Isaiah 34

1 Come near, you nations, and give ear; take note, you peoples: let the earth and everything in it give ear; the world and all those living in it.

Draw near, ye nations; and hearken, ye princes; let the earth hear, and they that are in it; the world, and the people that are therein.

2 For the Lord is angry with all the nations, and his wrath is burning against all their armies: he has put them to the curse, he has given them to destruction.

For the wrath of the Lord is upon all nations, and [his] anger upon the number of them, to destroy them, and give them up to slaughter.

3 Their dead bodies will be thick on the face of the earth, and their smell will come up, and the mountains will be flowing with their blood, and all the hills will come to nothing.

And their slain shall be cast forth, and their corpses; and their [ill] savour shall come up, and the mountains shall be made wet with their blood.

4 And the heavens will be rolled together like the roll of a book: and all their army will be gone, like a dead leaf from the vine, or a dry fruit from the fig-tree.

And all the powers of the heavens shall melt, and the sky shall be rolled up like a scroll: and all the stars shall fall like leaves from a vine, and as leaves fall from a fig-tree.

5 For my sword in heaven is full of wrath: see, it is coming down on Edom, in punishment on the people of my curse.

My sword has been made drunk in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and with judgment upon the people doomed to destruction.

6 The sword of the Lord is full of blood, it is fat with the best of the meat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the best parts of the sheep: for the Lord has a feast in Bozrah, and much cattle will be put to death in the land of Edom.

The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, it is glutted with fat, with the blood of goats and lambs, and with the fat of goats and rams: for the Lord has a sacrifice in Bosor, and a great slaughter in Idumea.

7 And the strong oxen will go down to death together with the smaller cattle.

And the mighty ones shall fall with them, and the rams and the bulls; and the land shall be soaked with blood, and shall be filled with their fat.

8 For it is the day of the Lord's punishment, when he gives payment for the wrongs done to Zion.

For it is the day of judgment of the Lord, and the year of the recompence of Sion in judgment.

9 And its streams will be turned into boiling oil, and its dust into burning stone, and all the land will be on fire.

And her valleys shall be turned into pitch, and her land into sulphur; and her land shall be as pitch burning night and day;

10 It will not be put out day or night; its smoke will go up for ever: it will be waste from generation to generation; no one will go through it for ever.

and it shall never be quenched, and her smoke shall go up: it shall be made desolate throughout her generations,

11 But the birds of the waste land will have their place there; it will be a heritage for the bittern and the raven: and it will be measured out with line and weight as a waste land.

and for a long time birds and hedgehogs, and ibises and ravens shall dwell in it: and the measuring line of desolation shall be cast over it, and satyrs shall dwell in it.

12 The jackals will be there, and her great ones will be gone; they will say, There is no longer a kingdom there, and all her chiefs will have come to an end.

Her princes shall be no more; for her kings and her great men shall be destroyed.

13 And thorns will come up in her fair houses, and waste plants in her strong towers: and foxes will make their holes there, and it will be a meeting-place for ostriches.

And thorns shall spring up in their cities, and in her strong holds: and they shall be habitations of monsters, and a court of ostriches.

14 And the beasts of the waste places will come together with the jackals, and the evil spirits will be crying to one another, even the night-spirit will come and make her resting-place there.

And devils shall meet with satyrs, and they shall cry one to the other: there shall satyrs rest, having found for themselves [a place of] rest.

15 The arrowsnake will make her hole and put her eggs there, and get her young together under her shade: there the hawks will come together by twos.

There has the hedgehog made its nest, and the earth has safely preserved its young: there have the deer met, and seen one another's faces.

16 See what is recorded in the book of the Lord: all these will be there, not one without the other: the mouth of the Lord has given the order, and his spirit has made them come together.

They passed by in [full] number, and not one of them perished: they sought not one another; for the Lord commanded them, and his Spirit gathered them.

17 And he has given them their heritage, and by his hand it has been measured out to them: it will be theirs for ever, their resting-place from generation to generation.

And he shall cast lots for them, and his hand has portioned out [their] pasture, [saying], Ye shall inherit [the land] for ever: they shall rest on it [through] all generations.