Isaiah 34–36

THE JUDGMENT OF THE NATIONS

34You nations, come here and listen;

you peoples, pay attention!^m

Let the earth and all that fills it hear,

the world and all that comes from it.ⁿ

²The Lord is angry with all the nations,

furious with all their armies.^o

He will set them apart for destruction,^p

giving them over to slaughter.

³Their slain will be thrown out,

and the stench of their corpses will rise;^q

the mountains will flow^A with their blood.^r

⁴All^B the stars in the sky^s will dissolve.

The sky will roll up like a scroll,^t

and its stars will all wither

as leaves wither on the vine,

and foliage on the fig tree.^u

THE JUDGMENT OF EDOM

⁵When my sword has drunk its fill^Cv in the heavens,

it will then come down on Edom^w

and on the people I have set apart for destruction.

⁶The 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.

⁷The wild oxen will be struck^D down with them,

and young bulls with the mighty bulls.

Their land will be soaked with^E blood,

and their soil will be saturated with fat.

⁸For the Lord has a day of vengeance,^z

a time of paying back Edom

for its hostility against Zion.

⁹Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch,

her soil into sulfur;^aa

her land will become burning pitch.

¹⁰It 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

¹¹Eagle owls^A and herons^B 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

¹²No nobles will be left to proclaim a king,

and all her princes will come to nothing.

¹³Her palaces will be overgrown with thorns;

her fortified cities, with thistles and briers.^d

She will become a dwelling for jackals,

an abode^C for ostriches.^e

¹⁴The 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.

¹⁵Sand partridges^D 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

¹⁶Search 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 my^E mouth,

and he will gather them by his Spirit.

¹⁷He 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.

THE RANSOMED RETURN TO ZION

35The wilderness and the dry land will be glad;

the desert will rejoice and blossom like a wildflower.^Fi

²It will blossom abundantly

and will also rejoice with joy and singing.

The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,

the splendor of Carmel and Sharon.^j

They will see the glory of the Lord,^k

the splendor of our God.^l

³Strengthen the weak hands,

steady the shaking knees!^m

⁴Say to the cowardly:

“Be strong; do not fear!

Here is your God; vengeance is coming.ⁿ

God’s retribution is coming; he will save you.”^o

⁵Then the eyes of the blind will be opened,

and the ears of the deaf unstopped.^p

⁶Then the lame will leap like a deer,^q

and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy,^r

for water will gush in the wilderness,

and streams in the desert;^s

⁷the parched ground will become a pool,

and the thirsty land, springs.^t

In the haunt of jackals,^u in their lairs,

there will be grass, reeds, and papyrus.

⁸A road will be there and a way;^v

it will be called the Holy Way.^w

The unclean will not travel on it,^x

but it will be for the one who walks the path.^y

Fools will not wander on it.

⁹There will be no lion there,

and no vicious beast will go up on it;

they will not be found there.

But the redeemed will walk on it,

¹⁰and the ransomed of the Lord will return^z

and come to Zion with singing,

crowned with unending joy.

Joy and gladness will overtake them,

and sorrow and sighing will flee.^aa

SENNACHERIB’S INVASION

36In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah,^ab King Sennacherib of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. ²Then the king of Assyria sent his royal spokesman, along with a massive army, from Lachish^a to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. The Assyrian stood near the conduit of the upper pool, by the road to Launderer’s Field.^{b 3}Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the court secretary,^c and Joah son of Asaph, the court historian, came out to him.

⁴The royal spokesman said to them, “Tell Hezekiah:

The great king, the king of Assyria, says this: What are you relying on? ⁵You think mere words are strategy and strength for war. Who are you now relying on that you have rebelled against me?^{d 6}Look, you are relying on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff^e that will pierce the hand of anyone who grabs it and leans on it. This is how Pharaoh king of Egypt is to all who rely on him.^{f 7}Suppose you say to me, ‘We rely on the Lord our God.’ Isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You are to worship at this altar’?^g

⁸“Now make a deal with my master, the king of Assyria. I’ll give you two thousand horses if you’re able to supply riders for them! ⁹How then can you drive back a single officer among the least of my master’s servants? How can you rely on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?^{h 10}Have I attacked this land to destroy it without the Lord’s approval? The Lord said to me, ‘Attack this land and destroy it.’ ”

¹¹Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the royal spokesman, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic,ⁱ since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew within earshot of the people who are on the wall.”

¹²But the royal spokesman replied, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men who are sitting on the wall, who are destined with you to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?”

¹³Then the royal spokesman stood and called out loudly in Hebrew:

Listen to the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! ¹⁴This is what the king says: “Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you,^j for he cannot rescue you. ¹⁵Don’t let Hezekiah persuade you to rely on the Lord, saying, ‘The Lord will certainly rescue us! This city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.’ ”

¹⁶Don’t listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: “Make peace^B with me and surrender to me. Then every one of you may eat from his own vine and his own fig tree^k and drink water from his own cistern ¹⁷until I come and take you away to a land like your own land—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. ¹⁸Beware that Hezekiah does not mislead you by saying, ‘The Lord will rescue us.’^l Has any one of the gods of the nations^m rescued his land from the power of the king of Assyria? ¹⁹Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad?ⁿ Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they rescued Samaria from my power?^{o 20}Who among all the gods of these lands ever rescued his land from my power? So will the Lord rescue Jerusalem from my power?”

²¹But they kept silent; they didn’t say anything, for the king’s command was, “Don’t answer him.”^{p 22}Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the court secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the court historian, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and reported to him the words of the royal spokesman.