Isaiah 34

1 Come near, O nations, to listen; pay attention, O peoples. Let the earth hear, and all that fills it, the world and all that springs from it.

Come near, you nations, to hear, And you peoples, give attention, The earth and its fullness hear, The world, and all its productions.

2 The LORD is angry with all the nations and furious with all their armies. He will devote them to destruction; He will give them over to slaughter.

For to YHWH [is] wrath against all the nations, And fury against all their host, He has devoted them to destruction, He has given them to slaughter.

3 Their slain will be left unburied, and the stench of their corpses will rise; the mountains will flow with their blood.

And their wounded are cast out, And their carcasses cause their stench to ascend, And mountains have been melted from their blood.

4 All the stars of heaven will be dissolved. The skies will be rolled up like a scroll, and all their stars will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like foliage from the fig tree.

And all the host of the heavens have been consumed, And the heavens have been rolled together as a scroll, And all their hosts fade, As the fading of a leaf of a vine, And as the fading one of a fig tree.

5 When My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens, then it will come down upon Edom, upon the people I have devoted to destruction.

For My sword was soaked in the heavens, Behold, it comes down on Edom, On the people of My curse for judgment.

6 The sword of the LORD is bathed in blood. It drips with fat— with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

A sword [is] to YHWH—it has been full of blood, It has been made fat with fatness, With blood of lambs and male goats. With fat of kidneys of rams, For to YHWH [is] a sacrifice in Bozrah, And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

7 And the wild oxen will fall with them, the young bulls with the strong ones. Their land will be drenched with blood, and their soil will be soaked with fat.

And reems have come down with them, And bullocks with bulls, And their land has been soaked from blood, And their dust is made fat from fatness.

8 For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.

(For a day of vengeance [is] to YHWH, A year of recompenses for Zion’s strife),

9 Edom’s streams will be turned to tar, and her soil to sulfur; her land will become a blazing pitch.

And her streams have been turned to pitch, And her dust to brimstone, And her land has become burning pitch.

10 It will not be quenched—day or night. Its smoke will ascend forever. From generation to generation it will lie desolate; no one will ever again pass through it.

She is not quenched by night and by day, Her smoke goes up for all time, She is desolate from generation to generation, Forever and ever, none is passing into her.

11 The desert owl and screech owl will possess it, and the great owl and raven will dwell in it. The LORD will stretch out over Edom a measuring line of chaos and a plumb line of destruction.

And pelican and hedgehog possess her, And owl and raven dwell in her, And He has stretched out over her A line of vacancy, and stones of emptiness.

12 No nobles will be left to proclaim a king, and all her princes will come to nothing.

They call her nobles [to] the kingdom, But there are none there, And all her princes are at an end.

13 Her towers will be overgrown with thorns, her fortresses with thistles and briers. She will become a haunt for jackals, an abode for ostriches.

And thorns have gone up her palaces, Nettle and bramble [are] in her fortresses, And it has been a habitation of dragons, A court for daughters of an ostrich.

14 The desert creatures will meet with hyenas, and one wild goat will call to another. There the night creature will settle and find her place of repose.

And desert-dwellers have met with howlers, And the goat calls for its companion, Surely the night-owl has rested there, And has found a place of rest for herself.

15 There the owl will make her nest; she will lay and hatch her eggs and gather her brood under her shadow. Even there the birds of prey will gather, each with its mate.

The owl has made her nest there, Indeed, she lays, and has hatched, And has gathered under her shadow, Surely vultures have been gathered there, Each with its companion.

16 Search and read the scroll of the LORD: Not one of these will go missing, not one will lack her mate, because He has ordered it by His mouth, and He will gather them by His Spirit.

Seek out of the scroll of YHWH, and read, One of these has not been lacking, None has missed its companion, For My mouth—it has commanded, And His Spirit—He has gathered them.

17 He has allotted their portion; His hand has distributed it by measure. They will possess it forever; they will dwell in it from generation to generation.

And He has cast a lot for them, And His hand has apportioned [it] to them by line, They possess it for all time, They dwell in it from generation to generation!