Isaiah 34–35

God Will Punish His Enemies

34All you nations, come near and listen.

Pay attention, you peoples!

The earth and all the people in it should listen,

the world and everything in it.

²The Lord is angry with all the nations;

he is angry with their armies.

He will destroy them and kill them all.

³Their bodies will be thrown outside.

The stink will rise from the bodies,

and the blood will flow down the mountains.

⁴The sun, moon, and stars will dissolve,

and the sky will be rolled up like a scroll.

The stars will fall

like dead leaves from a vine

or dried-up figs from a fig tree.

⁵The Lord’s sword in the sky is covered with blood.

It will cut through Edom

and destroy those people as an offering to the Lord.

⁶The Lord’s sword will be covered with blood;

it will be covered with fat,

with the blood from lambs and goats,

with the fat from the kidneys of sheep.

This is because the Lord decided there will be a sacrifice in Bozrah

and much killing in Edom.

⁷The oxen will be killed,

and the cattle and the strong bulls.

The land will be filled with their blood,

and the dirt will be covered with their fat.

⁸The Lord has chosen a time for punishment.

He has chosen a year when people must pay for the wrongs they did to Jerusalem.

⁹Edom’s rivers will be like hot tar.

Its dirt will be like burning sulfur.

Its land will be like burning tar.

¹⁰The fires will burn night and day;

the smoke will rise from Edom forever.

Year after year that land will be empty;

no one will ever travel through that land again.

¹¹Birds and small animals will own that land,

and owls and ravens will live there.

God will make it an empty wasteland;

it will have nothing left in it.

¹²The important people will have no one left to rule them;

the leaders will all be gone.

¹³Thorns will take over the strong towers,

and wild bushes will grow in the walled cities.

It will be a home for wild dogs

and a place for owls to live.

¹⁴Desert animals will live with the hyenas,

and wild goats will call to their friends.

Night animals will live there

and find a place of rest.

¹⁵Owls will nest there and lay eggs.

When they hatch open, the owls will gather their young under their wings.

Hawks will gather

with their own kind.

¹⁶Look at the Lord’s scroll and read what is written there:

None of these will be missing;

none will be without its mate.

God has given the command,

so his Spirit will gather them together.

¹⁷God has divided the land among them,

and he has given them each their portion.

So they will own that land forever

and will live there year after year.

God Will Comfort His People

35The desert and dry land will become happy;

the desert will be glad and will produce flowers.

Like a flower, ²it will have many blooms.

It will show its happiness, as if it were shouting with joy.

It will be beautiful like the forest of Lebanon,

as beautiful as the hill of Carmel and the Plain of Sharon.

Everyone will see the glory of the Lord

and the splendor of our God.

³Make the weak hands strong

and the weak knees steady.

⁴Say to people who are frightened,

“Be strong. Don’t be afraid.

Look, your God will come,

and he will punish your enemies.

He will make them pay for the wrongs they did,

but he will save you.”

⁵Then the blind people will see again,

and the deaf will hear.

⁶Crippled people will jump like deer,

and those who can’t talk now will shout with joy.

Water will flow in the desert,

and streams will flow in the dry land.

⁷The burning desert will have pools of water,

and the dry ground will have springs.

Where wild dogs once lived,

grass and water plants will grow.

⁸A road will be there;

this highway will be called “The Road to Being Holy.”

Evil people will not be allowed to walk on that road;

only good people will walk on it.

No fools will go on it.

⁹No lions will be there,

nor will dangerous animals be on that road.

They will not be found there.

That road will be for the people God saves;

¹⁰the people the Lord has freed will return there.

They will enter Jerusalem with joy,

and their happiness will last forever.

Their gladness and joy will fill them completely,

and sorrow and sadness will go far away.