Isaiah 34–35

Chapter 34

¹Draw near, O nations, to hear,

and hearken, O peoples!

Let the earth listen, 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 host,

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 fall,

as leaves fall from the vine,

like leaves falling from the fig tree.

⁵For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens;

behold, it descends for judgment upon Edom,

upon the people I have doomed.

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 recompense for the cause of Zion.

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

and her soil into brimstone;

her land shall become burning pitch.

¹⁰Night and day it shall not be quenched;

its smoke shall go up for ever.

From generation to generation it shall lie waste;

none shall pass through it for ever and ever.

¹¹But the hawk and the porcupine shall possess it,

the owl and the raven shall dwell in it.

He shall stretch the line of confusion over it,

and the plummet of chaos over its nobles.

¹²They shall name it 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.

¹⁴And wild beasts shall meet with hyenas,

the satyr shall cry to his fellow;

yea, there shall the night hag alight,

and find for herself a resting place.

¹⁵There shall the owl nest and lay

and hatch and gather her young in her shadow;

yea, there shall the kites be gathered,

each one with her mate.

¹⁶Seek and read from the book of the Lord:

Not one of these shall be missing;

none shall be without her mate.

For the mouth of the Lord has commanded,

and his Spirit 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 for ever,

from generation to generation they shall dwell in it.

Chapter 35

¹The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad,

the desert shall rejoice and blossom;

like the crocus ²it shall blossom abundantly,

and rejoice with joy and singing.

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.

³Strengthen the weak hands,

and make firm the feeble knees.

⁴Say to those who are of a fearful heart,

“Be strong, fear not!

Behold, your God

will come with vengeance,

with the recompense of God.

He will come and save you.”

⁵Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,

and the ears of the deaf unstopped;

⁶then shall the lame man leap like a hart,

and the tongue of the dumb 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,^c

the grass shall become reeds and rushes.

⁸And a highway shall be there,

and it shall be called the Holy Way;

the unclean shall not pass over it,

and fools shall not err therein.

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.