Isaiah 34–36

The Judgment of the Nations

34You nations, come here and listen;

you peoples, pay attention! ⁱ

Let the earth hear, and all that fills it,

the world and all that comes from it. ^j

²The Lord is angry with all the nations—

furious with all their armies. ^k

He will set them apart for destruction, ^l

giving them over to slaughter.

³Their slain will be thrown out,

and the stench of their corpses will rise; ^m

the mountains will flow ⁿwith their blood. ^o

⁴All ^pthe heavenly bodies ^qwill dissolve.

The skies will roll up like a scroll, ^r

and their stars will all wither

as leaves wither on the vine,

and foliage on the fig tree. ^s

The Judgment of Edom

⁵When My sword has drunk its fill ^tuin the heavens,

it will then come down on Edom ^v

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. ^w

For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah, ^x

a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

⁷The wild oxen will be struck ^ydown with them,

and young bulls with the mighty bulls.

Their land will be soaked with ^zblood,

and their soil will be saturated with fat.

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

a time of paying back Edom

for its hostility against Zion.

⁹Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch,

her soil into sulfur; ^b

her land will become burning pitch.

¹⁰It will never go out—day or night.

Its smoke will go up forever. ^c

It will be desolate, from generation to generation;

no one will pass through it forever and ever. ^d

¹¹The desert owl ^eand the screech owl ^fwill possess it,

and the great owl and the raven will dwell there. ^g

The Lord will stretch out a measuring line

and a plumb line over her

for her destruction and chaos. ^h

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. ⁱ

She will become a dwelling for jackals,

an abode ^jfor ostriches. ^k

¹⁴The desert creatures will meet hyenas,

and one wild goat will call to another.

Indeed, the screech owl will stay there

and will find a resting place for herself.

¹⁵The sand partridge ^lwill make her nest there;

she will lay and hatch her eggs

and will gather her brood under her shadow.

Indeed, the birds of prey will gather there,

each with its mate. ^m

¹⁶Search and read the scroll of the Lord: ⁿ

Not one of them will be missing,

none will be lacking its mate,

because He has ordered it by my ^omouth,

and He will gather them by His Spirit.

¹⁷He has ordained a lot for them;

His hand allotted their portion with a measuring line.

They will possess it forever; ^p

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 rose. ^qrs

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. ^t

They will see the glory of the Lord, ^u

the splendor of our God. ^v

³Strengthen the weak hands,

steady the shaking knees! ^w

⁴Say to the cowardly:

“Be strong; do not fear!

Here is your God; vengeance is coming. ^x

God’s retribution is coming; He will save you.” ^y

⁵Then the eyes of the blind will be opened,

and the ears of the deaf unstopped. ^z

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

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

for water will gush in the wilderness,

and streams in the desert; ^c

⁷the parched ground will become a pool of water,

and the thirsty land springs of water. ^d

In the haunt of jackals, ^ein their lairs,

there will be grass, reeds, and papyrus.

⁸A road will be there and a way; ^f

it will be called the Holy Way. ^g

The unclean will not travel on it, ^h

but it will be for the one who walks the path. ⁱ

Even the fool will not go astray.

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 redeemed of the Lord will return ^j

and come to Zion with singing,

crowned with unending joy.

Joy and gladness will overtake them,

and sorrow and sighing will flee. ^k

Sennacherib’s Invasion

36In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, ^lSennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. ²Then the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh, along with a massive army, from Lachish ^mto King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. The Assyrian stood near the conduit of the upper pool, by the road to the Fuller’s Field. ⁿ³Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the court secretary, ^oand Joah son of Asaph, the court historian, came out to him.

⁴The Rabshakeh said to them, “Tell Hezekiah:

The great king, the king of Assyria, says this: What are you relying on? ^p5I ^qsay that your strategy and military preparedness are mere words. What are you now relying on that you have rebelled against me? ^r6Look, you are trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff ^sthat will enter and pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. This is how Pharaoh king of Egypt is to all who trust in him. ^t7Suppose you say to me, ‘We trust in 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’? ^u

⁸Now make a deal with my master, the king of Assyria. I’ll give you 2,000 horses if you’re able to supply riders for them! ⁹How then can you drive back a single officer among the weakest of my master’s officers and trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen? ^v10Have 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 Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, ^wsince we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew ^xwithin earshot of the people who are on the wall.”

¹²But the Rabshakeh 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 Rabshakeh stood and called out loudly in Hebrew: ^y

Listen to the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! ¹⁴This is what the king says: “Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you, ^zfor he cannot deliver you. ¹⁵Don’t let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord, saying, ‘The Lord will certainly deliver 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 ^awith me and surrender to me. Then every one of you may eat from his own vine and his own fig tree ^band 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 deliver us.’ ^cHas any one of the gods of the nations ^ddelivered his land from the power of the king of Assyria? ¹⁹Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? ^eWhere are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my power? ^f20Who among all the gods of these lands ever delivered his land from my power? So will the Lord deliver Jerusalem.”

²¹But they kept silent; they didn’t say anything, for the king’s command was, “Don’t answer him.” ^g22Then 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 Rabshakeh.