Isaiah 34 Holman Christian Standard Bible

The Judgment of the Nations

34 You nations, come here and listen;
you peoples, pay attention!^(A)
Let the earth hear, and all that fills it,
the world and all that comes from it.^(B)
²The Lord is angry with all the nations—
furious with all their armies.^(C)
He will set them apart for destruction,^(D)
giving them over to slaughter.
³Their slain will be thrown out,
and the stench of their corpses will rise;^(E)
the mountains will flow^[a] with their blood.^(F)
⁴All^[b] the heavenly bodies^(G) will dissolve.
The skies will roll up like a scroll,^(H)
and their stars will all wither
as leaves wither on the vine,
and foliage on the fig tree.^(I)

The Judgment of Edom

⁵When My sword has drunk its fill^[c]^(J) in the heavens,
it will then come down on Edom^(K)
and on the people I have set apart for destruction.
⁶The Lord’s sword is covered with blood.
It drips with fat,
with the blood of lambs and goats,
with the fat of the kidneys of rams.^(L)
For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,^(M)
a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
⁷The wild oxen will be struck^[d] down with them,
and young bulls with the mighty bulls.
Their land will be soaked with^[e] blood,
and their soil will be saturated with fat.

⁸For the Lord has a day of vengeance,^(N)
a time of paying back Edom
for its hostility against Zion.
⁹Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch,
her soil into sulfur;^(O)
her land will become burning pitch.
¹⁰It will never go out—day or night.
Its smoke will go up forever.^(P)
It will be desolate, from generation to generation;
no one will pass through it forever and ever.^(Q)
¹¹The desert owl^[f] and the screech owl^[g] will possess it,
and the great owl and the raven will dwell there.^(R)
The Lord will stretch out a measuring line
and a plumb line over her
for her destruction and chaos.^(S)
¹²No nobles will be left to proclaim a king,
and all her princes will come to nothing.
¹³Her palaces will be overgrown with thorns;
her fortified cities, with thistles and briers.^(T)
She will become a dwelling for jackals,
an abode^[h] for ostriches.^(U)
¹⁴The desert creatures will meet hyenas,
and one wild goat will call to another.
Indeed, the screech owl will stay there
and will find a resting place for herself.
¹⁵The sand partridge^[i] will make her nest there;
she will lay and hatch her eggs
and will gather her brood under her shadow.
Indeed, the birds of prey will gather there,
each with its mate.^(V)
¹⁶Search and read the scroll of the Lord:^(W)
Not one of them will be missing,
none will be lacking its mate,
because He has ordered it by my^[j] mouth,
and He will gather them by His Spirit.
¹⁷He has ordained a lot for them;
His hand allotted their portion with a measuring line.
They will possess it forever;^(X)
they will dwell in it from generation to generation.