< Isaiah 34 >
1 Come near, you nations, to hear. Listen, you peoples. Let the earth and all it contains hear; the world, and everything that comes from it.
Draw near, ye nations; and hearken, ye princes; let the earth hear, and they that are in it; the world, and the people that are therein.
2 For the LORD is enraged against all the nations, and angry with all their armies. He has utterly destroyed them. He has given them over for slaughter.
For the wrath of the Lord is upon all nations, and [his] anger upon the number of them, to destroy them, and give them up to slaughter.
3 Their slain will also be cast out, and the stench of their dead bodies will come up; and the mountains will melt in their blood.
And their slain shall be cast forth, and their corpses; and their [ill] savour shall come up, and the mountains shall be made wet with their blood.
4 And all the host of heaven will rot away, and the heavens will be rolled up like a scroll. And all their host will wither, as a leaf withering from the vine, and as leaves withering from the fig tree.
And all the powers of the heavens shall melt, and the sky shall be rolled up like a scroll: and all the stars shall fall like leaves from a vine, and as leaves fall from a fig-tree.
5 For my sword has drunk its fill in the sky. Look, it will come down on Edom, and on the people of my curse, for judgment.
My sword has been made drunk in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and with judgment upon the people doomed to destruction.
6 The LORD's sword is filled with blood. It is covered with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, it is glutted with fat, with the blood of goats and lambs, and with the fat of goats and rams: for the Lord has a sacrifice in Bosor, and a great slaughter in Idumea.
7 The wild oxen will come down with them, and the young bulls with the mighty bulls; and their land will be soaked with blood, and their dust made greasy with fat.
And the mighty ones shall fall with them, and the rams and the bulls; and the land shall be soaked with blood, and shall be filled with their fat.
8 For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
For it is the day of judgment of the Lord, and the year of the recompence of Sion in judgment.
9 Its streams will be turned into pitch, its dust into sulfur, And its land will become burning pitch.
And her valleys shall be turned into pitch, and her land into sulphur; and her land shall be as pitch burning night and day;
10 It won't be quenched night nor day. Its smoke will go up forever. From generation to generation, it will lie waste. No one will pass through it forever and ever.
and it shall never be quenched, and her smoke shall go up: it shall be made desolate throughout her generations,
11 But the pelican and the porcupine will possess it. The owl and the raven will dwell in it. He will stretch the line of confusion over it, and the plumb line of emptiness.
and for a long time birds and hedgehogs, and ibises and ravens shall dwell in it: and the measuring line of desolation shall be cast over it, and satyrs shall dwell in it.
12 They shall call its nobles to the kingdom, but none shall be there; and all its princes shall be nothing.
Her princes shall be no more; for her kings and her great men shall be destroyed.
13 Thorns will come up in its palaces, nettles and thistles in its fortresses; and it will be a habitation of jackals, a court for ostriches.
And thorns shall spring up in their cities, and in her strong holds: and they shall be habitations of monsters, and a court of ostriches.
14 And the wildcats will meet with the hyenas, and the wild goat will cry to his fellow. There too, nocturnal animals shall settle, and shall find themselves a place of rest.
And devils shall meet with satyrs, and they shall cry one to the other: there shall satyrs rest, having found for themselves [a place of] rest.
15 The owl will make her nest there, and lay, hatch, and gather under her shade. Yes, the vultures will be gathered there, every one with her mate.
There has the hedgehog made its nest, and the earth has safely preserved its young: there have the deer met, and seen one another's faces.
16 Search in the scroll of the LORD, and read: not one of these will be missing. None will lack her mate. For my mouth has commanded, and his Spirit has gathered them.
They passed by in [full] number, and not one of them perished: they sought not one another; for the Lord commanded them, and his Spirit gathered them.
17 He has cast the lot for them, and his hand has divided it to them with a measuring line. They shall possess it forever. From generation to generation they will dwell in it.
And he shall cast lots for them, and his hand has portioned out [their] pasture, [saying], Ye shall inherit [the land] for ever: they shall rest on it [through] all generations.