< Isaiah 34 >
1 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.
Draw near, you nations; and listen, you princes; let the earth hear, and they that are in it; the world, and the people that are therein.
2 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.
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 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.
And their slain shall be cast forth, and their corpses; and their [ill] savor shall come up, and the mountains shall be made wet with their blood.
4 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.
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 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.
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 [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.
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 [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.
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 That will be the time when Yahweh gets revenge for what those people did to the people of Judah.
For it is the day of judgment of the Lord, and the year of the recompence of Sion in judgment.
9 The streams in Edom will be full of burning pitch/tar, and the ground will be covered with burning sulfur.
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 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.
and it shall never be quenched, and her smoke shall go up: it shall be made desolate throughout her generations,
11 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.
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 There will be no princes; the people who have authority will have no kingdom to rule.
Her princes shall be no more; for her kings and her great men shall be destroyed.
13 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.
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 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.
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 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.
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 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].
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 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.
And he shall cast lots for them, and his hand has portioned out [their] pasture, [saying], You shall inherit [the land] for ever: they shall rest on it [through] all generations.