Bible Strands
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.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Isaiah pronounces this oracle against Edom, marking the moment when the LORD's day of vengeance and year of recompense are executed. The declaration follows the description of a great slaughter in Bozrah where divine judgment is carried out.
The words — The Hebrew רְאֵמִים (re'emim) translates literally to wild oxen, and אַבּירִים (abhirim) means mighty or strong bulls. The text states these powerful animals will fall alongside human combatants, emphasizing the scale of the coming defeat.
The thread — Wild oxen and bulls appear in Numbers 23:22 and Psalm 68:30 as symbols of national strength, while Jeremiah 50:27 commands the slaughter of young bulls as judgment. Isaiah 34:7 repurposes these motifs to show that even the strongest creatures will be consumed in the same judgment.
Why it lands — The passage requires the reader to acknowledge that human or animal power cannot avert the LORD's appointed recompense. It demands a clear-eyed acceptance that divine justice operates without regard to earthly strength or defense.
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
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.
Cross-references
- Numbers 23:22 God brought them out of Egypt with strength like a wild ox.
- Psalms 68:30 Rebuke the beast in the reeds, the herd of bulls among the calves of the nations, until it submits, bringing bars of silver. Scatter the nations who delight in war.
- Jeremiah 50:27 Kill all her young bulls; let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them, for their day has come—the time of their punishment.
- Numbers 24:8 God brought him out of Egypt with strength like a wild ox, to devour hostile nations and crush their bones, to pierce them with arrows.
- Deuteronomy 33:17 His majesty is like a firstborn bull, and his horns are like those of a wild ox. With them he will gore the nations, even to the ends of the earth. Such are the myriads of Ephraim, and such are the thousands of Manasseh.”
- Job 39:9 Will the wild ox consent to serve you? Will he stay by your manger at night?
- Psalms 92:10 But You have exalted my horn like that of a wild ox; with fine oil I have been anointed.
- Jeremiah 46:21 Even the mercenaries among her are like fattened calves. They too will turn back; together they will flee, they will not stand their ground, for the day of calamity is coming upon them—the time of their punishment.
- Jeremiah 50:11 “Because you rejoice, because you sing in triumph—you who plunder My inheritance—because you frolic like a heifer treading grain and neigh like stallions,