< Isaiah 34 >

1 Come near, you nations, and give ear; take note, you peoples: let the earth and everything in it give ear; the world and all those living in it.
Come near, ye nations, to hear; and ye people, hearken: let the earth hear, and all that filleth it; the world, and all things that spring forth of it.
2 For the Lord is angry with all the nations, and his wrath is burning against all their armies: he has put them to the curse, he has given them to destruction.
For the indignation of the Lord is [enkindled] over all the nations, and his fury over all their army: he hath devoted them, he hath given them up to the slaughter:
3 Their dead bodies will be thick on the face of the earth, and their smell will come up, and the mountains will be flowing with their blood, and all the hills will come to nothing.
And their slain also shall be cast out, and as regardeth their carcasses their stench shall ascend upward, and the mountains shall be melted through their blood.
4 And the heavens will be rolled together like the roll of a book: and all their army will be gone, like a dead leaf from the vine, or a dry fruit from the fig-tree.
And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together like a book: and all their host shall wither, as the leaf withereth from the vine, and as withering fruit from the fig-tree.
5 For my sword in heaven is full of wrath: see, it is coming down on Edom, in punishment on the people of my curse.
For my sword is sated in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Edom, and upon the people I have devoted to punishment.
6 The sword of the Lord is full of blood, it is fat with the best of the meat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the best parts of the sheep: for the Lord has a feast in Bozrah, and much cattle will be put to death in the land of Edom.
The sword of the Lord is full of blood, it is enriched with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for the Lord hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 And the strong oxen will go down to death together with the smaller cattle.
And wild oxen shall sink down with them, and steers with bullocks; and their land shall be sated with blood, and their dust enriched with fat.
8 For it is the day of the Lord's punishment, when he gives payment for the wrongs done to Zion.
For it is the day of vengeance unto the Lord, and the year of recompense for the controversy of Zion.
9 And its streams will be turned into boiling oil, and its dust into burning stone, and all the land will be on fire.
And its brooks shall be changed into pitch, and its dust into sulfur, and its land shall become burning pitch.
10 It will not be put out day or night; its smoke will go up for ever: it will be waste from generation to generation; no one will go through it for ever.
Night and day shall it not be quenched; for ever shall ascend the smoke thereof: from generation to generation shall it lie waste; no one shall for ever and ever pass through it.
11 But the birds of the waste land will have their place there; it will be a heritage for the bittern and the raven: and it will be measured out with line and weight as a waste land.
But pelican and hedgehog shall take possession of it; night-owl also and raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out over it the line of destruction, and the weights of desolation.
12 The jackals will be there, and her great ones will be gone; they will say, There is no longer a kingdom there, and all her chiefs will have come to an end.
Their nobles—no one is there they could call [to] the kingdom, and all its princes shall be no more.
13 And thorns will come up in her fair houses, and waste plants in her strong towers: and foxes will make their holes there, and it will be a meeting-place for ostriches.
And thorns shall spring up in its palaces, nettles and brambles in its fortresses: and it shall be a habitation of monsters, and a court for ostriches.
14 And the beasts of the waste places will come together with the jackals, and the evil spirits will be crying to one another, even the night-spirit will come and make her resting-place there.
And the martens shall meet with the jackals, and one goat shall call to his fellow; only the screech-owl shall rest there, and find for herself a place of repose.
15 The arrowsnake will make her hole and put her eggs there, and get her young together under her shade: there the hawks will come together by twos.
There shall nestle the arrow-snake, and lay eggs, and hatch, and gather its young under its shadow: only vultures shall assemble there, every one with her mate.
16 See what is recorded in the book of the Lord: all these will be there, not one without the other: the mouth of the Lord has given the order, and his spirit has made them come together.
Inquire out of the book of the Lord, and read: not one of these shall be absent, not one shall miss her mate; for my mouth it is that hath ordained it, and its breath it is that hath gathered them.
17 And he has given them their heritage, and by his hand it has been measured out to them: it will be theirs for ever, their resting-place from generation to generation.
And he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath divided it out unto them by the measuring line: for ever shall they possess it, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein.

< Isaiah 34 >