Isaiah 34

1 O nations and peoples: draw near, and listen, and pay attention! Let the earth and its fullness hear, the entire world and all its offspring.

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.

2 For the indignation of the Lord is over all the nations, and his fury is over all their armies. He has put them to death, and he has given them over to slaughter.

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.

3 Their slain will be cast out, and from their carcasses a foul odor will rise up. The mountains will languish because of their blood.

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.

4 And the entire army of the heavens will languish, and the heavens will be folded like a book. And their entire army will fall away, as a leaf falls from the vine or from the fig tree.

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.

5 “For my sword in heaven has been inebriated. Behold, it will descend upon Idumea, and upon the people of my slaughter, unto judgment.”

For my sword in heaven is full of wrath: see, it is coming down on Edom, in punishment on the people of my curse.

6 The sword of the Lord has been filled with blood. It has been thickened by the blood of lambs and he-goats, by the innermost blood of rams. For the victim of the Lord is in Bozrah, and a great slaughter is in the land of Edom.

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.

7 And the single-horned beasts will descend with them, and the bulls along with the mighty. Their land will be inebriated by blood, and their ground by the fat of their lazy ones.

And the strong oxen will go down to death together with the smaller cattle.

8 For this is the day of the vengeance of the Lord, the year of retribution for the judgment of Zion.

For it is the day of the Lord's punishment, when he gives payment for the wrongs done to Zion.

9 And its torrents will be turned into tar, and its soil into sulfur. And its land will become burning tar.

And its streams will be turned into boiling oil, and its dust into burning stone, and all the land will be on fire.

10 Night and day, it will not be extinguished; its smoke will rise up without ceasing. From generation to generation it will remain desolate. No one will pass through it, forever and ever.

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.

11 The pelican and the hedgehog will possess it. And the ibis and the raven will live in it. And a measuring line will be extended over it, so that it may be reduced to nothing, and a plumb line, unto desolation.

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.

12 Its nobles will not be in that place. Instead, they will call upon the king, and all its leaders will be as nothing.

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.

13 And thorns and nettles will rise up in its houses, and the thistle in its fortified places. And it will be the lair of serpents and the pasture of ostriches.

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.

14 And demons and monsters will meet, and the hairy ones will cry out to one another. There, the ogress has lain down and found rest for herself.

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.

15 In that place, the hedgehog has kept its den, and has raised its young, and has dug around them, and has kept them warm in its shadow. In that place, the birds of prey have joined together, one to another.

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.

16 Search and read diligently in the book of the Lord. Not one of them was lacking; not one has sought for the other. For what has proceeded from my mouth, he has commanded, and his very Spirit has gathered them.

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.

17 And he has cast lots over them. And his hand has distributed this to them by measure. They will possess it, even unto eternity. From generation to generation, they will dwell in it.

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.