Isaiah 34:1–6

The Fires Burning Day and Night

¹34Draw in close now, nations. Listen carefully,

you people. Pay attention!

Earth, you, too, and everything in you.

World, and all that comes from you.

^2–4And here’s why: God is angry,

good and angry with all the nations,

So blazingly angry at their arms and armies

that he’s going to rid earth of them, wipe them out.

The corpses, thrown in a heap,

will stink like the town dump in midsummer,

Their blood flowing off the mountains

like creeks in spring runoff.

Stars will fall out of the sky

like overripe, rotting fruit in the orchard,

And the sky itself will be folded up like a blanket

and put away in a closet.

All that army of stars, shriveled to nothing,

like leaves and fruit in autumn, dropping and rotting!

^5–7“Once I’ve finished with earth and sky,

I’ll start in on Edom.

I’ll come down hard on Edom,

a people I’ve slated for total termination.”

God has a sword, thirsty for blood and more blood,

a sword hungry for well-fed flesh,

Lamb and goat blood,

the suet-rich kidneys of rams.

Yes, God has scheduled a sacrifice in Bozrah, the capital,

the whole country of Edom a slaughterhouse.