Isaiah 34
34
The Fires Burning Day and Night
1Draw in close now, nations. Listen carefully,
you people. Pay attention!
Earth, you, too, and everything in you.
World, and all that comes from you.
2-4And here’s why: God is angry,
good and angry with all the nations,
So blazingly angry at their arms and armies
that he’s going to rid earth of them, wipe them out.
The corpses, thrown in a heap,
will stink like the town dump in midsummer,
Their blood flowing off the mountains
like creeks in spring runoff.
Stars will fall out of the sky
like overripe, rotting fruit in the orchard,
And the sky itself will be folded up like a blanket
and put away in a closet.
All that army of stars, shriveled to nothing,
like leaves and fruit in autumn, dropping and rotting!
5-7“Once I’ve finished with earth and sky,
I’ll start in on Edom.
I’ll come down hard on Edom,
a people I’ve slated for total termination.”
God has a sword, thirsty for blood and more blood,
a sword hungry for well-fed flesh,
Lamb and goat blood,
the suet-rich kidneys of rams.
Yes, God has scheduled a sacrifice in Bozrah, the capital,
the whole country of Edom a slaughterhouse.
A wholesale slaughter, wild animals
and farm animals alike slaughtered.
The whole country soaked with blood,
all the ground greasy with fat.
8-15It’s God’s scheduled time for vengeance,
the year all Zion’s accounts are settled.
Edom’s streams will flow sluggish, thick with pollution,
the soil sterile, poisoned with waste,
The whole country
a smoking, stinking garbage dump—
The fires burning day and night,
the skies black with endless smoke.
Generation after generation of wasteland—
no more travelers through this country!
Vultures and skunks will police the streets;
owls and crows will feel at home there.
God will reverse creation. Chaos!
He will cancel fertility. Emptiness!
Leaders will have no one to lead.
They’ll name it No Kingdom There,
A country where all kings
and princes are unemployed.
Thistles will take over, covering the castles,
fortresses conquered by weeds and thornbushes.
Wild dogs will prowl the ruins,
ostriches have the run of the place.
Wildcats and hyenas will hunt together,
demons and devils dance through the night.
The night-demon Lilith, evil and rapacious,
will establish permanent quarters.
Scavenging carrion birds will breed and brood,
infestations of ominous evil.
16-17Get and read God’s book:
None of this is going away,
this breeding, brooding evil.
God has personally commanded it all.
His Spirit set it in motion.
God has assigned them their place,
decreed their fate in detail.
This is permanent—
generation after generation, the same old thing.
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Isaiah 34: MSG
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Isaiah 34
34
The Nations Will Be Judged
1Everyone of every nation,
the entire earth,
and all its creatures,
come here and listen!
2The Lord is terribly angry
with the nations;
he has condemned them
to be slaughtered.
3Their dead bodies will be left
to rot and stink;
their blood will flow
down the mountains.
4 #
Mt 24.29; Mk 13.25; Lk 21.26; Rev 6.13,14. Each star#34.4 star: Stars were worshiped as gods. will disappear—
the sky will roll up
like a scroll.#34.4 scroll: A roll of paper or specially prepared leather used for writing on.
Everything in the sky
will dry up and wilt
like leaves on a vine
or fruit on a tree.
Trouble for Edom
5 #
Is 63.1-6; Jr 49.7-22; Ez 25.12-14; 35.1-15; Am 1.11,12; Ob 1-14; Ml 1.2-5. After the sword of the Lord
has done what it wants
to the skies above,#34.5 has done … above: The Standard Hebrew Text; the Dead Sea Scrolls “appears in the skies above.”
it will come down on Edom,
the nation that the Lord
has doomed for destruction.
6The sword of the Lord
is covered with blood
from lambs and goats,
together with fat
from kidneys of rams.
This is because the Lord
will slaughter many people
and make a sacrifice of them
in the city of Bozrah
and everywhere else
in Edom.
7Edom's leaders are wild oxen.
They are powerful bulls,
but they will die
with the others.
Their country will be soaked
with their own blood,
and its soil made fertile
with their own fat.
8The Lord has chosen
the year and the day,
when he will take revenge
and come to Zion's defense.
9Edom's streams will turn into tar
and its soil into sulfur—
then the whole country
will go up in flames.
10 #
Rev 14.11; 19.3. It will burn night and day
and never stop smoking.
Edom will be a desert,
generation after generation;
no one will ever travel
through that land.
11Owls, hawks, and wild animals#34.11 Owls … animals: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
will make it their home.
God will leave it in ruins,
merely a pile of rocks.
The End of Edom
12Edom will be called
“Kingdom of Nothing.”
Its rulers will also be nothing.
13Its palaces and fortresses
will be covered with thorns;
only wolves and ostriches
will make their home there.
14Wildcats and hyenas
will hunt together,
demons will scream to demons,
and creatures of the night
will live among the ruins.
15Owls will nest there
to raise their young
among its shadows,#34.15 Owls … shadows: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
while families of vultures
circle around.
16In The Book of the Lord#34.16 The Book of the Lord: The book that Isaiah refers to is unknown.
you can search and find
where it is written,
“The Lord brought together
all of his creatures
by the power of his Spirit.
Not one is missing.”
17The Lord has decided
where they each should live;
they will be there forever,
generation after generation.
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.