Isaiah 34

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.