1Nations, come near and listen to me! Pay attention to what I’m about to say. Let the earth and everything in it listen. Let the world and everything that comes out of it pay attention.2The LORD is angry with all the nations. His anger is against all their armies. He will totally destroy them. He will let them be killed.3Those who are killed won’t be buried. Their dead bodies will be thrown on the ground. They will stink. Their blood will cover the mountains.4All the stars in the sky will vanish. The heavens will be rolled up like a scroll. All the stars in the sky will fall like dried-up leaves from a vine. They will drop like wrinkled figs from a fig tree.5The sword of the LORD will finish its deadly work in the sky. Then it will come down to strike Edom. He will totally destroy that nation.6His sword will be red with blood. It will be covered with fat. The blood will flow like the blood of lambs and goats being sacrificed. The fat will be like the fat taken from the kidneys of rams. That’s because the LORD will offer a sacrifice in the city of Bozrah. He will kill many people in the land of Edom.7The people and their leaders will be killed like wild oxen and young bulls. Their land will be wet with their blood. The dust will be covered with their fat.8That’s because the LORD has set aside a day to pay Edom back. He has set aside a year to pay them back. He will pay them back for what they did to Zion.9The streams of Edom will be turned into tar. Its dust will be turned into blazing sulphur. Its land will become burning tar.10The fire will keep burning night and day. It can’t be put out. Its smoke will go up for ever. Edom will lie empty for all time to come. No one will ever travel through it again.11The desert owl and screech owl will make it their home. The great owl and the raven will build their nests there. God will use his measuring line to show how completely Edom will be destroyed. He will use his plumb line to show how empty Edom will become.12Edom’s nobles won’t have anything left there that can be called a kingdom. All its princes will vanish.13Thorns will cover its forts. Bushes and weeds will cover its safest places. It will become a home for wild dogs. It will become a place where owls live.14Desert creatures will meet with hyenas. Wild goats will call out to each other. Night creatures will also lie down there. They will find places where they can rest.15Owls will make their nests and lay their eggs there. And they will hatch them. They will take care of their little ones under the shadow of their wings. Male and female falcons will also gather there.16Look in the book of the LORD. Here is what you will read there. None of those animals will be missing. Male and female alike will be there. The LORD himself has commanded it. And his Spirit will gather them together.17The LORD will decide what part of the land goes to each animal. Then he will give each one its share. It will belong to them for ever. And they will live there for all time to come.
Isaiah 34
English Standard Version
Judgment on the Nations
1Draw near, O nations, to hear, and give attention, O peoples! Let the earth hear, and all that fills it; the world, and all that comes from it. (Ps 49:1; Joe 3:1)2For the Lord is enraged against all the nations, and furious against all their host; he has devoted them to destruction,[1] has given them over for slaughter. (Jos 6:21)3Their slain shall be cast out, and the stench of their corpses shall rise; the mountains shall flow with their blood. (Eze 39:4; Joe 2:20)4All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling from the fig tree. (Ps 102:26; Joe 2:31; Joe 3:15; Mt 24:29; Ac 2:20; Heb 1:11; Re 6:13)5For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; behold, it descends for judgment upon Edom, upon the people I have devoted to destruction. (Isa 34:2; Isa 63:1; Jer 49:7; Ob 1:1; Mal 1:2)6The Lord has a sword; it is sated with blood; it is gorged 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, a great slaughter in the land of Edom. (Isa 63:1)7Wild oxen shall fall with them, and young steers with the mighty bulls. Their land shall drink its fill of blood, and their soil shall be gorged with fat. (Nu 23:22; Ps 22:12; Isa 47:1)8For the Lord has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion. (Ps 137:7; Isa 61:2; Isa 63:4)9And the streams of Edom[2] shall be turned into pitch, and her soil into sulfur; her land shall become burning pitch. (De 29:23)10Night and day it shall not be quenched; its smoke shall go up forever. From generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever. (Isa 66:24; Mal 1:4; Re 14:11; Re 18:18; Re 19:3)11But the hawk and the porcupine[3] shall possess it, the owl and the raven shall dwell in it. He shall stretch the line of confusion[4] over it, and the plumb line of emptiness. (2Ki 21:13; Isa 14:23; Isa 24:10; La 2:8; Am 7:7; Zep 2:14; Re 18:2)12Its nobles—there is no one there to call it a kingdom, and all its princes shall be nothing.13Thorns shall grow over its strongholds, nettles and thistles in its fortresses. It shall be the haunt of jackals, an abode for ostriches.[5] (Ps 44:19; Isa 13:22; Isa 32:13; Mal 1:3)14And wild animals shall meet with hyenas; the wild goat shall cry to his fellow; indeed, there the night bird[6] settles and finds for herself a resting place. (Isa 13:21)15There the owl nests and lays and hatches and gathers her young in her shadow; indeed, there the hawks are gathered, each one with her mate. (De 14:13)16Seek and read from the book of the Lord: Not one of these shall be missing; none shall be without her mate. For the mouth of the Lord has commanded, and his Spirit has gathered them.17He has cast the lot for them; his hand has portioned it out to them with the line; they shall possess it forever; from generation to generation they shall dwell in it. (Ps 78:55)