Isaiah 34:5–17

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.