Isaiah 34–36

Judgment on the Nations

³⁴Draw near, O nations, to hear;

O peoples, give heed!

Let the earth hear and all that fills it,

the world and all that comes from it.^*

²For the Lord is enraged against all the nations

and furious against all their hordes;

he has doomed them, has given them over for slaughter.^*

³Their slain shall be cast out,

and the stench of their corpses shall rise;

the mountains shall flow with their blood.^*

⁴All the host of heaven shall rot away,

and the skies roll up like a scroll.

All their host shall wither

like a leaf withering on a vine

or fruit withering on a fig tree.^*

⁵When my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens,

upon Edom it will fall,

upon the people I have doomed to judgment.^*

⁶The Lord has a sword; it is sated with blood;

it is gorged with fat,

with the blood of lambs and goats,

with the fat of the kidneys of rams.

For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,

a great slaughter in the land of Edom.^*

⁷Wild oxen shall fall with them

and young steers with the mighty bulls.

Their land shall be soaked with blood,

and their soil made rich with fat.^*

⁸For the Lord has a day of vengeance,

a year of vindication for Zion’s cause.^p*

⁹And the streams of Edom^q shall be turned into pitch

and her soil into sulfur;

her land shall become burning pitch.^*

¹⁰Night and day it shall not be quenched;

its smoke shall go up forever.

From generation to generation it shall lie waste;

no one shall pass through it forever and ever.^*

¹¹But the desert owl^r and the screech owl^s shall possess it;

the great owl and the raven shall live in it.

He shall stretch the line of confusion

and the plummet of chaos over it.^*

¹²They shall call its nobles No Kingdom There,

and all its princes shall be nothing.

¹³Thorns shall grow over its strongholds,

nettles and thistles in its fortresses.

It shall be the haunt of jackals,

an abode for ostriches.^*

¹⁴Wildcats shall meet with hyenas;

goat-demons shall call to each other;

there also Lilith shall repose

and find a place to rest.^*

¹⁵There shall the owl nest

and lay and hatch and brood in its shadow;

there also the buzzards shall gather,

each one with its mate.^*

¹⁶Seek and read from the book of the Lord:

Not one of these shall be missing;

none shall be without its mate.

For his mouth, it has commanded,

and his spirit, it has gathered them.^*

¹⁷He has cast the lot for them;

his hand has portioned it out to them with the line.

[[They shall possess it;

from generation to generation they shall live in it.^*

The Return of the Redeemed to Zion

³⁵The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad;

the desert shall rejoice and blossom;

like the crocus^{* 2}it shall blossom abundantly

and rejoice with joy and shouting.

The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,

the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.

They shall see the glory of the Lord,

the majesty of our God.]]^t*

³Strengthen the weak hands

and make firm the feeble knees.^*

⁴Say to those who are of a fearful heart,

“Be strong, do not fear!

Here is your God.

He will come with vengeance,

with terrible recompense.

He will come and save you.”^*

⁵Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,

and the ears of the deaf shall be opened;^*

⁶then the lame shall leap like a deer,

and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.

For waters shall break forth in the wilderness

and streams in the desert;^*

⁷the burning sand shall become a pool

and the thirsty ground springs of water;

the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp;^u

the grass shall become reeds and rushes.^*

⁸A highway shall be there,^v

and it shall be called the Holy Way;

the unclean shall not travel on it,^w

but it shall be for God’s people;^x

no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray.^*

⁹No lion shall be there,

nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;

they shall not be found there,

but the redeemed shall walk there.^*

¹⁰And the ransomed of the Lord shall return

and come to Zion with singing;

everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;

they shall obtain joy and gladness,

and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.^*

Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem

³⁶In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, King Sennacherib of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.^{* 2}The king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh with a great army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. He stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the fuller’s field.^{* 3}And there came out to him Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the recorder.^*

⁴The Rabshakeh said to them, “Say to Hezekiah: Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you base this reliance of yours?^{* 5}Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? On whom, then, do you now rely, that you have rebelled against me?^{* 6}See, you are relying on Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him.^{* 7}But if you say to me, ‘We rely on the Lord our God,’ [[is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’?]]^{y* 8}Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. ⁹How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master’s servants, when you rely on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?^{* 10}Moreover, is it without the Lord that I have come up against this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.”

¹¹Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”^{* 12}But the Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you and not to the people sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?”

¹³Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!^{* 14}Thus says the king: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you.^{* 15}Do not let Hezekiah make you rely on the Lord by 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: Make your peace with me and come out to me; then every one of you will eat from your own vine and your own fig tree and drink water from your own cistern,^{* 17}until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards. ¹⁸Do not let Hezekiah mislead you by saying, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ Has any of the gods of the nations delivered their land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?^{* 19}Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?^{* 20}Who among all the gods of these countries have delivered their countries out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?”^*

²¹But they were silent and answered him not a word, for the king’s command was, “Do not answer him.” ²²Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.^*