Isa 34 | BSB | STEP | Come near, O nations, to listen; pay attention, O peoples. Let the earth hear, and all that fills it, the world and all that springs from it.

Isaiah 34

God's Judgments on the Nations

1 Come near, O nations, to listen; pay attention, O peoples. Let the earth hear, and all that fills it, the world and all that springs from it. 2 The LORD is angry with all the nations and furious with all their armies. He will set them apart for destruction; ^{▼▼The Hebrew term refers to giving over things or persons to the LORD, either by destroying them or by giving them as an offering; also in verse 5} He will give them over to slaughter. 3 Their slain will be left unburied, and the stench of their corpses will rise; the mountains will flow with their blood. 4 All the stars of heaven will be dissolved. The skies will be rolled up like a scroll, and all their stars will fall like withered leaves on the vine, and foliage on the fig tree. 5 When My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens, then it will come down upon Edom, on the people I have set apart for destruction. 6 The sword of the LORD is bathed in blood. It drips 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. 7 And the wild oxen will fall with them, the young bulls with the strong [ones] . Their land will be drenched with blood, and their soil will be soaked with fat. 8 For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a time of retribution for [Edom’s] hostility against Zion. 9 Her streams will be turned to tar, and her soil to sulfur; her land will become a blazing pitch. 10 It will not be quenched— day or night. Its smoke will ascend forever. From generation to generation it will lie desolate; no one will ever pass through it [again] . 11 The desert owl and screech owl will possess it, and the great owl and raven will dwell in it. ^{▼▼The precise identification of these animals is uncertain} The LORD will stretch out over [Edom] a measuring line of chaos and a plumb line of destruction. 12 No nobles will be left to proclaim a king, and all her princes will come to nothing. 13 Her towers will be overgrown with thorns, her fortresses with thistles and briers. She will become a haunt for jackals, an abode for ostriches. 14 The desert creatures will meet with hyenas, and one wild goat will call to another. There the nocturnal creature will settle and find her place of repose. 15 There the owl will make her nest; she will lay and hatch her eggs and gather her brood under her shadow. Even there the birds of prey will gather, each with its mate. 16 Search and read the scroll of the LORD: Not one of these will go missing, not one will lack her mate, because He has ordered it by His mouth, and He will gather them by His Spirit. 17 He has allotted their portion; His hand has distributed it by measure. They will possess it forever; they will dwell in it from generation to generation.