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.

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 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.

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 And their wounded are cast out, And their carcasses cause their stench to ascend, And mountains have been melted from 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 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.

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 was soaked in the heavens, Behold, it comes down on Edom, On the people of My curse for 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 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.

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 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.

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

8 (For a day of vengeance [is] to YHWH, A year of recompenses for Zion’s strife),

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

9 And her streams have been turned to pitch, And her dust to brimstone, And her land has become burning pitch.

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

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.

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 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.

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 They call her nobles [to] the kingdom, But there are none there, And all her princes are at an end.

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 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.

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 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.

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 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.

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 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.

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 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!

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.