Isaiah 34

The Judgment of the Nations

1 You nations, come here and listen;

you peoples, pay attention!  * 34:1 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.  * 34:1 Ps 24:1; Is 6:3; 42:5

2 The Lord is angry with all the nations,

furious with all their armies.  * 34:2 Is 13:5; Jr 10:10; 50:13

He will set them apart for destruction,  * 34:2 Jos 6:21; 1Sm 15:3; Is 11:5; 24:1,6; 43:28

giving them over to slaughter.

3 Their slain will be thrown out,

and the stench of their corpses will rise;  * 34:3 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.  * 34:3 Ps 46:2–3

4 All  * 34:4 DSS read And the valleys will be split, and all the stars in the sky  * 34:4 2Kg 17:16; 21:3,5; 23:4–5 will dissolve.

The sky will roll up like a scroll,  * 34:4 Rv 6:12–14

and its stars will all wither

as leaves wither on the vine,

and foliage on the fig tree.  * 34:4 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

5 When my sword has drunk its fill  * 34:5 DSS read sword will appear,* 34:5 Dt 32:41–43; Jr 46:10; Ezk 21:3–5 in the heavens,

it will then come down on Edom  * 34:5 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.

6 The 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.  * 34:6 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,  * 34:6 Gn 36:33; Is 63:1; Jr 49:13,22

a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

7 The 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.

8 For the Lord has a day of vengeance,  * 34:8 Is 13:6; 35:4; 47:3; 61:2; 63:4

a time of paying back Edom

for its hostility against Zion.

9 Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch,

her soil into sulfur;  * 34:9 Gn 19:24; Dt 29:23; Ps 11:6; Is 30:33; Ezk 38:22

her land will become burning pitch.

10 It will never go out — day or night.

Its smoke will go up forever.  * 34:10 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.  * 34:10 Is 13:20–22; Ezk 29:11; Mal 1:3–4

11 Eagle owls  * 34:11 Or Pelicans and herons  * 34:11 Or hedgehogs will possess it,

and long-eared owls and ravens will dwell there.  * 34:11 Is 13:21–22; 14:23; Zph 2:14

The Lord will stretch out a measuring line

and a plumb line  * 34:11 Am 7:7–9 over her

for her destruction and chaos.  * 34:11 2Kg 21:13; Is 24:10; Lm 2:8

12 No nobles will be left to proclaim a king,

and all her princes will come to nothing.

13 Her palaces will be overgrown with thorns;

her fortified cities, with thistles and briers.  * 34:13 Is 32:13

She will become a dwelling for jackals,

an abode  * 34:13 DSS, LXX, Syr, Tg; MT reads jackals, grass for ostriches.  * 34:13 Ps 44:19; Is 13:22; Jr 9:11; 10:22; Mal 1:3

14 The 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.

15 Sand 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.  * 34:15 Dt 14:13

16 Search and read the scroll of the  Lord:  * 34:16 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.

17 He has cast the lot for them;

his hand allotted their portion with a measuring line.

They will possess it forever;  * 34:17 Nm 24:18

they will dwell in it from generation to generation.