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Judgment on the Nations

34 Come near, nations, to hear;
    and peoples, listen attentively!
Let the earth hear, and that which fills it;
    the world and all its offspring.
For the anger of Yahweh is against all the nations,
    and his wrath is against all their armies;
he has put them under a ban,
    he has given them up for slaughter.
And their slain shall be cast out;
    as for[a] their corpses, their stench shall go up.
And the mountains shall melt with[b] their blood,
    and all the host of heaven shall rot.
And the skies shall roll up like a scroll,
    and all their host shall wither
like the withering of a leaf from a vine,
    or[c] like the withering from a fig tree.

When my sword is drenched in the heavens,

look! It will descend upon Edom,
    and upon the people of my ban, for judgment.

Yahweh has a sword;[d]

it is full of blood.
    It is covered with[e] fat,
with[f] the blood of lambs and goats,
    with[g] the fat of the kidneys of rams,
for Yahweh has a sacrifice[h] in Bozrah
    and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
And wild oxen shall go down with them,
    and steers with strong bulls.
And their land shall be drenched with[i] blood,
    and their soil shall be fattened with[j] fat.
For Yahweh has a day of vengeance,[k]
    a year of retribution for the strife of Zion.
And its streams shall be changed to pitch and its soil to sulfur,
    and its land shall become like burning pitch.
10 Night and day it shall not be quenched;
    its smoke shall go up forever.
From generation to generation it shall be in ruins;
    forever and ever there will be no one who passes through her.
11 But[l] the large bird and the hedgehog shall take possession of it,
    and the owl and the raven shall live in it.
And he shall stretch the measuring line of confusion out over it,
    and the plumb line of emptiness.
12 Its nobles—but no kingdom is there—shall call,
    and all its princes shall be nothing.
13 And thorns shall go up her citadel fortress,
    weeds[m] and thistle plants[n] in her fortresses;
and it shall be the settlement of jackals,
    green grass for the daughters of an ostrich.
14 And desert creatures shall meet with hyenas,
    and a goat-demon shall call to his neighbor;
surely there Lilith[o] shall repose,
    and she shall find a resting place for herself.
15 There the owl shall nest and lay
    and hatch and care for her chicks in her shadow;
surely there the birds of prey shall be gathered,
    each one with her mate.

16 Seek from the book of Yahweh and read;[p]

none of these shall be missing;
    none shall miss her mate.
For my[q] mouth is the one that[r] has commanded,
    and his spirit is the one that[s] has gathered them.
17 And he is the one that[t] has cast the lot for them,
    and his hand has apportioned it to them with the measuring line;
they shall take possession of it forever,
    they shall live in it from generation to generation.[u]

Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 34:3 Or “and”
  2. Isaiah 34:3 Or “from”
  3. Isaiah 34:4 Or “and”
  4. Isaiah 34:6 Literally “A sword for Yahweh”
  5. Isaiah 34:6 Or “from”
  6. Isaiah 34:6 Or “from”
  7. Isaiah 34:6 Or “from”
  8. Isaiah 34:6 Literally “a sacrifice for Yahweh”
  9. Isaiah 34:7 Or “from”
  10. Isaiah 34:7 Or “from”
  11. Isaiah 34:8 Literally “a day of vengeance for Yahweh”
  12. Isaiah 34:11 Or “And”
  13. Isaiah 34:13 Hebrew “weed”
  14. Isaiah 34:13 Hebrew “thistle plant”
  15. Isaiah 34:14 Hebrew transliteration; possibly a proper name for a Mesopotamian night-demon
  16. Isaiah 34:16 Literally “call”
  17. Isaiah 34:16 The Dead Sea Scroll has “his”
  18. Isaiah 34:16 Literally “he”
  19. Isaiah 34:16 Literally “he”
  20. Isaiah 34:17 Literally “he”
  21. Isaiah 34:17 Literally “to generation and generation”

34 Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it.

For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter.

Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood.

And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.

For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment.

The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for the Lord hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea.

And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.

For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.

And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.

10 It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.

11 But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness.

12 They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing.

13 And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls.

14 The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest.

15 There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate.

16 Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them.

17 And he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath divided it unto them by line: they shall possess it for ever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein.