< 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, ye nations, to hear, And ye peoples, give attention, Hear doth the earth and its fulness, The world, and all its productions.
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 wrath [is] to Jehovah against all the nations, And fury against all their host, He hath devoted them to destruction, He hath given them to slaughter.
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.
And their wounded are cast out, And their carcases cause their stench to ascend, And melted have been mountains from their blood.
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 consumed have been all the host of the heavens, And rolled together as a book have been the heavens, And all their hosts do fade, As the fading of a leaf of a vine, And as the fading one of a 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 soaked in the heavens was My sword, Lo, on Edom it cometh down, On the people of My curse for judgment.
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.
A sword [is] to Jehovah — it hath been full of blood, It hath been made fat with fatness, With blood of lambs and he-goats. With fat of kidneys of rams, For a sacrifice [is] to Jehovah in Bozrah, And a great slaughter 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 come down have reems with them, And bullocks with bulls, And soaked hath been their land from blood, And their dust from fatness is made fat.
8 For this is the day of the vengeance of the Lord, the year of retribution for the judgment of Zion.
(For a day of vengeance [is] to Jehovah, A year of recompences for Zion's strife, )
9 And its torrents will be turned into tar, and its soil into sulfur. And its land will become burning tar.
And turned have been her streams to pitch, And her dust to brimstone, And her land hath become burning pitch.
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.
By night and by day she is not quenched, To the age go up doth her smoke, From generation to generation she is waste, For ever and ever, none is passing into her.
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.
And possess her do pelican and hedge-hog, And owl and raven dwell in her, And He hath stretched out over her A line of vacancy, and stones of emptiness.
12 Its nobles will not be in that place. Instead, they will call upon the king, and all its leaders will be as nothing.
[To] the kingdom her freemen they call, But there are none there, And all her princes are at 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 gone up her palaces have thorns, Nettle and bramble [are] in her fortresses, And it hath been a habitation of dragons, A court for daughters of an ostrich.
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 met have Ziim with Aiim, And the goat for its companion calleth, Only there rested hath the night-owl, And hath found for herself a place of rest.
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.
There made her nest hath the bittern, Yea, she layeth, and hath hatched, And hath gathered under her shadow, Only there gathered have been vultures, Each with its companion.
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.
Seek out of the book of Jehovah, and read, One of these hath not been lacking, None hath missed its companion, For My mouth — it hath commanded, And His spirit — He hath gathered them.
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 hath cast for them a lot, And His hand hath apportioned [it] to them by line, Unto the age they possess it, To all generations they dwell in it!