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, 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 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 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 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.
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 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.
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 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 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 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 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 strong oxen will go down to death together with the smaller cattle.
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 it is the day of the Lord's punishment, when he gives payment for the wrongs done to 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 And its streams will be turned into boiling oil, and its dust into burning stone, and all the land will be on fire.
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 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.
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 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 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 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.
Her nobles will have nothing left to call a kingdom, and all her princes will be nothing.
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.
Thorns will overgrow her palaces, nettles and thistles her fortresses. It will be a habitation of jackals, a place 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.
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 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.
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 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.
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 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.
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.
