Isaiah 34:5–17
5 When my sword has drunk its fillF,v in the heavens,
it will then come down on Edomw
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.x
For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,y
a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 The wild oxen will be struckG down with them,
and young bulls with the mighty bulls.
Their land will be soaked withH blood,
and their soil will be saturated with fat.
8 For the Lord has a day of vengeance,z
a time of paying back Edom
for its hostility against Zion.
9 Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch,
her soil into sulfur;aa
her land will become burning pitch.
10 It will never go out—day or night.
Its smoke will go up forever.ab
It will be desolate, from generation to generation;
no one will pass through it forever and ever.a
11 Eagle owlsA and heronsB will possess it,
and long-eared owls and ravens will dwell there.b
The Lord will stretch out a measuring line
and a plumb line* over her
for her destruction and chaos.c
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.d
She will become a dwelling for jackals,
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 partridgesD 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.f
16 Search and read the scroll of the Lord:g
Not one of them will be missing,
none will be lacking its mate,
because he has ordered it by myE 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;h
they will dwell in it from generation to generation.