| Geneva Study Bible And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts of the nations: both the {h} cormorant and the bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it; their voice shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be in the thresholds: for he shall uncover the cedar work. (h) Read Isa 34:11 Wesley's Notes 2:14 All the beasts - All sorts of beasts which are found in those countries. The bittern - A bird that delights in desolate places. King James Translators' Notes cormorant: or, pelican upper...: or, knops, or, chapiters for...: or, when he hath uncovered Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary 14. flocks-of sheep; answering to "beasts" in the parallel clause. Wide pastures for sheep and haunts for wild beasts shall be where once there was a teeming population (compare Zep 2:6). Maurer, needlessly for the parallelism, makes it "flocks of savage animals." beasts of the nations-that is, beasts of the earth (Ge 1:24). Not as Rosenmuller, "all kinds of beasts that form a nation," that is, gregarious beasts (Pr 30:25, 26). cormorant-rather, the "pelican" (so Ps 102:6; Isa 34:11, Margin). bittern-(Isa 14:23). Maurer translates, "the hedgehog"; Henderson, "the porcupine." upper lintels-rather, "the capitals of her columns," namely, in her temples and palaces [Maurer]. Or, "on the pomegranate-like knops at the tops of the houses" [Grotius]. their voice shall sing in the windows-The desert-frequenting birds' "voice in the windows" implies desolation reigning in the upper parts of the palaces, answering to "desolation . in the thresholds," that is, in the lower. he shall uncover the cedar work-laying the cedar wainscoting on the walls, and beams of the ceiling, bare to wind and rain, the roof being torn off, and the windows and doors broken through. All this is designed as a consolation to the Jews that they may bear their calamities patiently, knowing that God will avenge them. Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 2:4-15 Those are really in a woful condition who have the word of the Lord against them, for no word of his shall fall to the ground. God will restore his people to their rights, though long kept from them. It has been the common lot of God's people, in all ages, to be reproached and reviled. God shall be worshipped, not only by all Israel, and the strangers who join them, but by the heathen. Remote nations must be reckoned with for the wrongs done to God's people. The sufferings of the insolent and haughty in prosperity, are unpitied and unlamented. But all the desolations of flourishing nations will make way for the overturning Satan's kingdom. Let us improve our advantages, and expect the performance of every promise, praying that our Father's name may be hallowed every where, over all the earth. | 
