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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Isaiah 34: ERV
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© 1987, 2004 Bible League International
Isaiah 34
34
1 #
Is 63.1-6; Jer 49.7-22; Ezek 25.12-14; 35; Amos 1.11-12; Obad; Mal 1.2-5. Draw near, O nations, to hear,
and hearken, O peoples!
Let the earth listen, and all that fills it;
the world, and all that comes from it.
2For the Lord is enraged against all the nations,
and furious against all their host,
he has doomed them, has given them over for slaughter.
3Their slain shall be cast out,
and the stench of their corpses shall rise;
the mountains shall flow with their blood.
4 #
Rev 6.13-14. All 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.
5For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens;
behold, it descends for judgment upon Edom,
upon the people I have doomed.
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.
7Wild oxen shall fall with them,
and young steers with the mighty bulls.
Their land shall be soaked with blood,
and their soil made rich with fat.
8For the Lord has a day of vengeance,
a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
9 #
Rev 19.3. And the streams of Edom#34.9 Heb her streams shall be turned into pitch,
and her soil into brimstone;
her land shall become burning pitch.
10Night and day it shall not be quenched;
its smoke shall go up for ever.
From generation to generation it shall lie waste;
none shall pass through it for ever and ever.
11But the hawk and the porcupine shall possess it,
the owl and the raven shall dwell in it.
He shall stretch the line of confusion over it,
and the plummet of chaos over#34.11 Heb lacks over its nobles.
12They shall name it No Kingdom There,
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.
14And wild beasts shall meet with hyenas,
the satyr shall cry to his fellow;
yea, there shall the night hag alight,
and find for herself a resting place.
15There shall the owl nest and lay
and hatch and gather her young in her shadow;
yea, there shall the kites be gathered,
each one with her mate.
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 for ever,
from generation to generation they shall dwell in it.
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Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America