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.

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 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.

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 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.

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 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.

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 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.

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 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 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 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.

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 it will be a day of vengeance for Yahweh and a year when he will pay them back 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 The streams of Edom will be turned into pitch, her dust into sulfur, and her 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 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.

and it shall never be quenched, and her smoke shall go up: it shall be made desolate throughout her generations,

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.

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 Her nobles will have nothing left to call a kingdom, and all her princes will be nothing.

Her princes shall be no more; for her kings and her great men shall be destroyed.

13 Thorns will overgrow her palaces, nettles and thistles her fortresses. It will be a habitation of jackals, a place 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 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.

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 nests, lay and hatch their eggs, hatch and protect their young. Yes, there hawks will gather, each one 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 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.

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 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.

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.