Isaiah 34
English Standard Version
Judgment on the Nations
34 Draw near, (A)O nations, to hear,
and give attention, O peoples!
Let the earth hear, and all that fills it;
the world, and all that comes from it.
2 For the Lord is enraged against all the nations,
and furious against all their host;
he has (B)devoted them to destruction,[a] has given them over for slaughter.
3 Their slain shall be cast out,
and (C)the stench of their corpses shall rise;
(D)the mountains shall flow with their blood.
4 (E)All the host of heaven shall rot away,
and the skies roll up like a scroll.
All their host shall fall,
as leaves fall from the vine,
like leaves falling from the fig tree.
5 For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens;
behold, it descends for judgment upon (F)Edom,
upon the people (G)I have devoted to destruction.
6 The Lord has a sword; it is sated with blood;
it is gorged with fat,
with the blood of lambs and goats,
with the fat of the kidneys of rams.
(H)For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 (I)Wild oxen shall (J)fall with them,
and (K)young steers with (L)the mighty bulls.
Their land shall drink its fill of blood,
and their soil shall be gorged with fat.
8 (M)For the Lord has a day of vengeance,
a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
9 (N)And the streams of Edom[b] shall be turned into pitch,
and her soil into sulfur;
her land shall become burning pitch.
10 Night and day (O)it shall not be quenched;
(P)its smoke shall go up forever.
(Q)From generation to generation it shall lie waste;
none shall pass through it forever and ever.
11 (R)But the hawk and the porcupine[c] shall possess it,
the owl and the raven shall dwell in it.
(S)He shall stretch the line of (T)confusion[d] over it,
and the plumb line of emptiness.
12 Its nobles—there is no one there to call it a kingdom,
and all its princes shall be nothing.
13 (U)Thorns shall grow over its strongholds,
nettles and thistles in its fortresses.
It shall be the haunt of (V)jackals,
an abode for ostriches.[e]
14 (W)And wild animals shall meet with hyenas;
the wild goat shall cry to his fellow;
indeed, there the night bird[f] settles
and finds for herself a resting place.
15 There the owl nests and lays
and hatches and gathers her young in her shadow;
indeed, there (X)the hawks are gathered,
each one with her mate.
16 Seek and read from the book of the Lord:
Not one of these shall be missing;
none shall be without her mate.
For the mouth of the Lord has commanded,
and his Spirit has gathered them.
17 (Y)He has cast the lot for them;
his hand has portioned it out to them with the line;
they shall possess it forever;
from generation to generation they shall dwell in it.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 34:2 That is, set apart (devoted) as an offering to the Lord (for destruction); also verse 5
- Isaiah 34:9 Hebrew her streams
- Isaiah 34:11 The identity of the animals rendered hawk and porcupine is uncertain
- Isaiah 34:11 Hebrew formlessness
- Isaiah 34:13 Or owls
- Isaiah 34:14 Identity uncertain
Isaiah 34
New Living Translation
A Message for the Nations
34 Come here and listen, O nations of the earth.
Let the world and everything in it hear my words.
2 For the Lord is enraged against the nations.
His fury is against all their armies.
He will completely destroy[a] them,
dooming them to slaughter.
3 Their dead will be left unburied,
and the stench of rotting bodies will fill the land.
The mountains will flow with their blood.
4 The heavens above will melt away
and disappear like a rolled-up scroll.
The stars will fall from the sky
like withered leaves from a grapevine,
or shriveled figs from a fig tree.
5 And when my sword has finished its work in the heavens,
it will fall upon Edom,
the nation I have marked for destruction.
6 The sword of the Lord is drenched with blood
and covered with fat—
with the blood of lambs and goats,
with the fat of rams prepared for sacrifice.
Yes, the Lord will offer a sacrifice in the city of Bozrah.
He will make a mighty slaughter in Edom.
7 Even men as strong as wild oxen will die—
the young men alongside the veterans.
The land will be soaked with blood
and the soil enriched with fat.
8 For it is the day of the Lord’s revenge,
the year when Edom will be paid back for all it did to Israel.[b]
9 The streams of Edom will be filled with burning pitch,
and the ground will be covered with fire.
10 This judgment on Edom will never end;
the smoke of its burning will rise forever.
The land will lie deserted from generation to generation.
No one will live there anymore.
11 It will be haunted by the desert owl and the screech owl,
the great owl and the raven.[c]
For God will measure that land carefully;
he will measure it for chaos and destruction.
12 It will be called the Land of Nothing,
and all its nobles will soon be gone.[d]
13 Thorns will overrun its palaces;
nettles and thistles will grow in its forts.
The ruins will become a haunt for jackals
and a home for owls.
14 Desert animals will mingle there with hyenas,
their howls filling the night.
Wild goats will bleat at one another among the ruins,
and night creatures[e] will come there to rest.
15 There the owl will make her nest and lay her eggs.
She will hatch her young and cover them with her wings.
And the buzzards will come,
each one with its mate.
16 Search the book of the Lord,
and see what he will do.
Not one of these birds and animals will be missing,
and none will lack a mate,
for the Lord has promised this.
His Spirit will make it all come true.
17 He has surveyed and divided the land
and deeded it over to those creatures.
They will possess it forever,
from generation to generation.
Footnotes
- 34:2 The Hebrew term used here refers to the complete consecration of things or people to the Lord, either by destroying them or by giving them as an offering; similarly in 34:5.
- 34:8 Hebrew to Zion.
- 34:11 The identification of some of these birds is uncertain.
- 34:12 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
- 34:14 Hebrew Lilith, possibly a reference to a mythical demon of the night.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
