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
XXXIV
1Come near, ye nations, to hear;
And hearken, ye people:
Let the earth hear, and the fulness thereof;
The world, and all things that spring from it.
2For the indignation of Jehovah is upon all nations,
And his fury upon all their armies:
He hath devoted them, he hath given them up to the slaughter.
3And their slain shall he cast out,
And from their carcases their stench shall ascend;
And the mountains shall melt with their blood.
4And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved.
And the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll;
And all their host shall fall down
As the leaf falleth off from the vine:
And as the falling of a fig from a fig-tree.
5For my sword hath already been made drunk in the heavens:
Behold, on Edom it shall descend;
And on the people justly devoted by me to destruction.
6The sword of Jehovah is glutted with blood,
It is made fat with fatness:
With the blood of lambs and of goats,
With the fat of the kidneys of rams:
For Jehovah hath a sacrifice in Bozrah,
And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7And with them shall be slaughtered the buffaloes,
And the bullocks with the bulls;
So that their land shall be drunk with blood,
And their dust made fat with fatness.
8For to Jehovah there is a day of vengeance,
A year of recompence for the vindication of Zion.
9And her streams shall be turned into pitch,
And her dust into brimstone;
And her land shall become burning pitch.
10By night or by day it shall not be extinguished,
For ever shall her smoke ascend:
From generation to generation she shall lie waste,
To everlasting ages no one shall pass through her.
11But the pelican and the porcupine shall possess it;
The owl also and the raven shall dwell in it:
And He shall stretch over her the line of devastation,
And the plummet of destruction.
12As for her nobles, there is not one there whom they might call to the government of the kingdom;
And all her princes are nothingness.
13And in her palaces shall spring up thorns;
The nettle and the bramble, in her fortresses:
And she shall be an habitation for jackals,
A dwelling-place for the daughters of the ostrich.
14And the wild cats shall meet the jackals,
And the satyr shall call to his fellow:
There also the screech owl shall resort,
And find for herself a place of rest.
15There shall the darting serpent make her nest, and lay her eggs:
And she shall hatch them, and gather her young under her shadow.
There also shall the vultures be gathered together,
Each one with her mate.
16Seek ye out of the book of Jehovah, and read:
No one of these hath been missing,
No female hath lacked her mate;
For my mouth it hath commanded,
And his Spirit it hath gathered them.
17And he hath cast the lot for them,
And his hand hath divided it for them with the line:
They shall possess it for ever;
From generation to generation shall they dwell therein.
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Translated by Rev John Jones (Ioan Tegid).Published at Oxford in 1830, second edition 1842.