βCome near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it. all that: Heb. the fulness thereofβ
Come. Both Gentiles and Jews are admonished of the worldβs end before judgment. (Worthington)
βAnd all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.β
Away. These strong expressions denote great misery, chap. xiii., and Joel ii. 10., and Ezechiel xxxii. 27. (Calmet) β Book. Hebrew, βroll.β (Haydock) β Some thence foolishly inferred that the destiny of every one might be read in the heavens. (Huet.; Eusebius, prΔp. vi. 11.; Philoo. xxiii.; Pic. Astrol. viii. 5.) β The prophet only means that the heavens shall be devoid of beauty, (Calmet) and covered with darkness. (Haydock)
βFor my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment.β
Heaven. Casting down the rebel angels. (St. Jerome) β The resolution to destroy the Idumeans, for their cruelty to the Jews, has been taken long ago. All these expressions allude to the last judgment. (Calmet) β Idumea. Under the name of Idumea or Edom, a people that were enemies of the Jews, are here understood the wicked in general, the enemies of God and his Church. (Challoner) β Assaradon fell upon Edom two years after Sennacheribβs death. (Calmet) β No strong place like Bosra, shall rescue any from destruction at the last day. (Worthington)
βAnd 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. unicorns: or, rhinocerots soaked: or, drunkenβ
The unicorns. That is, the great and mighty. (Challoner)
βFor it is the day of the LORD'S vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.β
Recompenses. When the persecutors of Sion, that is, of the Church, shall receive their reward. (Challoner) β The Idumeans had frequently shown their ill-will towards the Jews, 2 Paralipomenon xxviii. 17., and Amos i. 11. (Calmet) β Sion shall perish as the wicked in hell shall be tormented. (Worthington)
βAnd the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.β
Pitch. The soil was sulphureous, and became neglected, (ver. 10.) like the territory of Sodom. The people are now no more, and only a few miserable Arabs pitch their tents there.
βBut the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness. cormorant: or, pelicanβ
Line. Intimating entire destruction, Lamentations ii. 8., and 4 Kings xi. 13. (Calmet) β Yet God will not punish more than people deserve. (Menochius)
βAnd thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls . owls: or, ostriches: Heb. daughters of the owlβ
Dragons, Thannim, chap. xiii. 22. (Haydock) β Ostriches, or swans.
βThe wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest. The wilddesert: Heb. Ziim the wildisland: Heb. Ijim screech: or, night monsterβ
Monsters. Literally, βAss-centaurs.β (Haydock) β Hebrew, βfishermen shall find islands,β chap. xiii. 21. β Ones. Goats. β Lamia. Hebrew lilith. Chaldean, βowl,β the bird of Minerva, or the Moon, which the Arabs style Alilat. (Calmet) β Dicodorus (20) relates that Lamia was an African queen, who having last her children, was changed into a beast, and destroyed all the children she could catch; and the Jews deal still more in fables, (Calmet0 asserting that Lilith was the first wife of Adam, &c. (Buxtorf. Syn. 2.)
βThere shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate.β
Ericius. Hebrew, βkippoz, (Haydock) hath its nest.β It may denote the serpent, acontias. (Bochart) β All this shews the desolation of the country.
βSeek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them.β
Read what I have written. β The other. All these beasts will be there, (Calmet) or all these declarations will be verified. (Haydock)