Isaiah 34
34
God Will Punish His Enemies
1All you nations, come near and listen! Listen, all you people. The earth and everyone on it should listen to these things. Everything in this world should hear this. 2The Lord is angry with all the nations and their armies. He will destroy them all and put them to death. 3Their bodies will be thrown outside. The stink will rise from the bodies, and the blood will flow down the mountains. 4The skies will be rolled shut like a scroll,#34:4 rolled shut like a scroll This is like someone closing a book when they have finished reading it. and the stars will die and fall like leaves from a vine or a fig tree. All the stars#34:4 stars Literally, “the armies of the skies.” in the sky will rot away. 5The Lord says, “This will happen when my sword in the sky is covered with blood.”
Look, the Lord’s sword will cut through Edom. He judged them guilty, and they must die.#34:5 guilty, and they must die The Hebrew means the people belonged completely to God, and if he does not get them, they must die. 6The Lord decided there should be a time for killing in Bozrah and in Edom. So the sword of the Lord is covered with blood and fat. The blood is from the “goats.” The fat is from the kidneys of the “rams.”#34:6 goats … rams This probably refers to the people and leaders of Edom. 7So the rams, the cattle, and the strong bulls will be killed. The land will be filled with their blood. The dirt will be covered with their fat.
8This will happen because the Lord has chosen a time for punishment. He has chosen a year when people must pay for the wrong they did to Zion. 9Edom’s rivers will be like hot tar. Edom’s ground will be like burning sulfur. 10The fires will burn day and night—no one will stop the fire. The smoke will rise from Edom forever. The land will be destroyed forever and ever. No one will ever travel through that land again. 11Birds and small animals will own that land. It will be a home for owls and ravens. God will leave that land in ruins. People will call it “the empty desert.”#34:11 God … desert Literally, “He will stretch over it the measuring string of ‘emptiness’ and the stone weights of ‘nothingness.’” These two words described the empty earth in Gen. 1:2. 12The free men#34:12 free men Important citizens of a town or country. These people came from “good families” and had never been slaves. and leaders will all be gone, and there will be nothing left for them to rule.
13Thorns and wild bushes will grow in all the beautiful homes there. Wild dogs and owls will live in them. Wild animals will make their homes there. Big birds will live in the grasses that grow there. 14Wild cats will live there with hyenas.#34:14 hyenas A kind of wild dog that often eats the meat of dead animals that other animals killed. Wild goats#34:14 Wild goats The Hebrew word means “hairy,” “goat,” or “goat-demon.” will call to their friends. Night animals#34:14 Night animals Or “Lilith, the night demon.” This name is like the Hebrew word for night. will spend some time there and find a place to rest. 15Snakes will make their homes there and lay their eggs. The eggs will open, and small snakes will crawl from the dark places. Birds that eat dead things will gather there like women visiting their friends.
16Look in the Lord’s scroll and read what it says: Not one of these will be missing. Not one will be without its mate. God said he would make this happen, so his Spirit will bring them together. 17God decided what he should do with them, and then he chose a place for them. He drew a line and showed them their land. So the animals will own that land forever. They will live there year after year.
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© 1987, 2004 Bible League International
Isaiah 34
34
The Judgment of the Nations
1You nations, come here and listen;
you peoples, pay attention!#Ps 49:1; Is 1:2; 41:1; 43:9; 45:20
Let the earth and all that fills it hear,
the world and all that comes from it.#Ps 24:1; Is 6:3; 42:5
2The Lord is angry with all the nations,
furious with all their armies.#Is 13:5; Jr 10:10; 50:13
He will set them apart for destruction,#Jos 6:21; 1Sm 15:3; Is 11:5; 24:1,6; 43:28
giving them over to slaughter.
3Their slain will be thrown out,
and the stench of their corpses will rise;#Is 14:21; 18:6; Ezk 39:17; Jl 2:10; Am 4:10; Rv 19:17–19
the mountains will flow#34:3 Or melt, or dissolve with their blood.#Ps 46:2–3
4All#34:4 DSS read And the valleys will be split, and all the stars in the sky#2Kg 17:16; 21:3,5; 23:4–5 will dissolve.
The sky will roll up like a scroll,#Rv 6:12–14
and its stars will all wither
as leaves wither on the vine,
and foliage on the fig tree.#Ps 102:25–27; Is 13:10; 51:6; Ezk 32:7–8; Jl 3:15; Mt 24:29; Mk 13:24–25; 2Pt 3:10,12
The Judgment of Edom
5When my sword has drunk its fill#34:5 DSS read sword will appear#Dt 32:41–43; Jr 46:10; Ezk 21:3–5 in the heavens,
it will then come down on Edom#Nm 20:14–21; Is 63:1; Jr 49:7–8,20; Ezk 25:12–14; 35:1–15; Jl 3:19; Am 1:11–12; Ob 1–14; Mal 1:4
and on the people I have set apart for destruction.
6The Lord’s sword is covered with blood.
It drips with fat,
with the blood of lambs and goats,
with the fat of the kidneys of rams.#Is 25:6; 30:32; Jr 46:10; 51:40; Ezk 39:17; Zph 1:7–9
For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,#Gn 36:33; Is 63:1; Jr 49:13,22
a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7The wild oxen will be struck#34:7 Or will go down with them,
and young bulls with the mighty bulls.
Their land will be soaked with#34:7 Or will drink its fill of blood,
and their soil will be saturated with fat.
8For the Lord has a day of vengeance,#Is 13:6; 35:4; 47:3; 61:2; 63:4
a time of paying back Edom
for its hostility against Zion.
9Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch,
her soil into sulfur;#Gn 19:24; Dt 29:23; Ps 11:6; Is 30:33; Ezk 38:22
her land will become burning pitch.
10It will never go out — day or night.
Its smoke will go up forever.#Is 1:31; 66:24; Rv 14:11; 19:3
It will be desolate, from generation to generation;
no one will pass through it forever and ever.#Is 13:20–22; Ezk 29:11; Mal 1:3–4
11Eagle owls#34:11 Or Pelicans and herons#34:11 Or hedgehogs will possess it,
and long-eared owls and ravens will dwell there.#Is 13:21–22; 14:23; Zph 2:14
The Lord will stretch out a measuring line
and a plumb line#Am 7:7–9 over her
for her destruction and chaos.#2Kg 21:13; Is 24:10; Lm 2:8
12No nobles will be left to proclaim a king,
and all her princes will come to nothing.
13Her palaces will be overgrown with thorns;
her fortified cities, with thistles and briers.#Is 32:13
She will become a dwelling for jackals,
an abode#34:13 DSS, LXX, Syr, Tg; MT reads jackals, grass for ostriches.#Ps 44:19; Is 13:22; Jr 9:11; 10:22; Mal 1:3
14The desert creatures will meet hyenas,
and one wild goat will call to another.
Indeed, the night birds will stay there
and will find a resting place.
15Sand partridges#34:15 Or Arrow snakes, or Owls will make their nests there;
they will lay and hatch their eggs
and will gather their broods under their shadows.
Indeed, the birds of prey will gather there,
each with its mate.#Dt 14:13
16Search and read the scroll of the Lord:#Ps 40:7; 139:16; Is 8:16; 30:8; Dn 7:10; Mal 3:16; Rv 20:12
Not one of them will be missing,
none will be lacking its mate,
because he has ordered it by my#34:16 Some Hb mss; other Hb mss, DSS, Syr, Tg read his mouth,
and he will gather them by his Spirit.
17He has cast the lot for them;
his hand allotted their portion with a measuring line.
They will possess it forever;#Nm 24:18
they will dwell in it from generation to generation.
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