Bible Strands
Isaiah 34:3
Their slain will be left unburied, and the stench of their corpses will rise; the mountains will flow with their blood.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The prophet speaks for the LORD against all nations and their armies at the moment of divine judgment, immediately following the declaration that God will devote them to slaughter.
The words — The Hebrew יֻשְׁלָ֔כוּ (yush.La.khu) means "they will be thrown out," and בָאְשָׁם (va.'e.Sha/m) translates to "their stench," marking the unburied state and rising odor of the dead.
The thread — This judgment motif appears in Isaiah 34:7, where the land is drenched with blood, and Ezekiel 39:4, where defeated troops fall on mountains to become food for scavengers.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that divine wrath leaves no honor for the defeated, requiring readers to confront the absolute finality of God’s judgment on rebellious powers.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood.
Cross-references
- Joel 2:20 The northern army I will drive away from you, banishing it to a barren and desolate land, its front ranks into the Eastern Sea, and its rear guard into the Western Sea. And its stench will rise; its foul odor will ascend. For He has done great things.
- Isaiah 34:7 And 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.
- Ezekiel 39:4 On the mountains of Israel you will fall—you and all your troops and the nations with you. I will give you as food to every kind of ravenous bird and wild beast.
- 2 Kings 9:35 But when they went out to bury her, they found nothing but her skull, her feet, and the palms of her hands.
- Isaiah 14:19 But you are cast out of your grave like a rejected branch, covered by those slain with the sword, and dumped into a rocky pit like a carcass trampled underfoot.
- Jeremiah 8:1 “At that time,” declares the LORD, “the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of the officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the people of Jerusalem will be removed from their graves.
- Jeremiah 22:19 He will be buried like a donkey, dragged away and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem.
- Ezekiel 14:19 Or if I send a plague into that land and pour out My wrath upon it through bloodshed, cutting off from it both man and beast,
- Ezekiel 32:5 I will put your flesh on the mountains and fill the valleys with your remains.
- Ezekiel 35:6 therefore as surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, I will give you over to bloodshed and it will pursue you. Since you did not hate bloodshed, it will pursue you.