< Isaiah 34 >
1 Come near, you nations, to hear, And you peoples, give attention, The earth and its fullness hear, The world, and all its productions.
2 For to YHWH [is] wrath against all the nations, And fury against all their host, He has devoted them to destruction, He has given them to slaughter.
3 And their wounded are cast out, And their carcasses cause their stench to ascend, And mountains have been melted from their blood.
4 And all the host of the heavens have been consumed, And the heavens have been rolled together as a scroll, And all their hosts fade, As the fading of a leaf of a vine, And as the fading one of a fig tree.
5 For My sword was soaked in the heavens, Behold, it comes down on Edom, On the people of My curse for judgment.
6 A sword [is] to YHWH—it has been full of blood, It has been made fat with fatness, With blood of lambs and male goats. With fat of kidneys of rams, For to YHWH [is] a sacrifice in Bozrah, And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 And reems have come down with them, And bullocks with bulls, And their land has been soaked from blood, And their dust is made fat from fatness.
8 (For a day of vengeance [is] to YHWH, A year of recompenses for Zion’s strife),
9 And her streams have been turned to pitch, And her dust to brimstone, And her land has become burning pitch.
10 She is not quenched by night and by day, Her smoke goes up for all time, She is desolate from generation to generation, Forever and ever, none is passing into her.
11 And pelican and hedgehog possess her, And owl and raven dwell in her, And He has stretched out over her A line of vacancy, and stones of emptiness.
12 They call her nobles [to] the kingdom, But there are none there, And all her princes are at an end.
13 And thorns have gone up her palaces, Nettle and bramble [are] in her fortresses, And it has been a habitation of dragons, A court for daughters of an ostrich.
14 And desert-dwellers have met with howlers, And the goat calls for its companion, Surely the night-owl has rested there, And has found a place of rest for herself.
15 The owl has made her nest there, Indeed, she lays, and has hatched, And has gathered under her shadow, Surely vultures have been gathered there, Each with its companion.
16 Seek out of the scroll of YHWH, and read, One of these has not been lacking, None has missed its companion, For My mouth—it has commanded, And His Spirit—He has gathered them.
17 And He has cast a lot for them, And His hand has apportioned [it] to them by line, They possess it for all time, They dwell in it from generation to generation!
