The Judgment of the Nations

Isaiah 34   

1 You nations, come here and listen;

you peoples, pay attention! f

Let the earth and all that fills it hear,

the world and all that comes from it. g

2   The LORD is angry with all the nations,

furious with all their armies. h

He will set them apart for destruction, i

giving them over to slaughter.

3   Their slain will be thrown out,

and the stench of their corpses will rise; j

the mountains will flow S with their blood. k

4   All T the stars in the sky l will dissolve.

The sky will roll up like a scroll, m

and its stars will all wither

as leaves wither on the vine,

and foliage on the fig tree. n

The Judgment of Edom

5   When my sword has drunk its fill U,o in the heavens,

it will then come down on Edom p

and on the people I have set apart for destruction.

6   The LORDS sword is covered with blood.

It drips with fat,

with the blood of lambs and goats,

with the fat of the kidneys of rams. q

For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, r

a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

7   The wild oxen will be struck V down with them,

and young bulls with the mighty bulls.

Their land will be soaked with W blood,

and their soil will be saturated with fat.

8   For the LORD has a day of vengeance, s

a time of paying back Edom

for its hostility against Zion.

9   Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch,

her soil into sulfur; t

her land will become burning pitch.

10   It will never go out—day or night.

Its smoke will go up forever. u

It will be desolate, from generation to generation;

no one will pass through it forever and ever. v

11   Eagle owls X and herons Y will possess it,

and long-eared owls and ravens will dwell there. w

The LORD will stretch out a measuring line

and a plumb line over her

for her destruction and chaos. x

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. y

She will become a dwelling for jackals,

an abode Z for ostriches. z

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 A 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. a

16   Search and read the scroll of the LORD: b

Not one of them will be missing,

none will be lacking its mate,

because he has ordered it by my B 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; c

they will dwell in it from generation to generation.