Isaiah 34
1 Come near ye nations to hear, And, ye races, attend, —Let the earth hear, and the fulness thereof, The world and all things produced therefrom:
You people of all nations, come near and listen and pay careful attention. I want the world and everything that is in it to hear what I say.
2 That Yahweh hath wrath against all the nations, and indignation against all their host, —He hath devoted them to destruction He hath delivered them to slaughter;
Yahweh is angry with [the people of] all nations; he is (furious/very angry) with all their armies. He has decided that they must be destroyed, and he will slaughter them.
3 And their slain shall be cast out, And their carcases, the stench of them shall ascend, —And, the mountains, shall melt away with their blood.
Their corpses will not be buried, and [as a result] their corpses will stink, and their blood will [fill the streams that] flow down the mountains.
4 Then shall be dissolved all the host of the heavens, And the heavens shall roll up as a scroll, —Yea, all their host, shall fade—Like the fading and falling of a leaf from a vine, and Like what fadeth and falleth from a fig-tree.
The sky will disappear like [SIM] a scroll that is rolled up [and thrown away]. Stars will fall [from the sky] like [SIM] [withered] leaves fall from grapevines, [or] like [SIM] shriveled figs fall from fig trees.
5 For my sword hath been sated in the heavens, —Lo! upon Edom, shall it descend, Even on the people whom I have devoted to justice.
When Yahweh has finished his work of destroying objects in the sky, he will punish [the people of] Edom, that people-group that he has said must be destroyed/exterminated.
6 A sword, hath Yahweh—Glutted with blood Sated with fat, —With the blood of well-fed lambs and he-goats, With the fat of the kidneys of rams, —For, a sacrifice, hath Yahweh in Bozrah, Yea a great slaughter in the land of Edom;
[It is as though] Yahweh has a sword that is covered with blood and fat— the blood of lambs and goats and the fat of the kidneys of rams to be sacrificed. [It is as though] Yahweh will offer a sacrifice in [the city of] Bozrah [and kill many people] in other cities in Edom.
7 Then shall buffaloes come down with them, And bullocks with bulls, —So shall their land be soaked with blood, And, their dust, with fat, shall be enriched.
[Even] wild oxen will be killed, as well as young calves and big bulls. The ground will be soaked with blood, and the dirt will be covered with the fat of those animals.
8 For a day of avenging, hath Yahweh, —A year of requitals for the quarrel of Zion.
That will be the time when Yahweh gets revenge for what those people did to the people of Judah.
9 Then shall the torrents thereof be turned into pitch, And the dust thereof, into brimstone, —So shall her land become burning pitch:
The streams in Edom will be full of burning pitch/tar, and the ground will be covered with burning sulfur.
10 Neither night nor day, shall it be quenched, To times age-abiding, shall ascend the smoke thereof, —From generation to generation, shall it be waste, Never, never, shall any pass through it:
Yahweh will never finish punishing Edom with fire; the smoke will rise forever. No one will ever live in that land, and no one will [even] travel through it.
11 That the vomiting pelican and the bittern may possess it: And the great owl and the raven, dwell therein; Then will he stretch out over it The line of desolation, and The plummet of emptiness.
Ravens and various kinds of owls and small animals will live there. Yahweh will measure that land carefully: He will measure it to [to decide where] to cause chaos and destruction.
12 Her nobles (but none, are, there)! unto royalty, will call, —All, all her princes, shall become nought.
There will be no princes; the people who have authority will have no kingdom to rule.
13 Then shall come up, in her palaces thorns Nettles and thistles in her fortresses, —And she shall become A home for wild dogs, An enclosure for ostriches;
The deserted palaces and fortified buildings will be full of thorns and thistles. The ruins will be a place for jackals/wolves and owls to live.
14 Then shall criers meet with howlers, And, the shaggy creature, unto his fellow, shall call, —Only, there, shall, the night-spectre, Make her settlement, And find for herself a place of rest:
Animals that live in the desert and hyenas/wolves will be there, and wild goats will bleat/call to each other. There will also be creatures/animals that [roam around] at night.
15 There, shall, the arrow-snake, Make her nest and lay, And hatch and gather under her shadow, —Only, there, shall be gathered the falcons, every one with her mate.
Owls will make their nests there and lay their eggs in the nests; and when the eggs hatch, the mother birds will cover them [with their wings]. There will also be falcons/hawks there, each with its mate.
16 Seek ye out of the scroll of Yahweh, and read, Not, one from among them, is lacking, None, hath missed, her mate, —For, a mouth, hath, itself commanded, And, his spirit, hath itself gathered them:
If you read what is written in the book that contains messages from Yahweh, you will find out what he will do [in Edom]. All of those animals and birds will be there, and each one will have a mate, because that is what Yahweh has promised, and his Spirit will cause them [all] to gather [there].
17 Yea he himself, hath cast for them a lot, And his own hand, hath given to them a portion by line, —Unto times age-abiding, shall they possess it, To generation after generation, shall they dwell therein.
He has decided what parts of the land [of Edom] each will live in, and those are the places where each bird or animal will live. Their descendants will possess those areas forever, throughout all generations.
