Isaiah Chapter 34
An Oracle for the Nations
1 Come close, nations, and listen!
world and everything in it, pay attention.
2 The LORD is furious with the nations and their armies;
he’ll destroy them and deliver them to slaughter.
3 Their slain will be thrown out;
their corpses will reek;
their blood will soak the hillsides.
4 The stars will fade out;
the sky will roll up like a scroll.
it’ll wither away
like leaves on a grapevine or fig tree.
Is 34:1-4
5 “My sword has drunk its fill in the sky;
it will come down in condemnation on Edom,
a nation I’ve devoted to complete destruction.
6My sword will be bloody,
covered with the blood of lambs and goats,
with the fat on the kidneys of rams;
because I’ll hold a sacrifice in Bozrah,
a great slaughter in Edom.
7Wild oxen will fall with them,
male calves and great bulls;
Its ground will be soaked with blood;
its dust will be greasy from fat.”
Is 34:6-7
8 The LORD will have a day of vengeance,
a year of payback for what Edom did to Zion.
9 Edom’s wadis will run with pitch;
its dirt will become sulfur;
its ground will be covered with burning tar.
10 It won’t go out day or night;
its smoke will rise endlessly.
Generation after generation it won’t be inhabited;
nobody will ever travel through it.
11 Hawks and hedgehogs will take it over;
owls and ravens will roost there.
God will stretch out a measuring line over it for desolation,
hold a plumb line on it for chaos.
Is 34:8-11
12 There won’t be anyone to call king;
no princes, or nobles.
13 Thorns will grow in its fortresses;
nettles and thistles will come up in its forts.
It’ll be a haunt for jackals,
a home for owls.
14 Desert animals will mix with hyenas;
hairy goats will bleat to one another;
the night monster [Lilith] will settle down to rest there.
15 Owls will make nests and lay their eggs there;
they’ll hatch them and gather the brood under their shadow.
Buzzards will gather there in nesting pairs.
Is 34:12-15
16 Read about them in the Book of the LORD;
every one is mentioned there with its mate
because he has commanded,
and his Spirit will gather them by kinds in pairs.
17He has surveyed the land
and deeded it over to them forever.
Is 34:16-17