called in the next verse Isaiah 34:6, and it is he that is speaking; it designs the vengeance of the Lord, the punishment he will inflict on the wicked, said to be "bathed in heaven", because determined and prepared there; the allusion may be to the bathing of swords in some sort of liquor, to harden or brighten them, and so fit them for use. Kimchi renders it, "my sword" which is "in heaven shall be bathed", that is, in the blood of the slain; "heaven" may denote the whole Roman Papal jurisdiction, as it does the whole Roman Pagan empire in Revelation 12:7 and may design the principal men in it, those that are in the highest places and offices, in whom the sword of the Lord shall be first drenched, and be as it were satiated and inebriated with the blood of them:

behold, it shall come down upon Idumea; with great weight, force, and vengeance, having a commission from heaven to execute. Idumea is here particularly mentioned, because the Edomites were implacable enemies to the Jews, and so are here put for all the enemies of God's church and people, all the antichristian states, particularly Rome, which the Jews, as Jerom observes, understand by Edom or Idumea here:

upon the people of my curse to judgment; a very descriptive character of the Papists, the people of God's curse, and righteously so; those who have anathematized his people, and cursed them with bell, book, and candle, are anathematized by him, devoted to destruction, and doomed to be accursed, sentenced to ruin, and on whom judgment shall pass, and shall be executed; they shall hear, "go, ye cursed", both here and hereafter, at the fall of Babylon, and at the general judgment. The Targum is,

"because my sword is revealed in heaven; behold, upon Edom it is revealed, and upon the people whom I have condemned to judgment.''

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For my sword shall be bathed in heaven - A sword is an instrument of vengeance, and is often so used in the Scriptures, because it was often employed in capital punishments (see the note at Isaiah 27:1). This passage bas given much perplexity to commentators, on account of the apparent want of meaning of the expression that the sword would be bathed in heaven. Lowth reads it:

For my sword is made bare in the heavens;

Following in this the Chaldee which reads תתגלי tı̂thgallı̂y, ‘shall be revealed.’ But there is no authority from manuscripts for this change in the Hebrew text. The Vulgate renders it, Quoniam inebriatus est in coelo gladius meuse - ‘My sword is intoxicated in heaven.’ The Septuagint renders it in the same way, Ἐμεθύσθη ἡ μάχαιρά μον ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ Emethusthē hē machaira mou en tō ouranō; and the Syriac and Arabic in the same manner. The Hebrew word רוּתה riv^etâh, from רוה râvâh, means properly to drink to the full; to be satisfied, or sated with drink; and then to be full or satiated with intoxicating liquor, to be drunk. It is applied to the sword, as satiated or made drunk with blood, in Jeremiah 46:10 :

And the sword shall devour,

And it shall be satiate, and made drunk with their blood.

And thus in Deuteronomy 32:42, a similar figure is used respecting arrows, the instruments also of war and vengeance:

I will make mine arrows drunk with blood;

And my sword shall devour flesh.

A similar figure is often used in Oriental writers, where the sword is represented as glutted, satiated, or made drunk with blood (see Rosenmuller on Deuteronomy 32:42). Thus Bohaddinus, in the lift of Saladin, in describing a battle in which there was a great slaughter, says, ‘The swords drank of their blood until they were intoxicated.’ The idea here is, however, not that the sword of the Lord was made drunk with blood in heaven, but that it was intoxicated, or made furious with wrath; it was excited as an intoxicated man is who is under ungovernable passions; it was in heaven that the wrath commenced, and the sword of divine justice rushed forth as if intoxicated, to destroy all before it. There are few figures, even in Isaiah, that are more bold than this.

It shall come down upon Idumea - (see the Analysis of the chapter for the situation of Idumea, and for the causes why it was to be devoted to destruction).

Upon the people of my curse - The people devoted to destruction.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 34:5. For my sword shall be bathed in heaven - "For my sword is made bare in the heavens"] There seems to be some impropriety in this, according to the present reading: "My sword is made drunken, or is bathed in the heavens;" which forestalls, and expresses not in its proper place, what belongs to the next verse: for the sword of JEHOVAH was not to be bathed or glutted with blood in the heavens, but in Botsra and the land of Edom. In the heavens it was only prepared for slaughter. To remedy this, Archbishop Secker proposes to read, for בשמים bashshamayim, בדמם bedamim; referring to Jeremiah 46:10. But even this is premature, and not in its proper place. The Chaldee, for רותה rivvethah, has תתגלי tithgalli, shall be revealed or disclosed: perhaps he read תראה teraeh or נראתה nirathah. Whatever reading, different I presume from the present, he might find in his copy, I follow the sense which he has given of it.