Isaiah 34

Judgment upon the Nations

1Come near, nations, and hear; peoples, pay attention!
Let the earth and all that fills it listen,
the world and all that springs from it. 2The LORD is angry with all nations,
furious with all their armies.
He has devoted them to destruction,
handed them over for slaughter. 3Their slain will be thrown out;
the stench of their corpses will rise,
and mountains will melt with their blood. 4All heaven’s host will decay,
and the heavens roll up like a scroll.
All their host will wither,
like a leaf withering on a vine,
like one withering on a fig tree.

5“My sword has drunk its fill in heaven.
Look! It descends on Edom,
on the people I have devoted to destruction, for judgment.” 6The LORD has a sword filled with blood,
smeared with fat—
the blood of lambs and goats, the fat of rams’ kidneys.
For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
a great slaughter in Edom’s land. 7Wild oxen will fall with them,
young bulls with mighty bulls.
Their land will drink its fill of blood,
and their dust be enriched with fat. 8For the LORD has a day of vengeance,
a year of repayment for Zion’s cause.

9Edom’s streams will turn to pitch,
its dust to sulfur;
its land will become burning pitch. 10Night and day it will not go out;
its smoke will rise forever.
From generation to generation it will lie waste;
no one will pass through it forever and ever. 11Pelican and hedgehog will possess it;
owl and raven will live there.
He will stretch over it the measuring line of emptiness
and the plumb stones of waste. 12Its nobles—there is no one there to proclaim king;
all its officials will be nothing.

13Thorns will rise in its palaces,
nettles and brambles in its strongholds.
It will become a home for jackals,
an enclosure for ostriches. 14Desert creatures will meet hyenas;
a goat-demon will call to its fellow.
There Lilith will settle
and find herself a resting place. 15There an owl will nest and lay eggs,
hatch them and gather her young in her shade.
There the kites will gather,
each with its mate. 16Seek in the LORD’s scroll and read:
not one of these will be missing;
none will lack its mate.
For my mouth has commanded it,
and his spirit has gathered them.

17He has cast the lot for them;
his hand has divided it for them with a measuring line.
They will possess it forever,
live there from generation to generation.