Isaiah 34:5-17
Lexham English Bible
5 When my sword is drenched in the heavens,
look! It will descend upon Edom,
and upon the people of my ban, for judgment.
6 Yahweh has a sword;[a]
it is full of blood.
It is covered with[b] fat,
with[c] the blood of lambs and goats,
with[d] the fat of the kidneys of rams,
for Yahweh has a sacrifice[e] in Bozrah
and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 And wild oxen shall go down with them,
and steers with strong bulls.
And their land shall be drenched with[f] blood,
and their soil shall be fattened with[g] fat.
8 For Yahweh has a day of vengeance,[h]
a year of retribution for the strife of Zion.
9 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[i] 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[j] and thistle plants[k] 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[l] 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;[m]
none of these shall be missing;
none shall miss her mate.
For my[n] mouth is the one that[o] has commanded,
and his spirit is the one that[p] has gathered them.
17 And he is the one that[q] 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.[r]
Footnotes
- Isaiah 34:6 Literally “A sword for Yahweh”
- Isaiah 34:6 Or “from”
- Isaiah 34:6 Or “from”
- Isaiah 34:6 Or “from”
- Isaiah 34:6 Literally “a sacrifice for Yahweh”
- Isaiah 34:7 Or “from”
- Isaiah 34:7 Or “from”
- Isaiah 34:8 Literally “a day of vengeance for Yahweh”
- Isaiah 34:11 Or “And”
- Isaiah 34:13 Hebrew “weed”
- Isaiah 34:13 Hebrew “thistle plant”
- Isaiah 34:14 Hebrew transliteration; possibly a proper name for a Mesopotamian night-demon
- Isaiah 34:16 Literally “call”
- Isaiah 34:16 The Dead Sea Scroll has “his”
- Isaiah 34:16 Literally “he”
- Isaiah 34:16 Literally “he”
- Isaiah 34:17 Literally “he”
- Isaiah 34:17 Literally “to generation and generation”
Isaiah 34:5-17
Common English Bible
5 When my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens,
it will descend upon Edom for judgment,
upon a people I have doomed for destruction.
6 The Lord has a sword covered with blood;
it is soaked with fat
from the blood of lambs and goats,
from the kidney fat of rams,
for the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 Wild oxen will fall with them,
steers with mighty bulls,
and their land will be drenched with blood;
its soil soaked with fat.
8 The Lord has a day of vengeance,
a year of payback for Zion’s cause.
9 Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch,
its dust into sulfur,
and its land will become burning pitch.
10 Night and day won’t be extinguished;
its smoke will go up forever.
From generation to generation it will lie waste;
no one will ever pass through it again.
11 Screech owls and crows will possess it;
owls and ravens will live there.[a]
God will stretch over it the measuring line of chaos
and the plummet stone of emptiness over its officials.
12 No Kingdom There, they will call it,
and all its princes will disappear.
13 Thorns will grow up in its palaces,
weeds and brambles in its fortresses.
It will be a dwelling for jackals,
a home for ostriches.
14 Wildcats will meet hyenas,
the goat demon will call to his friends,
and there Lilith[b] will lurk
and find her resting place.
15 There the snake will nest and lay eggs
and brood and hatch in its shadow.
There too vultures will gather,
each with its mate.[c]
16 Consult the Lord’s scroll and read:
Not one of these will be missing;
none will lack its mate.
God’s own mouth has commanded;
God’s own spirit has gathered them.
17 God has cast the lot for them;
God’s hand allotted it to them with the measuring line.
They will possess it forever;
they will live in it from generation to generation.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 34:11 Species uncertain
- Isaiah 34:14 Name of a demon
- Isaiah 34:15 Species uncertain
2012 by Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible