The Meaning of Isaiah 34:8 Explained

Isaiah 34:8

KJV: For it is the day of the LORD'S vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.

YLT: (For a day of vengeance is to Jehovah, A year of recompences for Zion's strife,)

Darby: For it is the day of Jehovah's vengeance, the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion.

ASV: For Jehovah hath a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

For [it is] the day  of the LORD'S  vengeance,  [and] the year  of recompences  for the controversy  of Zion. 

What does Isaiah 34:8 Mean?

Verse Meaning

A fourth reason for this slaughter is that the Lord will take vengeance on those who have trodden down Zion. He will act for His people against those who have cursed them (cf. Genesis 12:3). Even though we do not know when this will happen, God has a timetable for this judgment and will keep to it.

Context Summary

Isaiah 34:1-17 - Reaping The Whirlwind
This chapter is one prolonged description of the judgments which were to befall the nations at the hand of Assyria and Babylon. The imagery employed is borrowed from the destruction of the cities of the plain. Streams of pitch; dust of brimstone; the ever-ascending smoke of a furnace; the scream of the eagle, hawk, and owl; the invasion of palaces by the thistle; the howl of the wolf; the call of the jackal; the arrow-snakes nest; the kite with its mate-such are the illustrations employed to depict the scorching desolations which were impending. Edom is especially mentioned as suffering these awful desolations because of her long-standing hatred of Israel. See Psalms 137:7; Ezekiel 36:5; Lamentations 4:21-22. These terrible and graphic predictions have been literally fulfilled, but they foreshadow those further and eternal disasters which must overtake willful and designed rejection of the divine purposes and laws. Are not all nations at this hour standing before the Son of man and being judged? See Matthew 25:31. [source]

Chapter Summary: Isaiah 34

1  The judgments wherewith God revenges his church
11  The desolation of her enemies
16  The certainty of the prophecy

What do the individual words in Isaiah 34:8 mean?

For [it is] the day vengeance of Yahweh the year of recompense for the cause of Zion
כִּ֛י י֥וֹם נָקָ֖ם לַֽיהוָ֑ה שְׁנַ֥ת שִׁלּוּמִ֖ים לְרִ֥יב צִיּֽוֹן

י֥וֹם  [it  is]  the  day 
Parse: Noun, masculine singular construct
Root: יׄום 
Sense: day, time, year.
נָקָ֖ם  vengeance 
Parse: Noun, masculine singular
Root: נָקָם  
Sense: vengeance.
לַֽיהוָ֑ה  of  Yahweh 
Parse: Preposition-l, Proper Noun, masculine singular
Root: יהוה 
Sense: the proper name of the one true God.
שְׁנַ֥ת  the  year 
Parse: Noun, feminine singular construct
Root: שָׁנָה  
Sense: year.
שִׁלּוּמִ֖ים  of  recompense 
Parse: Noun, masculine plural
Root: שִׁלּוּם  
Sense: requital, reward.
לְרִ֥יב  for  the  cause 
Parse: Preposition-l, Noun, masculine singular construct
Root: רִיב 
Sense: strife, controversy, dispute.
צִיּֽוֹן  of  Zion 
Parse: Proper Noun, feminine singular
Root: צִיּׄון  
Sense: another name for Jerusalem especially in the prophetic books.