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, and listen; pay attention, you people! The earth and all that fills it must listen, the world, and all things that come from it.
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 Yahweh is angry with all the nations, and furious against all their armies; he has completely destroyed them, he has handed them over to the slaughter.
3 Their slain will be left unburied, and the stench of their corpses will rise; the mountains will flow with their blood.
The bodies of their dead will be thrown out. The stench of the dead bodies will be everywhere; and the mountains will soak up 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.
All the stars of the sky will fade away, and the sky will be rolled up like a scroll; and all their stars will fade away, as the leaf fades from off the vine, and as the overripe figs from the 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 when my sword will have drunk its fill in heaven; look, it will now come down on Edom, on the people I am setting apart for destruction.
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.
The sword of Yahweh is dripping with blood and covered with fat, dripping with the blood of lambs and goats, covered with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For Yahweh has 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.
Wild oxen will fall with them, and young bulls with the older ones. Their land will be drunk with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.
8 For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
For it will be a day of vengeance for Yahweh and a year when he will pay them back for the cause of Zion.
9 Edom’s streams will be turned to tar, and her soil to sulfur; her land will become a blazing pitch.
The streams of Edom will be turned into pitch, her dust into sulfur, and her land will 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.
It will burn night and day; its smoke will rise forever; from generation to generation it will be a wasteland; no one will pass through it forever and ever.
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.
But wild birds and animals will live there; the owl and the raven will make their nest in it. He will stretch over it the measuring line of ruin and the plumbline of destruction.
12 No nobles will be left to proclaim a king, and all her princes will come to nothing.
Her nobles will have nothing left to call a kingdom, and all her princes will be nothing.
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.
Thorns will overgrow her palaces, nettles and thistles her fortresses. It will be a habitation of jackals, a place for ostriches.
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.
The wild animals and the hyenas will meet there, and the wild goats will cry to one another. Nocturnal animals will settle there and find for themselves a place of rest.
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.
Owls will make nests, lay and hatch their eggs, hatch and protect their young. Yes, there hawks will gather, each one with its mate.
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.
Search through the scroll of Yahweh; not one of these will be missing. None will lack for a mate; for his mouth has commanded it, and his spirit 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.
He has cast lots for their places, and his hand has measured it out for them by a cord. They will possess it forever; from generation to generation they will live there.
