Isaiah 34–36

Chapter 34

God’s Wrath against Nations

¹Draw near, ^aO nations, to hear; and listen, O peoples!

^bLet the earth and ¹all it contains hear, and the world and all that springs from it.

²For the Lord’s ^aindignation is against all the nations,

And His wrath against all their armies;

He has ^1butterly destroyed them,

He has given them over to ^cslaughter.

³So their slain will be ^athrown out,

And their corpses ¹will give off their ^bstench,

And the mountains will ²be drenched with their ^cblood.

⁴And ^aall the host of heaven will ¹wear away,

And the ^bsky will be rolled up like a scroll;

All their hosts will also wither away

As a leaf withers from the vine,

Or as one withers from the fig tree.

⁵For ^aMy sword is satiated in heaven,

Behold it shall descend for judgment upon ^bEdom

And upon the people whom I have ^cdevoted to destruction.

⁶The sword of the Lord is filled with blood,

It is ¹sated with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats,

With the fat of the kidneys of rams.

For the Lord has a sacrifice in ^aBozrah

And a great slaughter in the land of ^bEdom.

^7aWild oxen will also ¹fall with them

And ^byoung bulls with strong ones;

Thus their land will be ^csoaked with blood,

And their dust ²become greasy with fat.

⁸For the Lord has a day of ^avengeance,

A year of recompense for the ¹cause of Zion.

⁹¹Its streams will be turned into pitch,

And its loose earth into ^abrimstone,

And its land will become burning pitch.

¹⁰It will ^anot be quenched night or day;

Its ^bsmoke will go up forever.

From ^cgeneration to generation it will be desolate;

^dNone will pass through it forever and ever.

¹¹But ^1apelican and hedgehog will possess it,

And ²owl and raven will dwell in it;

And He will stretch over it the ^bline of ³desolation

And the ⁴plumb line of emptiness.

¹²Its nobles—there is ^ano one there

Whom they may proclaim king—

And all its princes will be ^bnothing.

¹³Thorns will come up in its ^afortified towers,

Nettles and thistles in its fortified cities;

It will also be a haunt of ^bjackals

And an abode of ostriches.

¹⁴The desert ^acreatures will meet with the ¹wolves,

The ²hairy goat also will cry to its kind;

Yes, the ³night monster will settle there

And will find herself a resting place.

¹⁵The tree snake will make its nest and lay eggs there,

And it will hatch and gather them under its ¹protection.

Yes, ^athe ²hawks will be gathered there,

Every one with its kind.

¹⁶Seek from the ^abook of the Lord, and read:

Not one of these will be missing;

None will lack its mate.

For ^1bHis mouth has commanded,

And His Spirit has gathered them.

¹⁷He has cast the ^alot for them,

And His hand has divided it to them by ^bline.

They shall possess it forever;

From ^cgeneration to generation they will dwell in it.

Chapter 35

Zion’s Happy Future

¹The ^awilderness and the desert will be glad,

And the ^1bArabah will rejoice and blossom;

Like the crocus

²It will ^ablossom profusely

And ^brejoice with rejoicing and shout of joy.

The ^cglory of Lebanon will be given to it,

The majesty of ^dCarmel and Sharon.

They will see the ^eglory of the Lord,

The majesty of our God.

^3aEncourage the ¹exhausted, and strengthen the ²feeble.

⁴Say to those with ^aanxious heart,

“Take courage, fear not.

Behold, your God will come with ^bvengeance;

The ^crecompense of God will come,

But He will ^dsave you.”

⁵Then the ^aeyes of the blind will be opened

And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.

⁶Then the ^alame will leap like a deer,

And the ^btongue of the mute will shout for joy.

For waters will break forth in the ^cwilderness

And streams in the ¹Arabah.

⁷The ¹scorched land will become a pool

And the thirsty ground ^asprings of water;

In the ^bhaunt of jackals, its resting place,

Grass becomes reeds and rushes.

^8aA highway will be there, ^ba roadway,

And it will be called the Highway of ^cHoliness.

The unclean will not travel on it,

But it will be for him who walks that way,

And ^dfools will not wander on it.

⁹No ^alion will be there,

Nor will any vicious beast go up on it;

¹These will not be found there.

But ^bthe redeemed will walk there,

¹⁰And ^athe ransomed of the Lord will return

And come with joyful shouting to Zion,

With everlasting joy upon their heads.

They will ¹find gladness and joy,

And ^bsorrow and sighing will flee away.

Chapter 36

Sennacherib Invades Judah

^1aNow in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, ^bSennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them.

²And the ^aking of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a large army. And he stood by the ^bconduit of the upper pool on the highway of the ¹fuller’s field.

³Then ^aEliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and ^bShebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to him.

⁴Then ^aRabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, “What is this confidence that you ¹have?

⁵“I say, ‘Your counsel and strength for the war are only ¹empty words.’ Now on whom do you rely, that ^ayou have rebelled against me?

⁶“Behold, you rely on the ^astaff of this crushed reed, even on Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his ¹hand and pierce it. ^bSo is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him.

⁷“But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God,’ is it not He ^awhose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’?

⁸“Now therefore, ¹come make a bargain with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them.

⁹“How then can you ¹repulse one ²official of the least of my master’s servants and ^3arely on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

¹⁰“Have I now come up ¹without the Lord’s approval against this land to destroy it? ^aThe Lord said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.’ ” ’ ”

¹¹Then Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, “Speak now to your servants in ^aAramaic, for we ¹understand it; and do not speak with us in ^2bJudean in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”

¹²But Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”

¹³Then Rabshakeh stood and ^acried with a loud voice in Judean and said, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria.

¹⁴“Thus says the king, ‘Do not let Hezekiah ^adeceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you;

¹⁵nor let Hezekiah make you ^atrust in the Lord, saying, “The Lord will surely deliver us, this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”

¹⁶‘Do not listen to Hezekiah,’ for thus says the king of Assyria, ‘¹Make your peace with me and come out to me, and eat each of his ^avine and each of his fig tree and drink each of the ^bwaters of 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.

¹⁸‘Beware that Hezekiah does not mislead you, saying, “^aThe Lord will deliver us.” Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?

¹⁹‘Where are the gods of ^aHamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? And when have they ^bdelivered Samaria from my hand?

²⁰‘Who among all the ^agods of these lands have delivered their land from my hand, that the ^bLord would deliver Jerusalem from my hand?’ ”

²¹But they were silent and ^aanswered him not a word; for the king’s commandment was, “Do not answer him.”

²²Then ^aEliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and ^bShebna the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of Rabshakeh.