Isaiah 34-36
Contemporary English Version
The Nations Will Be Judged
34 Everyone of every nation,
the entire earth,
and all its creatures,
come here and listen!
2 The Lord is terribly angry
with the nations;
he has condemned them
to be slaughtered.
3 Their dead bodies will be left
to rot and stink;
their blood will flow
down the mountains.
4 (A) Each star[a] will disappear—
the sky will roll up
like a scroll.[b]
Everything in the sky
will dry up and wilt
like leaves on a vine
or fruit on a tree.
Trouble for Edom
5 (B) After the sword of the Lord
has done what it wants
to the skies above,[c]
it will come down on Edom,
the nation that the Lord
has doomed for destruction.
6 The sword of the Lord
is covered with blood
from lambs and goats,
together with fat
from kidneys of rams.
This is because the Lord
will slaughter many people
and make a sacrifice of them
in the city of Bozrah
and everywhere else
in Edom.
7 Edom's leaders are wild oxen.
They are powerful bulls,
but they will die
with the others.
Their country will be soaked
with their own blood,
and its soil made fertile
with their own fat.
8 The Lord has chosen
the year and the day,
when he will take revenge
and come to Zion's defense.
9 Edom's streams will turn into tar
and its soil into sulfur—
then the whole country
will go up in flames.
10 (C) It will burn night and day
and never stop smoking.
Edom will be a desert,
generation after generation;
no one will ever travel
through that land.
11 Owls, hawks, and wild animals[d]
will make it their home.
God will leave it in ruins,
merely a pile of rocks.
The End of Edom
12 Edom will be called
“Kingdom of Nothing.”
Its rulers will also be nothing.
13 Its palaces and fortresses
will be covered with thorns;
only wolves and ostriches
will make their home there.
14 Wildcats and hyenas
will hunt together,
demons will scream to demons,
and creatures of the night
will live among the ruins.
15 Owls will nest there
to raise their young
among its shadows,[e]
while families of vultures
circle around.
16 In
you can search and find
where it is written,
“The Lord brought together
all of his creatures
by the power of his Spirit.
Not one is missing.”
17 The Lord has decided
where they each should live;
they will be there forever,
generation after generation.
God's Splendor Will Be Seen
35 Thirsty deserts will be glad;
barren lands will celebrate
and blossom with flowers.
2 Deserts will bloom everywhere
and sing joyful songs.
They will be as majestic
as Mount Lebanon,
as glorious as Mount Carmel
or Sharon Valley.
Everyone will see
the wonderful splendor
of the Lord our God.
God Changes Everything
* 3 (D) Here is a message for all
who are weak, trembling,
and worried:
4 “Cheer up! Don't be afraid.
Your God is coming
to punish your enemies.
God will take revenge on them
and rescue you.”
5 (E) The blind will see,
and the ears of the deaf
will be healed.
6 (F) Those who were lame
will leap around like deer;
tongues once silent
will shout for joy.
Water will rush
through the desert.
7 Scorching sand
will turn into a lake,
and thirsty ground
will flow with fountains.
Grass will grow in deserts,
where packs of wild dogs
once made their home.[g]
God's Sacred Highway
8 A good road will be there,
and it will be named
“God's Sacred Highway.”
It will be for God's people;
no one unfit to worship God
will walk on that road.
And no fools can travel
on that highway.[h]
9 No lions or other wild animals
will come near that road;
only those the Lord has saved
will travel there.
10 The people the Lord has rescued
will come back singing
as they enter Zion.
Happiness will be a crown
everyone will always wear.
They will celebrate and shout
because all sorrows and worries
will be gone far away.
The Assyrians Surround Jerusalem
(2 Kings 18.13-27; 2 Chronicles 32.1-19)
36 Hezekiah had been king of Judah for 14 years when King Sennacherib of Assyria invaded the country and captured every walled city 2 except Jerusalem. The Assyrian king ordered his army commander to leave the city of Lachish and to take a large army to Jerusalem.
The commander went there and stood on the road near the cloth makers' shops along the canal from the upper pool. 3 Three of the king's highest officials came out of Jerusalem to meet him. One of them was Hilkiah's son Eliakim, who was the prime minister. The other two were Shebna, assistant to the prime minister, and Joah son of Asaph, keeper of the government records.
4 The Assyrian commander told them:
I have a message for Hezekiah from the great king of Assyria. Ask Hezekiah why he feels so sure of himself. 5 Does he think he can plan and win a war with nothing but words? Who is going to help him, now that he has turned against the king of Assyria? 6 (G) Is he depending on Egypt and its king? That's the same as leaning on a broken stick, and it will go right through his hand.
7 Is Hezekiah now depending on the Lord, your God? Didn't Hezekiah tear down all except one of the Lord's altars and places of worship?[i] Didn't he tell the people of Jerusalem and Judah to worship at that one place?
8 The king of Assyria wants to make a bet with you people! He will give you 2,000 horses, if you have enough troops to ride them. 9 How could you even defeat our lowest ranking officer, when you have to depend on Egypt for chariots and cavalry? 10 Don't forget that it was the Lord who sent me here with orders to destroy your nation!
11 Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said, “Sir, we don't want the people listening from the city wall to understand what you are saying. So please speak to us in Aramaic instead of Hebrew.”
12 The Assyrian army commander answered, “My king sent me to speak to everyone, not just to you leaders. These people will soon have to eat their own body waste and drink their own urine! And so will the three of you!”
13 Then, in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear, he shouted out in Hebrew:
Listen to what the great king of Assyria says! 14 Don't be fooled by Hezekiah. He can't save you. 15 Don't trust him when he tells you that the Lord will protect you from the king of Assyria. 16 Stop listening to Hezekiah. Pay attention to my king. Surrender to him. He will let you keep your own vineyards, fig trees, and cisterns 17 for a while. Then he will come and take you away to a country just like yours, where you can plant vineyards and raise your own grain.
18 Hezekiah claims the Lord will save you. But don't be fooled by him. Were any other gods able to defend their land against the king of Assyria? 19 What happened to the gods of Hamath, Arpad, and Sepharvaim? Were the gods of Samaria able to protect their land against the Assyrian forces? 20 None of those gods kept their people safe from the king of Assyria. Do you think the Lord, your God, can do any better?
21-22 Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah had been warned by King Hezekiah not to answer the Assyrian commander. So they tore their clothes in sorrow and reported to Hezekiah everything the commander had said.
Footnotes
- 34.4 star: Stars were worshiped as gods.
- 34.4 scroll: A roll of paper or specially prepared leather used for writing on.
- 34.5 has done … above: The Standard Hebrew Text; the Dead Sea Scrolls “appears in the skies above.”
- 34.11 Owls … animals: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
- 34.15 Owls … shadows: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
- 34.16 The Book of the Lord: The book that Isaiah refers to is unknown.
- 35.7 Grass … home: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
- 35.8 And … highway: Or “And not even a fool can miss that highway.”
- 36.7 worship: Hezekiah actually had torn down the places where idols were worshiped, and he had told the people to worship the Lord at the one place of worship in Jerusalem. But the Assyrian leader was confused and thought these were also places where the Lord was supposed to be worshiped.
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