< Isaiah 34 >

1 Come near, you nations, and listen; pay attention, you people! The earth and all that fills it must listen, the world, and all things that come from it.
Come close, you nations, and listen! You peoples, pay attention! Hear these words everyone who lives on earth, and all that comes from it!
2 For Yahweh is angry with all the nations, and furious against all their armies; he has completely destroyed them, he has handed them over to the slaughter.
The Lord's anger is against all the nations and his fury is against all their armies. He will completely destroy them; he will have them slaughtered.
3 The bodies of their dead will be thrown out. The stench of the dead bodies will be everywhere; and the mountains will soak up their blood.
Those who are killed won't be buried; the stink of their bodies will rise; mountains will be washed away with their blood.
4 All the stars of the sky will fade away, and the sky will be rolled up like a scroll; and all their stars will fade away, as the leaf fades from off the vine, and as the overripe figs from the fig tree.
The sun, moon, and stars of heaven will fade away, and the skies will be rolled up like a scroll. All the stars will fall like dried-up leaves from a vine, like dried-up figs from a fig tree.
5 For when my sword will have drunk its fill in heaven; look, it will now come down on Edom, on the people I am setting apart for destruction.
After my sword has finished what it has to do in the heavens, it will come down on Edom, on the people I have doomed for destruction.
6 The sword of Yahweh is dripping with blood and covered with fat, dripping with the blood of lambs and goats, covered with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For Yahweh has a sacrifice in Bozrah and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
The sword of the Lord is coated in blood and covered with fat—the blood of lambs and goats, and the fat of rams' kidneys. For there is a sacrifice for Lord happening in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 Wild oxen will fall with them, and young bulls with the older ones. Their land will be drunk with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.
Wild ox will fall with them, the young bulls along with the mature ones. Their land will be soaked with blood, and their soil soaked with fat.
8 For it will be a day of vengeance for Yahweh and a year when he will pay them back for the cause of Zion.
For the Lord has a day of punishment, a year of retribution, for the trouble caused to Zion.
9 The streams of Edom will be turned into pitch, her dust into sulfur, and her land will become burning pitch.
Edom's streams will be turned into tar, its soil into sulfur, and her land will become burning tar!
10 It will burn night and day; its smoke will rise forever; from generation to generation it will be a wasteland; no one will pass through it forever and ever.
The fire will burn day and night, and will never go out, its smoke will rise forever. From one generation to the next it will remain desolate—people won't ever go there again.
11 But wild birds and animals will live there; the owl and the raven will make their nest in it. He will stretch over it the measuring line of ruin and the plumbline of destruction.
The desert owl and screech owl will take it over, and the eagle owl and raven will live there. The Lord will stretch out over Edom a measuring line of destruction and a plumb line of desolation.
12 Her nobles will have nothing left to call a kingdom, and all her princes will be nothing.
Its nobles won't have anything to call a kingdom; all its princes will be gone.
13 Thorns will overgrow her palaces, nettles and thistles her fortresses. It will be a habitation of jackals, a place for ostriches.
Thorns will grow over its palaces; weeds and thistles will take over its fortresses. It will be a place where jackals live, a home for owls.
14 The wild animals and the hyenas will meet there, and the wild goats will cry to one another. Nocturnal animals will settle there and find for themselves a place of rest.
It will be a meeting place for desert animals and hyenas, and wild goats will call to each other there. Night animals will settle there and find a place to rest.
15 Owls will make nests, lay and hatch their eggs, hatch and protect their young. Yes, there hawks will gather, each one with its mate.
There the owl will build its nest, lay and hatch its eggs, and raise its chicks in the shade of its wings. It has become a roost for birds of prey, each one with its mate.
16 Search through the scroll of Yahweh; not one of these will be missing. None will lack for a mate; for his mouth has commanded it, and his spirit has gathered them.
Look in the scroll of the Lord and read what it says: Not a single one of these will be missing its mate, for the Lord has ordered this to happen, and his Spirit has gathered them together.
17 He has cast lots for their places, and his hand has measured it out for them by a cord. They will possess it forever; from generation to generation they will live there.
He assigns them their territories, he divides up the land for them using a measuring line. These birds and animals will own it forever, from one generation to the next.

< Isaiah 34 >