Isaiah 33:10-36:22

New Living Translation

¹⁰ But the Lord says: “Now I will stand up.
    Now I will show my power and might.
¹¹ You Assyrians produce nothing but dry grass and stubble.
    Your own breath will turn to fire and consume you.
¹² Your people will be burned up completely,
    like thornbushes cut down and tossed in a fire.
¹³ Listen to what I have done, you nations far away!
    And you that are near, acknowledge my might!”

¹⁴ The sinners in Jerusalem shake with fear.
    Terror seizes the godless.
“Who can live with this devouring fire?” they cry.
    “Who can survive this all-consuming fire?”
¹⁵ Those who are honest and fair,
    who refuse to profit by fraud,
    who stay far away from bribes,
who refuse to listen to those who plot murder,
    who shut their eyes to all enticement to do wrong—
¹⁶ these are the ones who will dwell on high.
    The rocks of the mountains will be their fortress.
Food will be supplied to them,
    and they will have water in abundance.

¹⁷ Your eyes will see the king in all his splendor,
    and you will see a land that stretches into the distance.
¹⁸ You will think back to this time of terror, asking,
“Where are the Assyrian officers
    who counted our towers?
Where are the bookkeepers
    who recorded the plunder taken from our fallen city?”
¹⁹ You will no longer see these fierce, violent people
    with their strange, unknown language.

²⁰ Instead, you will see Zion as a place of holy festivals.
    You will see Jerusalem, a city quiet and secure.
It will be like a tent whose ropes are taut
    and whose stakes are firmly fixed.
²¹ The Lord will be our Mighty One.
    He will be like a wide river of protection
that no enemy can cross,
    that no enemy ship can sail upon.
²² For the Lord is our judge,
    our lawgiver, and our king.
    He will care for us and save us.
²³ The enemies’ sails hang loose
    on broken masts with useless tackle.
Their treasure will be divided by the people of God.
    Even the lame will take their share!
²⁴ The people of Israel will no longer say,
    “We are sick and helpless,”
    for the Lord will forgive their sins.

⁵ And when my sword has finished its work in the heavens,
    it will fall upon Edom,
    the nation I have marked for destruction.
⁶ The sword of the Lord is drenched with blood
    and covered with fat—
with the blood of lambs and goats,
    with the fat of rams prepared for sacrifice.
Yes, the Lord will offer a sacrifice in the city of Bozrah.
    He will make a mighty slaughter in Edom.
⁷ Even men as strong as wild oxen will die—
    the young men alongside the veterans.
The land will be soaked with blood
    and the soil enriched with fat.

⁸ For it is the day of the Lord’s revenge,
    the year when Edom will be paid back for all it did to Israel.^[b]
9 The streams of Edom will be filled with burning pitch,
    and the ground will be covered with fire.
¹⁰ This judgment on Edom will never end;
    the smoke of its burning will rise forever.
The land will lie deserted from generation to generation.
    No one will live there anymore.
¹¹ It will be haunted by the desert owl and the screech owl,
    the great owl and the raven.^[c]
For God will measure that land carefully;
    he will measure it for chaos and destruction.
¹² It will be called the Land of Nothing,
    and all its nobles will soon be gone.^[d]
13 Thorns will overrun its palaces;
    nettles and thistles will grow in its forts.
The ruins will become a haunt for jackals
    and a home for owls.
¹⁴ Desert animals will mingle there with hyenas,
    their howls filling the night.
Wild goats will bleat at one another among the ruins,
    and night creatures^[e] will come there to rest.
¹⁵ There the owl will make her nest and lay her eggs.
    She will hatch her young and cover them with her wings.
And the buzzards will come,
    each one with its mate.

¹⁶ Search the book of the Lord,
    and see what he will do.
Not one of these birds and animals will be missing,
    and none will lack a mate,
for the Lord has promised this.
    His Spirit will make it all come true.
¹⁷ He has surveyed and divided the land
    and deeded it over to those creatures.
They will possess it forever,
    from generation to generation.

⁵ And when he comes, he will open the eyes of the blind
    and unplug the ears of the deaf.
⁶ The lame will leap like a deer,
    and those who cannot speak will sing for joy!
Springs will gush forth in the wilderness,
    and streams will water the wasteland.
⁷ The parched ground will become a pool,
    and springs of water will satisfy the thirsty land.
Marsh grass and reeds and rushes will flourish
    where desert jackals once lived.

⁸ And a great road will go through that once deserted land.
    It will be named the Highway of Holiness.
Evil-minded people will never travel on it.
    It will be only for those who walk in God’s ways;
    fools will never walk there.
⁹ Lions will not lurk along its course,
    nor any other ferocious beasts.
There will be no other dangers.
    Only the redeemed will walk on it.
¹⁰ Those who have been ransomed by the Lord will return.
    They will enter Jerusalem^[f] singing,
    crowned with everlasting joy.
Sorrow and mourning will disappear,
    and they will be filled with joy and gladness.