New Living Translation
Isaiah • Chapter 34
1
Come here and listen, O nations of the earth.<br>Let the world and everything in it hear my words.<br>
2
For the LORD is enraged against the nations.<br>His fury is against all their armies.<br>He will completely destroy them,<br>dooming them to slaughter.<br>
3
Their dead will be left unburied,<br>and the stench of rotting bodies will fill the land.<br>The mountains will flow with their blood.<br>
4
The heavens above will melt away<br>and disappear like a rolled-up scroll.<br>The stars will fall from the sky<br>like withered leaves from a grapevine,<br>or shriveled figs from a fig tree.<br>
5
And when my sword has finished its work in the heavens,<br>it will fall upon Edom,<br>the nation I have marked for destruction.<br>
6
The sword of the LORD is drenched with blood<br>and covered with fat —<br>with the blood of lambs and goats,<br>with the fat of rams prepared for sacrifice.<br>Yes, the LORD will offer a sacrifice in the city of Bozrah.<br>He will make a mighty slaughter in Edom.<br>
7
Even men as strong as wild oxen will die —<br>the young men alongside the veterans.<br>The land will be soaked with blood<br>and the soil enriched with fat.<br>
8
For it is the day of the LORD’s revenge,<br>the year when Edom will be paid back for all it did to Israel.<br>
9
The streams of Edom will be filled with burning pitch,<br>and the ground will be covered with fire.<br>
10
This judgment on Edom will never end;<br>the smoke of its burning will rise forever.<br>The land will lie deserted from generation to generation.<br>No one will live there anymore.<br>
11
It will be haunted by the desert owl and the screech owl,<br>the great owl and the raven.<br>For God (Elohim) will measure that land carefully;<br>he will measure it for chaos and destruction.<br>
12
It will be called the Land of Nothing,<br>and all its nobles will soon be gone.<br>
13
Thorns will overrun its palaces;<br>nettles and thistles will grow in its forts.<br>The ruins will become a haunt for jackals<br>and a home for owls.<br>
14
Desert animals will mingle there with hyenas,<br>their howls filling the night.<br>Wild goats will bleat at one another among the ruins,<br>and night creatures will come there to rest.<br>
15
There the owl will make her nest and lay her eggs.<br>She will hatch her young and cover them with her wings.<br>And the buzzards will come,<br>each one with its mate.<br>
16
Search the book of the LORD,<br>and see what he will do.<br>Not one of these birds and animals will be missing,<br>and none will lack a mate,<br>for the LORD has promised this.<br>His Spirit will make it all come true.<br>
17
He has surveyed and divided the land<br>and deeded it over to those creatures.<br>They will possess it forever,<br>from generation to generation.<br>