Isaiah 34:3

Isa 34:3 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.

Ver. 3. Their slain also shall be cast out.] Buried with the burial of an ass, {Jer 22:19} which Cicero somewhere calleth sepulturam insepultam and unburied grave. This may also befall such as for God’s sake are slain all the day long; but to them it is no such judgment: Coelo tegitur qui caret urna.

And their stink shall come up out of their carcases.] They stink alive as goats, as whited tombs, as walking dunghills; and now their dead carcases also shall stink above ground.

And the mountains shall be melted with their blood.] Iuste omnino, because they moistened the earth with the blood of God’s people, and dunged the land with their dead carcases.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

34:3 It was a disgrace for a corpse to remain unburied.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

cast out--unburied (Isa 14:19).

melted--washed away as with a descending torrent.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

3. Cf. Joe_2:20; Amo_4:10.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Their slain also shall be cast out,.... Upon the open fields, and there lie unburied, and become meat for the fowls of heaven, who are invited to them as to a supper, even the supper of the great God, Rev 19:17,

and their stink shall come up out of their carcasses; so that they shall become loathsome and abominable to the living, and none shall care to come near thereto bury them; an emblem of their loathsome and abominable sins, the cause of this destruction:

and the mountains shall be melted with their blood; an hyperbolical expression, denoting the great number of the slain upon the mountains, and the great quantity of blood shed there; which should run down in large streams, and carry part of them along with it, as large and hasty showers of rain wash away the earth, and carry it along with them; such an hyperbole see in Rev 14:20.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Their slain also shall be cast out - They would lie unburied. The slaughter Would be so extensive, and the desolation would be so entire, that there would not remain enough to bury the dead (compare the notes at Isa 14:19).

And the mountains shall be melted with their blood - The expression here is evidently hyperbolical, and means that as mountains and hills are wasted away by descending showers and impetuous torrents, so the hills would be washed away by the vast quantity of blood that would be shed by the anger of Yahweh.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Shall be cast out into the fields, where they shall lie unburied, and be left for a prey to all ravenous birds and beasts; whereby he implies, either the vast numbers which shall be slain, so as they could not have time or place to bury them; or the curse of God upon them, and the people’s contempt and abhorrency of them.

The mountains about Jerusalem, where they are supposed to be gathered to fight against Jerusalem, as the Assyrians now were, and as other enemies afterward would be, Zec 12:2; 14:2.

Shall be melted with their blood; shall be filled with their blood, which shall run down abundantly from the mountains with great force, and dissolve and carry down part of the earth of the mountains with it, as great showers of rain frequently do.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Cast out; i.e. refused burial thrown to the dogs and vultures. (Jer_22:19 Jer_36:30) Such treatment of the dead was regarded as a shame and a disgrace. It was on some occasions an intentional insult; (Jer_22:19) but here the idea is rather that it would be impossible to bury the slain on account of their number. In ancient times corpses often lay unburied on battle-fields (Herod., 3:12). The mountains shall be molted with their blood. When the feelings of the prophet are excited, he shrinks from no hyperbole. Here he represents the blood of God"s enemies as shed in such torrents that mountains are melted by it.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Cast out - Into the fields.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

“And their slain shall be cast out.” The Hebrew word strictly means-their wounded, but usage gives it the specific sense of wounded mortally, and for the most part in battle. Cast out (i.e., unburied). This suggests the several ideas of contemptuous neglect, of a multitude too vast to be interred, and perhaps of survivors too few to perform the duty. (Compare Isa 14:18-20). They shall not lie unburied merely for a time, but until they rot upon the ground. “And (as to) their corpses (or carcasses), their stench shall go up. And mountains shall be melted with (or by) their blood,” as they are sometimes washed away by rains or torrents.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Prophecies of Isaiah (1846–1847; New York: Scribner, 1870–1878) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The bodies of their dead will be thrown out

This can be stated in active form. AT: "No one will bury their dead" (See: Active or Passive)

their dead

This refers to the dead people. AT: "those who died" (See: Nominal Adjectives)

the mountains will soak up their blood

"the mountains will be covered in their blood"

the sky will be rolled up like a scroll

This can be stated in active form. This compares what Yahweh will do to the sky to a person rolling up a scroll. AT: "Yahweh will roll up the sky in the same way that a person rolls up a scroll" (See: Active or Passive and Simile)

all their stars will fade away, as the leaf fades from off the vine, and as the overripe figs from the fig tree

This emphasizes even the things in the sky that people thought would be there forever will fall as easily as a leaf. AT: "all the stars will fall from the sky like a leaf falls from a vine or a fig falls from a tree" (See: Simile)

translationWords

blood

scroll

vine

fig

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

באשם Their stink. It is a noun derived from באש after the form of קׂדֶשׁ holiness.

ונמסו And shall be melted. Niphal of מסס to melt.

Ibn Ezra on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Yalkut, Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009” (CC BY 4.0); and “Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah - trans. by M. Friedlander, 1873” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.