Isaiah 34:5-17

Christian Standard Bible

⁵ When my sword has drunk its fill^[a](A) in the heavens,
it will then come down on Edom^(B)
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.^(C)
For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,^(D)
a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
⁷ The wild oxen will be struck^[b] down with them,
and young bulls with the mighty bulls.
Their land will be soaked with^[c] blood,
and their soil will be saturated with fat.
⁸ For the Lord has a day of vengeance,^(E)
a time of paying back Edom
for its hostility against Zion.
⁹ Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch,
her soil into sulfur;^(F)
her land will become burning pitch.
¹⁰ It will never go out—day or night.
Its smoke will go up forever.^(G)
It will be desolate, from generation to generation;
no one will pass through it forever and ever.^(H)
11 Eagle owls^[d] and herons^[e] will possess it,
and long-eared owls and ravens will dwell there.^(I)
The Lord will stretch out a measuring line
and a plumb line^(J) over her
for her destruction and chaos.^(K)
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.^(L)
She will become a dwelling for jackals,
an abode^[f] for ostriches.^(M)
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^[g] 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.^(N)
16 Search and read the scroll of the Lord:^(O)
Not one of them will be missing,
none will be lacking its mate,
because he has ordered it by my^[h] 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;^(P)
they will dwell in it from generation to generation.