Isaiah 34:12
in Isaiah 34No nobles will be left to proclaim a king, and all her princes will come to nothing.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there; and all its princes shall be nothing.
KJV
They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing.
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This verse in Isaiah 34
Commentary
7 notes on this verseA commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Rather, "As to her nobles, there shall be none there who shall declare a kingdom," that is, a king [MAURER]; or else, "There shall be no one there whom they shall call to the kingdom" [ROSENMULLER] (Isa 3:6, &c.). Idumea was at first governed by dukes (Ge 36:15); out of them the king wan chosen when the constitution became a monarchy.
This site's exposition
call the nobles thereof to the kingdom
on Isaiah 34:12-15
The kingdom's ruling class is gone: they shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing, thorns and nettles standing where palaces stood. The wild beasts of the desert meet the wild beasts of the island there, the satyr cries to his fellow, and the screech owl and the great owl make their nests and hatch their young undisturbed, every creature finding its mate in a land no man contests. Clarke and Wesley both take the catalogue of unclean birds and beasts as the covenant curses of Leviticus and Deuteronomy landing on the ground once occupied by Israel's oldest rival.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(Verses 8 and following) For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, the year of retribution in the judgment of Zion. Its streams will be turned into pitch, and its soil into sulfur; its land will become burning pitch. Night and day it will not be extinguished; its smoke will go up forever. From generation to generation it will lie desolate; no one will pass through it forever. The pelican and the hedgehog will possess it, the owl and the raven will dwell in it.
The Medieval Church1 voice
Second, he sets out the fairness of the desolation, and first, the judgment of fairness: and a line shall be stretched upon it, the measure of the punishment against the measure of their fault, a plummet, the rule of the stone-cutter, above: in measure against …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
): They shall call the nobles of the kingdom to take care of the arduous affairs which lie before them, but none shall be there to take this ruin under their hand, and all her princes, having the sad tidings brought them, shall be nothing, shall be at their wits' end, and not be able to stand them in stead, to shelter them from destruction.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there,.... They shall call them to take upon them the kingdom and government, and there shall be none to do it, or that will care to do it; or rather there will be no kingdom to take unto them.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom - A more correct rendering of this would be, ‘As to the nobles, they shall call them, but there shall be there no kingdom.’ The idea is, that the kingdom would be desolate; there would be no people to rule. Or, there will be no nobles there who shall survive the destruction, and who can undertake the government of the state. The idea is taken from a government or constitution where the monarch is chosen from the ranks of the nobility.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
As for its nobles, there are none who proclaim the kingdom Its princes stand, and none of them calls upon himself the name of ruling and kingdom.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
And its palaces shall grow thorns So is the nature of ruins to grow thorns and briers, and that is ‘kimosh’ and that is ‘choach’; they are all types of thorns, e.g., ortias, (nettles,) and the like.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
9 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| חֹרֶ֥יהָ | choreiha | nobles its | H2715 → | |
| וְאֵֽין־ | veein- | and there not | H369 → | 789 times |
| שָׁ֖ם | sham | there | H8033 → | 834 times |
| מְלוּכָ֣ה | melukhah | [will be that which] a kingship | H4410 → | |
| יִקְרָ֑אוּ | yikrau | people will call | H7121 → | 733 times |
| וְכָל־ | vekhol | and all | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| שָׂרֶ֖יהָ | sareiha | princes its | H8269 → | 421 times |
| יִ֥הְיוּ | yihyu | they will be | H1961 → | 3559 times |
| אָֽפֶס׃ | ʾafes | nothing | H657 → | 44 times |
חֹרֶ֥יהָnobles its
choreihaH2715 →
וְאֵֽין־and there not
veein-H369 →789 times
שָׁ֖םthere
shamH8033 →834 times
מְלוּכָ֣ה[will be that which] a kingship
melukhahH4410 →
יִקְרָ֑אוּpeople will call
yikrauH7121 →733 times
וְכָל־and all
vekholH3605 →5413 times
שָׂרֶ֖יהָprinces its
sareihaH8269 →421 times
יִ֥הְיוּthey will be
yihyuH1961 →3559 times
אָֽפֶס׃nothing
ʾafesH657 →44 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
1 Corinthians 13:2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
it leads to
- 1 John 4:8
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
- 1 Corinthians 13:3
If I give all I possess to the poor and exult in the surrender of my body, but have not love, I gain nothing.
- 1 John 4:20–21
If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.
- Matthew 17:20
“Because you have so little faith,” He answered. “For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’…
- Matthew 21:21
“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain,…
- 1 John 4:8
Through
1 Corinthians 8:4So about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world, and that there is no God but one.
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 4:39
Know therefore this day and take to heart that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other.
- Ephesians 4:6
one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
- Deuteronomy 6:4
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One.
- Deuteronomy 4:39
About Isaiah
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.