• Table of Contents
  • What you must know to read and understand this book
  • Introduction
  • Chapter 1: The Purpose of this Book
  • Chapter 2: The Dead Sea Scrolls Textual Variant
  • Chapter 3: The Dead Sea Scrolls Variant Points to the Old Testament Sacrifices
  • Chapter 4: The Second Coming Fulfills the Old Testament Sacrifices
  • Chapter 5: The Wicked are a Sacrifice
  • Chapter 6: The Meaning of the Sacrifice Symbolism in Isaiah 34
  • Chapter 7: Additional Hard Stops for the Duration of Punishment
  • Chapter 8: The End of the Wicked is Ashes Outside the City, Not Endless Torment
  • Chapter 9: The Wicked of the Sea are No More
  • Chapter 10: More "αἰῶνας αἰώνων" Pointers to Ashes, Dead Souls, and Second Coming Judgment
  • Chapter 11: Hell is Made Holy and Poetic Justice is Served
  • Chapter 12: The Language of Action with Endless Results and Finite Duration
  • Chapter 13: Final Interpretation and Checking the Answer in the Back of the Book
  • Glossary
  • Bibliography

Hell is Made Holy

How the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Book of Revelation show that the wicked and hell cease to exist

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Over 75 Free Online Bible Commentaries

By David Aaron Beaty

Visit author’s web site at www.davidaaronbeaty.com

Chapter 2

The Dead Sea Scrolls Textual Variant

As you may know, the phrases and wording used in Revelation 14:10-11, Revelation 20:10, and even in Revelation’s treatment of the destruction of Babylon in Revelation 19:2-3 all point^G to the same wording as it is used in Isaiah 34. This may not be readily obvious, but it is due to the fact that all three of Revelation 14:10-11, Revelation 20:10, and Revelation 19:2-3 share common language with each other. The three are bound together in this way. Because of this, if one or even two of them has language which points^G to Isaiah 34, this in some sense makes all three of them point^G to Isaiah 34. See all three Revelation passages and Isaiah 34:10 below to recognize the shared language of the three which binds them together as a group and causes all three of them to point^G to Isaiah 34:10:

[Isaiah 34:9-11 WEB] 9 Its streams will be turned into pitch, its dust into sulfur, and its land will become burning pitch. 10 It won’t be quenched night or day. Its smoke will go up forever. From generation to generation, it will lie waste. No one will pass through it forever and ever. 11 But the pelican and the porcupine will possess it. The owl and the raven will dwell in it. He will stretch the line of confusion over it, and the plumb line of emptiness.

[Revelation 14:9-11 WEB] 9 Another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a great voice, "If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead, or on his hand, 10 he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is prepared unmixed in the cup of his anger. He will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. They have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.

[Revelation 19:2-3 WEB] 2 for his judgments are true and righteous. For he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality, and he has avenged the blood of his servants at her hand." 3 A second said, "Hallelujah! Her smoke goes up forever and ever. "

[Revelation 20:10 BSB] 10 And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, into which the beast and the false prophet had already been thrown. There they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

As you can see, all three passages have some combination of two or more of the following elements: fire and sulfur, torment, smoke goes up, forever and ever, day and night. This binds the three passages together. Jesus further binds the three passages above together by telling us that the judgment of wicked people will in some way be like the judgment of the devil and his fallen angels. So in some sense Jesus is saying that Revelation 14:10-11 and Revelation 20:10 are talking about something similar:

[Matthew 25:41 WEB] Then he will say also to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels;

In Revelation John even further binds together and associates the judgment of the wicked in Revelation 14:10-11 and the judgment of satan in Revelation 20:10, by using a two-step maneuver. In the first step he gives us a very strong indicator that the fire and sulfur and the smoke of their torment going up forever and ever described in Revelation 14:10-11 won't actually happen to wicked people until after the millennium in Revelation 20. John accomplishes the second step further on in Revelation 20 by describing the post-millennial judgment of the wicked using the literary bridge, "lake of fire" to describe the judgment of the wicked as being similar to the judgment of satan. John reveals that both satan and wicked people will be thrown into the same place, the "lake of fire". This two-step maneuver binds together and similarizes the judgment of the wicked in Revelation 14:10-11 and the Judgment of satan in Revelation 20:10. The first step of the two-step maneuver is described in the Revelation 19 passage below. There John seems to be saying that antichrist's army in the

pre-millennial battle of Armageddon are not yet thrown into the lake of fire at their pre-millennial defeat. They are simply killed with the sword coming out of Jesus mouth at the battle of Armageddon at Jesus' second coming. Recall that these are very likely those who have taken the mark of the beast as described in Revelation 14:10-11:

[Revelation 19:19-21 WEB] 19 I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him who sat on the horse, and against his army. 20 The beast was taken, and with him the false prophet who worked the signs in his sight, with which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. 21 The rest were killed with the sword of him who sat on the horse, the sword which came out of his mouth. So all the birds were filled with their flesh.

And then here in Revelation 20 below we very likely see the post-millennial resurrection and judgment of the beast marked evil army of Armageddon that were only killed with Jesus' sword in the pre-millennial passage above:

[Revelation 20:7-15 BSB] 7 When the thousand years are complete, satan will be released from his prison, 8 and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth— Gog and Magog—to assemble them for battle. Their number is like the sand of the seashore. 9 And they marched across the broad expanse of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. But fire came down from heaven and consumed them. 10 And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur,into which the beast and the false prophet had already been thrown. There they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. 11 Then I saw a great white throne and the One seated on it. Earth and heaven fled from His presence, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. And there were open books, and one of them was the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their deeds, as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up its dead, and Death and Hades gave up their dead, and each one was judged according to his deeds. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death—the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone was found whose name was not written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Notice in the Revelation 20 passage above how the "lake of fire" in verses 10 and 15 further connects the judgment of wicked people with the judgment of satan. This is the second step in the two-step maneuver that further binds together and similarizes the judgment of the wicked in Revelation 14:10-11 and the Judgment of satan in Revelation 20:10.

The view of Revelation 14:10-11 that I have just presented recognizes it as a two-part prophecy with one part being a prophecy for the simple pre-millennial bodily sword slaying of those who are beast marked during the tribulation, and one part being a farther future prophecy of their final Revelation 20 post-millennial judgment in the lake of fire when they are resurrected. See the two parts again labeled below:

[Revelation 14:9-11 WEB] 9 Another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a great voice, "If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead, or on his hand, 10 (Part 1) -> he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is prepared unmixed in the cup of his anger. (Part 2) -> He will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. They have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.

In support of this two-part prophecy view, we can see that within the book of Revelation there are two other places where "Part 1" labeled above, a cup of God's payback or wrath is associated with pre-millennial or second coming events. And then there is another passage in Jeremiah 25 which has the "Part 1" cup of wrath appearing again in what looks to be a worldwide, second coming, pre-millennial judgment description, similar to those described several times in Revelation. The specific references are here:

Revelation 16:13-21; Revelation 18; Jeremiah 25:15-38

Did you notice how in all this discussion of binding together and associating the descriptions of the judgment of wicked people and of satan in Revelation 14:10-11; 19:2-3; and 20:10 that the post-millennial judgment of wicked people in the lake of fire in Revelation 20:15 was also shown to be closely associated with the other three passages? The judgment of wicked people in Revelation 20:15 gets tied in and bound together with the other three passages via the "lake of fire" literary bridge as mentioned before. This in effect creates a situation where discovering a well supported interpretation^G of Revelation 14:10-11 also gives us a well supported interpretation^G of the post-millennial judgment of wicked people in Revelation 20:15. The two passages are describing the same thing, so to understand either is to understand both. As I mentioned previously, this same type of cross pollinated interpretation^G could also play a role between Revelation 14:10-11 and Revelation 20:10. The two are related, so understanding one will help us to understand the other. And of course, we can see now that in some way all four of Revelation 14:10-11; 19:2-3; 20:10; and 20:15 are being pointed^G as a group to Isaiah 34. So if we can understand Isaiah 34, then we will have significant progress understanding all of them. That is the goal. We will start towards that goal first by strengthening the connection between Revelation and Isaiah 34, and then we will see that there is more than meets the eye in Isaiah 34. This is especially true if we consult the Dead Sea scrolls^G.

The phrasal links between the four previously mentioned Revelation passages and Isaiah 34 are very well attested in the various different ancient forms of the Old Testament which give us evidence of the content of Isaiah which would have been in existence at the time of John’s writing of Revelation. See the passages here:

1. Masoretic text^G - as it is shown being used by the Jewish Publication Society’s Old Testament Bible entitled, "The Holy Scriptures According to the Masoretic Text":

2. [Isaiah 34:10 JPS] It shall not be quenched night nor day, The smoke thereof shall go up for ever; From generation to generation it shall lie waste: None shall pass through it for ever and ever.

3. Aramaic^G Targum^G - as it is shown in "The Aramaic Bible", volume 11, "The Isaiah Targum":

4. [Isaiah 34:10 Targum Jonathan] Night and day it shall not be quenched; its smoke shall go up for ever. From generation to generation it will be desolate; none shall pass through it forever and ever. (Chilton, 1990, Vol. 11, pg. 68)

5. Syriac Peshitta^G - as it is shown in "Holy Bible from the Ancient Eastern Text":

6. [Isaiah 34:10 LAMSA] It shall not be quenched night nor day; its smoke shall go up for ever; and it shall lie waste from generation to generation; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.

7. Latin Vulgate^G - as it is shown in the first edition 1910 translation of the Clementine Vulgate in "The Second Tome of the Holie Bible Faithfully Translated Into English, out of the Authentical Latin", also known as the "Douay Rheims Bible":

8.[Isaiah 34:10 DOUAY] Night and dayit shall not be quenched, the smoke therof shall goe up for ever: from generation unto generation it shal be desolate, there shal none passe by it world without end.

As you can see, the English translations of the various ancient versions above give us a lot of evidence that the first century AD content of Isaiah 34:10, in one or more ancient form, described burning "night and day" and "smoke going up forever". I will be delving into this much deeper later on, but I will say here that scholarship such as that found in the 2011 book "The Targums a Critical Introduction" by Paul V.M. Flesher and Bruce Chilton describes how some of the content of the Targum of Isaiah dates to before the time of the writing of the book of Revelation. I will leave it for your research, but all the other ancient versions that I show above are accepted by scholarship as providing some evidence of what the text of the Old Testament was in the first century AD. And now we have come to the place in the evidence where the Dead Sea scrolls^G are useful to discuss. "The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible" by Martin Abegg Jr., Peter Flint, and Eugene Ulrich is an English translation of the ancient biblical manuscripts^G found in the Dead Sea caves. Pertaining to Isaiah 34:9-10 they have placed the important note that I show below in between the lines of their translation:

"From the end of verse 9 through the end of verse 10 the punctuation of 1QIsaa shows that the series of clauses was intentionally divided in a way different from that chosen in the Masoretic Text."

Their translation of Isaiah 34:9-10, which follows, shows how the phenomena described in the note above impacts the content of the verse. See their translation of Isaiah 34:9-12 from the Great Isaiah Scroll^G, 1QIsaa, below and then an English translation of the Masoretic text^G just below that for comparison:

[Isaiah 34:9-12 DSSB Dead Sea scrolls] 9 It streams will be turned into pitch, and its soil into sulfur, and its land will become pitch. 10 It will burn night and day and will never be extinguished. Its smoke will go up from generation to generation, and it will lie waste forever and ever. No one will pass through it. 11 The Pelican and the porcupine will possess it, and the owl and the raven will dwell in it. Over it he will stretch a line, and chaos, and plumb lines of emptiness, and its nobles. 12 They will call it No Kingdom there, and all its princes will be nothing.

[Isaiah 34:9-12 NASB20 Masoretic] 9 Its streams will be turned into pitch, And its loose earth into brimstone, And its land will become burning pitch. 10 It will not be extinguished night or day; Its smoke will go up forever. From generation to generation it will be desolate; None will pass through it forever and ever. 11 But pelican and hedgehog will possess it,

And owl and raven will dwell in it; And He will stretch over it the line of desolation And the plumb line of emptiness. 12 Its nobles--there is no one there Whom they may proclaim king-- And all its officials will be nothing.

Do the phrases, "It will burn night and day", "will never be extinguished", "Its smoke will go up from generation to generation" from the Dead Sea scrolls^G version far above sound anything like a short description of the Old Testament continual morning and evening regular sacrifices^G, also known as the "burnt offering", in Exodus 29:38-46; Leviticus 6:8-18; and Numbers 28:1-8? If so, maybe this sheds some light on the meaning of Revelation 14:10-11; 19:3; 20:10; & 20:15? The note just shown from "The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible" far above refers to "punctuation". Of course though, we can see from actually looking at Isaiah 34:9-12 in the ancient parchment manuscript^G of the Great Isaiah Scroll^G (also called "1QIsaa") from Cave 1 of the Dead Sea scrolls^G, there are virtually no punctuation marks used, as we would think of them. The Great Isaiah Scroll^G has spacing between words, but no punctuation. As of December 2023, photographs of the entirety of the scroll can be viewed at the web address of "The Israel Museum, Jerusalem" below to see the lack of punctuation, or it can be viewed in the 1974 book "Scrolls From Qumran Cave I, The Great Isaiah Scroll, The Order of the Community, The Pesher to Habakkuk":

http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/isaiah

One big clue we have to gain just a basic understanding of the note found in the book, "The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible" regarding "punctuation" is the fact that several additional, but very important, Hebrew Vav letters appear in the dead sea scrolls^G text of Isaiah 34:9-10, Scroll 1QIsaa, which do not appear in the Masoretic text^G. The Hebrew letter Vav is frequently used to represent our English word "and". Inserting "and"/Vav can be a way to help distinguish the end of one thought and the beginning of another in the flow of a Hebrew narrative. It is used somewhat like we would use a period to mark the end of a sentence. If we compare the electronic transcriptions^G of the Masoretic text^G of Isaiah 34:9-10 and the text of Scroll 1QIsaa, we can see where these important additional letters Vav appear in Scroll 1QIsaa versus their absence in the Masoretic text. I am showing both the electronic transcriptions^G for comparison on the next few pages. Remember to read backwards from right to left like a Hebrew as these transcriptions are in the forward Interlinear^G format:

(It also may be important to note here that the book LDSSIB, "The Lexham Dead Sea Scrolls Hebrew-English interlinear Bible", from which the Hebrew passage above is taken, reveals to us that none of all the numerous different Isaiah manuscripts^G found at the Dead Sea caves, as of the publishing of the 2016 edition of "The Lexham Dead Sea Scrolls Hebrew-English interlinear Bible" have any differences in their text from what we see above in the Isaiah 34:9-10 text of the Great Isaiah Scroll^G, 1QIsaa. "The Lexham Dead Sea Scrolls Hebrew-English interlinear Bible", LDSSIB, does not reveal to us if there are any other Isaiah manuscripts^G found at the Dead Sea which specifically contain Isaiah 34:9-10. It only informs us that there were none with different text as of 2016.) The Interlinear^G English translations of the Masoretic text and 1QIsaa which I have just shown above are obviously not very easy to decipher due to their interlinear^G format and highly literal translation^G style. In spite of this, they do show how the four additional Hebrew letters Vav serve to insert the equivalent of three of our English word "and" which effectively bump the time modifying adverbial phrases back one clause, so to speak. All four of the time duration modifying adverbial phrases in verse 10 convert so that they each go from describing the duration of the action coming after them in the text over to describing the duration of the action coming before each of them in the text. If we clean up the interlinear^G English translations of 1QIsaa and the Masoretic text that I just showed, this becomes more evident. Below I show each interlinear translation^G with the words rearranged in our familiar left to right reading style for readability. I have also added punctuation and capitalization to help show the shift of the pairing of each adverbial phrase with the action it modifies. When you compare the two translations you can see how the adverbial phrases are shifted back in 1QIsaa, versus the Masoretic text:

[Isaiah 34:9-10 Masoretic, rearranged NASB per blueletterbible.org] 9 Will be turned Its streams into pitch, and its loose earth into brimstone, and will become its land pitch burning. 10 Night or day not It will be quenched. Forever will go up its smoke. From generation to generation it will be desolate. Forever and ever none will pass through it.

[Isaiah 34:9-10 1QIsaa LDSSIB, Dead Sea scrolls] And·they will be overturned wadis·her to·pitch, and·dust·her to·sulfur, and·she will be land·her to·pitch. And·burner night and·by day, and·not she will be extinguished to·eternity. He will ascend smoke·her from·generation to·generation, and·she will be desolate to·victory of forever, and·does not exist in·her crossing.

Compare the two Interlinear translations^G above again with the English translation of 1QIsaa found in "The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible" here below:

[Isaiah 34:9-10 DSSB, Dead Sea scrolls] 9 It streams will be turned into pitch, and its soil into sulfur, and its land will become pitch. 10 It will burn night and day and will never be extinguished. Its smoke will go up from generation togeneration, and it will lie waste forever and ever. No one will pass through it.

"Some rearrange the clauses, joining the adverbial phrase of each clause to the previous one, and leaving the last unqualified." (Ottley, 1909, pg. 194)

Does that look familiar? Ottley is basically telling us that some scholars even translate the Masoretic text of Isaiah 34:10 so that it agrees with Isaiah 34:10 of the Dead Sea Scrolls, 1QIsaa. So now we see that it is possible to read both the Masoretic text and the Dead Sea Scroll, 1QIsaa of Isaiah 34:10 the same. The pile of evidence in support of the 1QIsaa, Great Isaiah Scroll reading of Isaiah 34:10 does not stop there though. We will see that ancient Greek codices^G Vaticanus, Alexandrinus, and Sinaiticus in their Septuagint Old Testaments all can be translated with sound translation techniques to show in Isaiah 34:10, the burning night and day, it not being extinguished forever/eternity/"for an age", and the smoke going up for generations. This means that just like the Dead Sea Isaiah scroll, 1QIsaa, they also give us a reading which sounds a lot like the continual morning and evening regular sacrifice^G and its closely associated peace offerings, drink offerings, and grain/meal offerings as it is described in the Old Testament in Exodus 29:38-46; Leviticus 6:8-18; Numbers 28:1-8; Leviticus 3; and Leviticus 7:29-36. This of course helps make this content and wording in Isaiah 34:10 align and fit right in with the rest of the frequent sacrifice language found in any version of Isaiah 34. Of course, codices^G Vaticanus, Alexandrinus, and Sinaiticus are easily among the most utilized and authoritative ancient manuscripts of the Bible that are used today in biblical textual criticism^G.

Before we go into the discussion of how Vaticanus, Alexandrinus, and Sinaiticus agree with the Great Isaiah Scroll, we need to have a brief discussion about punctuation marks in ancient biblical manuscripts. The discussion will of course be brief because it is well known that many of the earliest biblical manuscripts had very little to zero punctuation marks. If you went and looked directly at the Great Isaiah Scroll as I suggested, you already saw its lack of punctuation marks. In his 1914 second edition of his introduction volume to his famous critical edition^G of the Septuagint on pages 321 to 322, Henry Barclay Swete says the following regarding punctuation marks:

"Further, in the MSS. used by the LXX the words seem not to have been separated by any system of punctuation or spacing. On the Moabite stone and in the Siloam inscription a point has been used for this purpose, but the Phoenician inscriptions are without punctuation, and so were probably the early Biblical rolls. The division adopted by the LXX is frequently at variance with that of the Masoretic text, and is sometimes preferable to the latter, sometimes inferior; but the differences witness to the absence of divisions in the Hebrew MSS. and the non-employment of the final letters, " (Swete, 1914, pgs. 321 to 322)

If you went to the web address I showed to look at the Great Isaiah Scroll, you can see that what Swete said even holds some truth regarding the Great Isaiah scroll. There is no punctuation as we modern people think of it. If we inspect Isaiah 34:9-10 in the ancient Greek Septuagint Codex^G Vaticanus manuscript, we see something similar to what we see in the Great Isaiah Scroll. Isaiah 34:9-10 is in the right hand column on page 1,033 of the manuscript. Page numbers are written directly on each page of the manuscript. There are virtually no punctuation marks appearing in the manuscript. There are diacritical accent marks over the tops of the letters, as we see commonly in Greek texts, but punctuation marks are almost totally missing. As of December 2023, photographs of the entirety of Codex^G Vaticanus can be seen at the web address below of the "Digital Vatican Library" or in the book "Bibliorum sacrorum Graecorum Codex Vaticanus B -- Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1209".

https://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Vat.gr.1209

Modern scholar C.E. Hill on page 71 of his recent 2022 book "The First Chapters, Dividing the Text of Scripture in Codex Vaticanus and its Predecessors" confirms what we can see by direct inspection of Codex^G Vaticanus. Making a general statement about the entire Greek Codex Vaticanus he says that punctuation is used only rarely. By this we can safely assume that he means punctuation marks, as we modern people normally think of them, and not other mechanisms of pauses between complete thoughts such as the use of the Greek word for "and". On page 31 of his 1981 book "Manuscripts of the Greek Bible", biblical scholar Bruce M. Metzger, speaking in regard to ancient Greek manuscripts of the Bible, says, "Marks of punctuation occur only sporadically or not at all in the most ancient manuscripts." Go figure! We can go to the web address that I showed above and see directly there in Codex Vaticanus what Metzger is talking about. It has no punctuation. The Chester Beatty papyri collection also confirms what Metzger says. The collection contains many of the oldest New Testament and Old Testament portions of the Bible in Greek. Armed with that information, regarding the lack of punctuation marks in Codex Vaticanus, let's look at a recently done highly literal^G English translation of Codex Vaticanus in Isaiah 34:8-11 to see how punctuation marks interact with or alter the meaning of the passage in Codex Vaticanus. In the front matter of the 2019 second edition of the "Lexham English Septuagint" it describes in painful detail how the authors have taken great care to create a translation which is strictly faithful to the specific text of Henry Barclay Swete’s "The Old Testament in Greek According to The Septuagint". The front matter of the "Lexham English Septuagint" even goes on to describe how they have translated so literally as to even preserve the archaic wording of idioms in the text. It’s clear that they have strived to prevent their translation from causing any obstruction of the specific meaning of the Greek text. The underlying Greek text that the "Lexham English Septuagint" uses, Swete’s "The Old Testament in Greek According to The Septuagint" is a diplomatic edition of the Greek Septuagint, which contains primarily the text of Codex Vaticanus. It uses other ancient manuscripts where Vaticanus is missing the text. In Isaiah 34 of the 1894 edition of Swete’s "The Old Testament in Greek According to the Septuagint", Volume 3, we can plainly see that Swete has used Vaticanus by the letter "B" being displayed in the margin. As you may know, "B" is the sigla symbol for the Vaticanus manuscript and it is Swete’s convention to tell you on every page which manuscript he is using in his main Greek text by putting its sigla symbol in the margin. With that said, let's look at the strict translation of Vaticanus of Isaiah 34:8- 11 in the "Lexham English Septuagint" below. As you read, pay special attention to the rhythm of the text created by the string of successive and repetitive complete thoughts. Pay special attention to the word "and". As you may know, it is extensively used to help make you aware of where each complete thought begins and ends:

[Isaiah 34:8-11 LES2] 8 For it is a day of the Lord's judgment and a year of the repayment of Zion's judgment. 9 And its ravines will be turned into pitch, and its land into brimstone; and its land will be like pitch burning 10 night and day, and it will not be extinguished for eternal time, and its smoke will go up above; for generations it will be desolate and for a long time. 11 Birds and hedgehogs and ibises and ravens will settle in it, and a desolate measuring cord will be cast upon it, and donkey-centaurs will dwell in it.

Did you notice anything awkward in the way that the punctuation marks in the text interact with your keeping of the rhythm of complete thoughts created by the word "and"? When you get to the complete thought in the middle of verse 10, "and its smoke will go up above;" you may have noticed that the semicolon at the end of this phrase completely trips up your rhythm, like somebody sticking their foot out in front of you as you're running down the aisle of the classroom of your eighth grade English class. The two complete thoughts coming before it each have an action which is followed by an adverbial time duration modifying phrase or word. The complete thought "and its smoke will go up above;" unlike the two coming before it has no time duration modifying phrase because of the semicolon. The semicolon effectively strips the time modifying adverbial phrase off of one thought and pushes it to the next complete thought, breaking what is most likely the intended rhythm of

....…and~action~adverb............. .......and~action~adverb.......

.......and~action~adverb........ ........and on and on and on. As you may see, this isn't the only awkward snaggle created by the use of this semicolon. The semicolon, and the use of the next period which follows it, force the next complete thought to very awkwardly have two adverbial phrases piled onto one action: "; for generations it will be desolate and for a long time." Following the divisions created by these punctuation marks feels like being forced to play like a drummer who's well out of time and rhythm with the rest of the band. One potential solution we could use to get into rhythm with the band would be to follow the advice of scholar Bruce M. Metzger and just ignore the punctuation marks we see in the "Lexham English Septuagint" English translation. After all, we know that Codex Vaticanus doesn't have any punctuation marks in it, so doing this type of thing is very reasonable. Referring to Bruce M. Metzger’s 1981 book "Manuscripts of the Greek Bible" again on page 32 we find a plain description of how Metzger believes that punctuation marks should be treated in those manuscripts in which we do find them:

"Although the Exegete can learn something concerning the history of the interpretation^G of a passage by considering the punctuation of a passage in the manuscripts, neither the editor nor the translator need, of course, feel bound to adopt the punctuation preferred by scribes." (Metzger, 1981, pg. 32). So first let's see what the "Lexham English Septuagint" translation looks like if we simply remove the punctuation, verse numbers, and sentence capitalization. Of course, there are no verse or chapter numbers breaking the flow of thought in the ancient manuscripts. These were added many centuries later. Pay close attention to the word "and".

When you read try to follow the natural rhythm it creates:

[Isaiah 34:8-11 LES2 – minus: punctuation, versification, and sentence capitalization] for it is a day of the Lord's judgment and a year of the repayment of Zion's judgment and its ravines will be turned into pitch and its land into brimstone and its land will be like pitch burning night and day and it will not be extinguished for eternal time and its smoke will go up above for generations it will be desolate and for a long time birds and hedgehogs and ibises and ravens will settle in it and a desolate measuring cord will be cast upon it and donkey-centaurs will dwell in it.

Did you detect anything familiar when you read while following the rhythm of the word "and"? It sounds a lot like the Dead Sea Scrolls version of the passage, doesn't it? The burning is going on night and day, the smoke is going up for generations, and it will not be extinguished forever/ eternally/for an age, just as we see it in the Dead Sea scrolls following the Old Testament language of the continual morning and evening regular sacrifice^G and its associated peace, drink, and grain/meal offerings. To show the rhythm that I am describing even more distinctly, here's the "Lexham English Septuagint" translation below again, except now with the punctuation and sentence capitalization made to conform to the natural rhythm of the passage created by the word "and":

[Isaiah 34:8-11 LES2 - with punctuation and sentence capitalization altered - versification removed] For it is a day of the Lord's judgment, and a year of the repayment of Zion's judgment, and its ravines will be turned into pitch, and its land into brimstone, and its land will be like pitch burning night and day, and it will not be extinguished for eternal time, and its smoke will go up above for generations. It will be desolate, and for a long time birds and hedgehogs and ibises and ravens will settle in it, and a desolate measuring cord will be cast upon it, and donkey-centaurs will dwell in it.

It may be worth stopping to ask two questions here. If John's ancient audience had no punctuation in their ancient version of the Septuagint, would they have read Isaiah 34:8-11 in a way that awkwardly strips the adverbial phrase off of one thought and then awkwardly piles two adverbial phrases on to the next one? Or would they have followed the simple rhythm of the word "and", taking a simple elegant reading like you see in the translated and punctuated passage above? The answer to this seems obvious. You may be unconvinced, because we are looking at English translations in which things frequently get lost. Here below is a painfully literal^G forward interlinear^G Greek and English translation of Isaiah 34:9b-11a which allows you to see that the rhythm of the word "and" which I am referring to does legitimately exist in the actual Greek words of Codex Vaticanus. The Greek text I'm showing is transcribed directly from the photographed facsimile^G of Vaticanus with the same word order and diacritical accent marks found in Vaticanus:

[Isaiah 34:9b-11a Vaticanus original translation]

κὰι ἔσται ἡ γῆ ἀυτῆς ὡς πίσσα
and will be the earth of it as pitch

καιομένη νυκτὸς κὰι ἡμέρας κὰι ὀυ
burning night and day and not

σβεσθήσεται ἐις τὸν ἀιῶνα χρόνον
will be extinguished into the age time

κὰι ἀναβήσεται ὁ καπνὸς ἀυτῆς ἄνω
and will ascend the smoke of it up

ἐις γενεὰς ἀυτῆς ἐρημωθήσεται κὰι
into generations of it it will be desolated and

ἐις χρόνον πολὺν ὄρνεα κὰι ἐχεῖνοι
into time long birds and hedgehogs

κὰι εἴβεις και κόρακες κατοικήσουσιν ἐν ἀυτῆ
and ibises and ravens will dwell in it

I previously mentioned both codices^G Sinaiticus and Alexandrinus. It turns out that we can divide the thoughts and phrases of Sinaiticus and Alexandrinus just like we did with Vaticanus above. Doing this, they can both be translated within the bounds of proper translation technique in a way that shows the burning going on day and night and the smoke going up for generations. The ancient codices Sinaiticus and Alexandrinus are different from Vaticanus in that they both do contain punctuation. They both have "separation points" or dots that act somewhat like our period marks to divide the text. We will utilize Bruce Metzger's expert permission again and remove these separation points in order to follow the convention of the earliest Greek manuscripts of the Bible which have no punctuation marks. Just as I showed for Vaticanus, here again below is a painfully literal^G forward interlinear^G English and Greek translation of Isaiah 34:9b-11a from Sinaiticus. The Greek text is an accurate transcription of the Sinaiticus manuscript. It has no diacritical accent marks as Sinaiticus has none:

[Isaiah 34:9b-11a Sinaiticus original translation]

και εϲτε αυτηϲ η γη καιομενη ωϲ πιϲϲα
and is of her the earth burning as pitch

νυκτοϲ και ημεραϲ και ου ϲβεϲθηϲεται ειϲ
night and day and not will be quenched into

τον αιωναν χρονον και αναβηϲεται ο καπνοϲ
the eternal time and will rise up the smoke

αυτηϲ ανω ειϲ γενεαϲ ερημωθηϲεται
of her upward into generations will be desolated

και ειϲ χρονον πολυν ερημωθηϲεται και
and into time long will be desolated and

κατοικηϲουϲιν εν αυτη ορνεα και εχεινοι
will dwell in it birds and hedgehogs

και ειβειϲ και κορακεϲ
and ibises and ravens

And then here below is a highly literal^G regular translation of the same Isaiah 34:9b-11a Sinaiticus text above with punctuation added to follow the rhythm of the divisions indicated by the word "and":

[Isaiah 34:9b-11a Sinaiticus original translation] And her land will be burning as pitch night and day, and it will not be quenched into the age of time. The smoke of it will ascend up into generations. It will be made desolate, and into much time it will be made desolate, and in it will dwell birds, hedgehogs, ibises, and ravens.

Doing just the same thing over again for Alexandrinus below, we remove the separation points appearing in the ancient manuscript, and show both a highly literal forward Interlinear translation^G, and a regular English translation with punctuation marks following the rhythm of "and". Just as before, the Greek text of Alexandrinus is an accurate transcription with no diacritical accent marks since the Alexandrinus manuscript also has none:

[Isaiah 34:9b-11a Alexandrinus original translation]

και εσται αυτης η γη καιομενη
and will be of her the earth burning

ως πισσα νυκτος και ημερας και
as pitch night and day and

ου σβεσθησεται εις τον αιωνα χρονον
not will be extinguished into the age time

και αναβησεται ο καπνος αυτης ανω
and will ascend the smoke of her up

εις γενεας ερημωθησεται και
into generations it will be made desolate and

κατοικησονται εν αυτη ορνεα και εχινοι
will dwell in her birds and hedgehogs

και ιβεις και κορακες
and ibises and ravens

[Isaiah 34:9b-11a Alexandrinus original translation] And her land will be burning as pitch night and day, and it will not be extinguished for an age of time, and the smoke of it will ascend upwards for generations. It will be made desolate, and in it will dwell birds and hedgehogs and ibises and ravens.

So once again, in Alexandrinus above, we have the burning going on night and day, the smoke going up for generations, and it will not be extinguished forever/eternally/for an age, just as we see it in the Dead Sea scrolls following the Old Testament language of the continual morning and evening regular sacrifice^G and its associated peace, drink, and grain/meal offerings. All five of the translations of Isaiah 34:9b-11a I've just showed for Vaticanus, Sinaiticus, and Alexandrinus have been checked for accuracy and proper translation technique by a PhD level scholar in the classical languages, which of course includes Greek. I've labeled these five preceding verified translations as "original translation". We could keep going and even show that the very popular "Rahlfs" semieclectic^G Septuagint text edited by Alfred Rahlfs, aka "Septuaginta: id est Vetus Testamentum graece iuxta LXX interpretes" can legitimately have its complete thoughts divided like Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, and Alexandrinus as I just showed. As you can see, there is easily more than sufficient evidence to show that the Dead Sea scrolls exhibit a well supported reading of Isaiah 34 which can be agreed with by both the Masoretic text and the Septuagint.