John Gill Commentary Isaiah 34:15

John Gill Commentary

Isaiah 34:15

1697–1771
Reformed Baptist
John Gill
John Gill

John Gill Commentary

Isaiah 34:15

1697–1771
Reformed Baptist
SCRIPTURE

"There shall the dart-snake make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shade; yea, there shall the kites be gathered, every one with her mate." — Isaiah 34:15 (ASV)

There shall the great owl make her nest
Jarchi, Kimchi, and Ben Melech, say that "kippoz" here is the same with "kippod", rendered "bittern" in (Isaiah 34:11) but Aben Ezra takes them to be two different birds; it is hard to say what is designed by it. Bochart thinks that one kind of serpent is here meant, so called from its leaping up, and which may be said to make nests, lay eggs and hatch them, as follows:

and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow ;
lay its eggs, sit upon them, and hatch them; or "break" them F21 , that is, the eggs, by sitting on them, when the young ones spring out of them. Then, being hatched and running about, they gather them under their wing, especially when in any danger:

there shall the vultures also be gathered, everyone with her mate ;
which creatures usually gather together where dead carcasses lie.


FOOTNOTES:

  • F21: (heqby) "et scindet", Pagninus, Montanus; "rumpet", Vatablus; "quumque eruperit", Junius & Tremellius, i.e. "pullities", so Ben Melech.