Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
I will also make it a possession for the bittern - The word ' bittern,' in English, means a bird with long legs and neck, that stalks among reeds and sedge, feeding upon fish. The Hebrew word ( qı̂ppod ), occurs but five times Isaiah 34:11; Zephaniah 2:14. According to Bochart and Gesenius, it means the hedgehog. It has been variously rendered. Some have supposed it to be a land animal; some an aquatic animal; and most have regarded it as a fowl. Bochart has proved that the hedgehog or porcupine is found on the shores of the Euphrates. He translates this place, ' I will place Babylon for an habitation of the porcupine, even the pools of water;' that is, the pools that are round about Babylon shall become so dry that porcupines may dwell there (see Bochart, "Hieroz." iii. 36. pp. 1036-1042).
And pools of water - Bochart supposes this means, even the pools of water shall become dry. But the common interpretation is to be preferred, that Babylon itself should become filled with pools of water. This was done by Cyrus' directing the waters of the Euphrates from their channel when the city was taken, and by the fact that the waters never returned again to their natural bed, so that the region was overflowed with water (see the notes at Isa. 13.)
And I will sweep it with the besom of destruction - A besom is a broom; and the sense here is, that God would entirely destroy Babylon, and render it wholly uninbabitable.
Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Isaiah 14:23:
Isaiah 34:11
Isaiah 34:11
Revelation 18:2
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