Isaiah 34 · Verse 7

Isaiah 34:7

And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.
Isaiah 34:7, King James Version

Isaiah 34:7 in other translations

BSBAnd the wild oxen will fall with them, the young bulls with the strong ones. Their land will be drenched with blood, and their soil will be soaked with fat.
WEBThe wild oxen will come down with them, and the young bulls with the mighty bulls; and their land will be drunken with blood, and their dust made greasy with fat.
ASVAnd the wild-oxen shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls: and their land shall be drunken with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.
YLTAnd come down have reems with them, And bullocks with bulls, And soaked hath been their land from blood, And their dust from fatness is made fat.
DARBYAnd the buffaloes shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.
BBEAnd the strong oxen will go down to death together with the smaller cattle.
WebsterAnd the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be drenched with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.

What does Isaiah 34:7 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
7. unicorns--Hebrew, reem: conveying the idea of loftiness, power, and pre-eminence (see on Job 39:9), in the Bible. At one time the image in the term answers to a reality in nature; at another it symbolizes an abstraction. The rhinoceros was the original type. The Arab rim is two-horned: it was the oryx (the leucoryx, antelope, bold and pugnacious); but when accident or artifice deprived it of one horn, the notion of the unicorn arose. Here is meant the portion of the Edomites which was strong and warlike. come down--rather, "fall down," slain [Lowth]. with them--with the "lambs and goats," the less powerful Edomites (Is 34:6). bullocks ... bulls--the young and old Edomites: all classes. dust--ground.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 7 The unicorns shall come down - ראמים reemim, translated wild goats by Bishop Lowth. The ראם reem Bochart thinks to be a species of wild goat in the deserts of Arabia. It seems generally to mean the rhinoceros. With blood "With their blood" - מדמם middamam; so two ancient MSS. of Kennicott's the Syriac, and Chaldee.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Isaiah 34:1-8

God's vengeance against the enemies of his church. (Is. 34:1-8) Their desolation. (Is. 34:9-17) Verses 1-8 Here is a prophecy of the wars of the Lord, all which are both righteous and successful. All nations are concerned. And as they have all had the benefit of his patience, so all must expect to feel his resentment. The description of bloodshed suggests tremendous ideas of the Divine judgments. Idumea here denotes…

Read the full comment on Isaiah 34:1-8 →

Isaiah 34:7 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

וְיָרְד֤וּve.ya.re.Duand they will go downH3381
רְאֵמִים֙re.'e.Mimwild oxenH7214
עִמָּ֔ם'i.Mamwith themH5973
וּפָרִ֖יםu.fa.Rimand young bullsH6499
עִם\־'im-withH5973
אַבִּירִ֑ים'a.bi.Rimmighty [bulls]H47
וְרִוְּתָ֤הve.ri.ve.Tahand it will drink its fillH7301
אַרְצָם֙'ar.Tzamland theirH776
מִדָּ֔םmi.Damfrom bloodH1818
וַעֲפָרָ֖םva.'a.fa.Ramand dust theirH6083
מֵחֵ֥לֶבme.Che.levfrom fatH2459
יְדֻשָּֽׁן\׃ye.du.Shanit will be fattenedH1878

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Isaiah 34:7

  • Psalms 68:30

    Rebuke the company of spearmen, the multitude of the bulls, with the calves of the people, till every one submit himself with pieces of silver: scatter thou the people that delight in war.

  • Numbers 23:22

    God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn.

  • Jeremiah 50:27

    Slay all her bullocks; let them go down to the slaughter: woe unto them! for their day is come, the time of their visitation.

  • Jeremiah 50:11

    Because ye were glad, because ye rejoiced, O ye destroyers of mine heritage, because ye are grown fat as the heifer at grass, and bellow as bulls;

  • Numbers 24:8

    God brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn: he shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall break their bones, and pierce them through with his arrows.

  • Job 39:9-10

    Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib? Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee?

  • Psalms 92:10

    But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.

  • Deuteronomy 33:17

    His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh.

  • Jeremiah 46:21

    Also her hired men are in the midst of her like fatted bullocks; for they also are turned back, and are fled away together: they did not stand, because the day of their calamity was come upon them, and the time of their visitation.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
unicorns. or, rhinoceroses.
Nu 23:22; 24:8; De 33:17; Job 39:9,10; Ps 92:10
the bullocks.
Ps 68:30; Jer 46:21; 50:11,27
soaked. or, drunken.
3

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Isaiah 34:6

    The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for the Lord hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea.

  • Isaiah 34:7

    And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.

  • Isaiah 34:8

    For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.

Read all of Isaiah 34

Isaiah 34:7 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		Y con ellos vendrán abajo unicornios, y toros con becerros; y su tierra se embriagará de sangre, y su polvo se engrasará de grosura.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		Et les buffles descendront avec eux, et les jeunes bœufs avec les taureaux; et leur pays sera trempé de sang, et leur poussière sera engraissée de graisse.
German
Elberfelder 1871		Und Büffel stürzen mit ihnen hin, und Farren samt Stieren; und ihr Land wird trunken von Blut, und ihr Staub von Fett getränkt.
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		Et descendent unicornes cum eis, et tauri cum potentibus; inebriabitur terra eorum sanguine, et humus eorum adipe pinguium.