Isaiah 034 English Standard Version

Judgment on the Nations

34 Draw near, ^(A)O nations, to hear,
    and give attention, O peoples!
Let the earth hear, and all that fills it;
    the world, and all that comes from it.
²For the Lord is enraged against all the nations,
    and furious against all their host;
    he has ^(B)devoted them to destruction,^[a] has given them over for slaughter.
³Their slain shall be cast out,
    and ^(C)the stench of their corpses shall rise;
    ^(D)the mountains shall flow with their blood.
⁴^(E)All the host of heaven shall rot away,
    and the skies roll up like a scroll.
All their host shall fall,
    as leaves fall from the vine,
    like leaves falling from the fig tree.

⁵For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens;
    behold, it descends for judgment upon ^(F)Edom,
    upon the people ^(G)I have devoted to destruction.
⁶The Lord has a sword; it is sated with blood;
    it is gorged with fat,
    with the blood of lambs and goats,
    with the fat of the kidneys of rams.
^(H)For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
    a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
⁷^(I)Wild oxen shall ^(J)fall with them,
    and ^(K)young steers with ^(L)the mighty bulls.
Their land shall drink its fill of blood,
    and their soil shall be gorged with fat.

⁸^(M)For the Lord has a day of vengeance,
    a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
⁹^(N)And the streams of Edom^[b] shall be turned into pitch,
    and her soil into sulfur;
    her land shall become burning pitch.
¹⁰Night and day ^(O)it shall not be quenched;
    ^(P)its smoke shall go up forever.
^(Q)From generation to generation it shall lie waste;
    none shall pass through it forever and ever.
¹¹^(R)But the hawk and the porcupine^[c] shall possess it,
    the owl and the raven shall dwell in it.
^(S)He shall stretch the line of ^(T)confusion^[d] over it,
    and the plumb line of emptiness.
¹²Its nobles—there is no one there to call it a kingdom,
    and all its princes shall be nothing.

¹³^(U)Thorns shall grow over its strongholds,
    nettles and thistles in its fortresses.
It shall be the haunt of ^(V)jackals,
    an abode for ostriches.^[e]
¹⁴^(W)And wild animals shall meet with hyenas;
    the wild goat shall cry to his fellow;
indeed, there the night bird^[f] settles
    and finds for herself a resting place.

¹⁵There the owl nests and lays
    and hatches and gathers her young in her shadow;
indeed, there ^(X)the hawks are gathered,
    each one with her mate.
¹⁶Seek and read from the book of the Lord:
    Not one of these shall be missing;
    none shall be without her mate.
For the mouth of the Lord has commanded,
    and his Spirit has gathered them.
¹⁷^(Y)He has cast the lot for them;
    his hand has portioned it out to them with the line;
they shall possess it forever;
    from generation to generation they shall dwell in it.

Footnotes

Isaiah 34:2 That is, set apart (devoted) as an offering to the Lord (for destruction); also verse 5
Isaiah 34:9 Hebrew her streams
Isaiah 34:11 The identity of the animals rendered hawk and porcupine is uncertain
Isaiah 34:11 Hebrew formlessness
Isaiah 34:13 Or owls
Isaiah 34:14 Identity uncertain