The Meaning of Isaiah 34:3 Explained

Isaiah 34:3

KJV: 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.

YLT: And their wounded are cast out, And their carcases cause their stench to ascend, And melted have been mountains from their blood.

Darby: And their slain shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up from their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood.

ASV: Their slain also shall be cast out, and the stench of their dead bodies shall come up; and the mountains shall be melted with their blood.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

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. 

What does Isaiah 34:3 Mean?

Verse Meaning

The blood of the slain nations will stink and soak the mountains of the earth in such quantities that they run red. Unburied corpses were, and still are, shameful things (cf. Ezekiel 39; Revelation 19:17-18).

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 34:3 mean?

And their slain shall be thrown out and from their corpses shall rise their stench and shall be melted the mountains with their blood
וְחַלְלֵיהֶ֣ם יֻשְׁלָ֔כוּ וּפִגְרֵיהֶ֖ם יַעֲלֶ֣ה בָאְשָׁ֑ם וְנָמַ֥סּוּ הָרִ֖ים מִדָּמָֽם

וְחַלְלֵיהֶ֣ם  And  their  slain 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Noun, masculine plural construct, third person masculine plural
Root: חָלָל 
Sense: slain, fatally wounded, pierced.
יֻשְׁלָ֔כוּ  shall  be  thrown  out 
Parse: Verb, Hofal, Imperfect, third person masculine plural
Root: שָׁלַךְ  
Sense: to throw, cast, hurl, fling.
וּפִגְרֵיהֶ֖ם  and  from  their  corpses 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Noun, masculine plural construct, third person masculine plural
Root: פֶּגֶר  
Sense: corpse, carcass, monument, stela.
יַעֲלֶ֣ה  shall  rise 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Imperfect, third person masculine singular
Root: סָלַק 
Sense: to go up, ascend, climb.
בָאְשָׁ֑ם  their  stench 
Parse: Noun, masculine singular construct, third person masculine plural
Root: בְּאֹשׁ  
Sense: stench, foul odour.
וְנָמַ֥סּוּ  and  shall  be  melted 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Verb, Nifal, Conjunctive perfect, third person common plural
Root: מָסַס  
Sense: to dissolve, melt.
הָרִ֖ים  the  mountains 
Parse: Noun, masculine plural
Root: הַר  
Sense: hill, mountain, hill country, mount.
מִדָּמָֽם  with  their  blood 
Parse: Preposition-m, Noun, masculine singular construct, third person masculine plural
Root: דָּם  
Sense: blood.