Isaiah 33:1--35:10

The Lord Will Restore Zion

33:1 The destroyer is as good as dead,

you who have not been destroyed!

The deceitful one is as good as dead,

the one whom others have not deceived!

When you are through destroying, you will be destroyed;

when you finish deceiving, others will deceive you!

33:2 Lord, be merciful to us! We wait for you.

Give us strength each morning!

Deliver us when distress comes.

33:3 The nations run away when they hear a loud noise;

the nations scatter when you spring into action!

33:4 Your plunder disappears as if locusts were eating it;

they swarm over it like locusts!

33:5 The Lord is exalted,

indeed, he lives in heaven;

he fills Zion with justice and fairness.

33:6 He is your constant source of stability;

he abundantly provides safety and great wisdom;

he gives all this to those who fear him.

33:7 Look, ambassadors cry out in the streets;

messengers sent to make peace weep bitterly.

33:8 Highways are empty,

there are no travelers.

Treaties are broken,

witnesses are despised,

human life is treated with disrespect.

33:9 The land dries up and withers away;

the forest of Lebanon shrivels up and decays.

Sharon is like the desert;

Bashan and Carmel are parched.

33:10 “Now I will rise up,” says the Lord.

“Now I will exalt myself;

now I will magnify myself.

33:11 You conceive straw,

you give birth to chaff;

your breath is a fire that destroys you.

33:12 The nations will be burned to ashes;

like thorn bushes that have been cut down, they will be set on fire.

33:13 You who are far away, listen to what I have done!

You who are close by, recognize my strength!”

33:14 Sinners are afraid in Zion;

panic grips the godless.

They say, ‘Who among us can coexist with destructive fire?

Who among us can coexist with unquenchable fire?’

33:15 The one who lives uprightly

and speaks honestly;

the one who refuses to profit from oppressive measures

and rejects a bribe;

the one who does not plot violent crimes

and does not seek to harm others –

33:16 This is the person who will live in a secure place;

he will find safety in the rocky, mountain strongholds;

he will have food

and a constant supply of water.

33:17 You will see a king in his splendor;

you will see a wide land.

33:18 Your mind will recall the terror you experienced,

and you will ask yourselves, “Where is the scribe?

Where is the one who weighs the money?

Where is the one who counts the towers?”

33:19 You will no longer see a defiant people

whose language you do not comprehend,

whose derisive speech you do not understand.

33:20 Look at Zion, the city where we hold religious festivals!

You will see Jerusalem,

a peaceful settlement,

a tent that stays put;

its stakes will never be pulled up;

none of its ropes will snap in two.

33:21 Instead the Lord will rule there as our mighty king.

Rivers and wide streams will flow through it;

no war galley will enter;

no large ships will sail through.

33:22 For the Lord, our ruler,

the Lord, our commander,

the Lord, our king –

he will deliver us.

33:23 Though at this time your ropes are slack,

the mast is not secured,

and the sail is not unfurled,

at that time you will divide up a great quantity of loot;

even the lame will drag off plunder.

33:24 No resident of Zion will say, “I am ill”;

the people who live there will have their sin forgiven.

The Lord Will Judge Edom

34:1 Come near, you nations, and listen!

Pay attention, you people!

The earth and everything it contains must listen,

the world and everything that lives in it.

34:2 For the Lord is angry at all the nations

and furious with all their armies.

He will annihilate them and slaughter them.

34:3 Their slain will be left unburied,

their corpses will stink;

the hills will soak up their blood.

34:4 All the stars in the sky will fade away,

the sky will roll up like a scroll;

all its stars will wither,

like a leaf withers and falls from a vine

or a fig withers and falls from a tree.

34:5 He says, “Indeed, my sword has slaughtered heavenly powers.

Look, it now descends on Edom,

on the people I will annihilate in judgment.”

34:6 The Lord’s sword is dripping with blood,

it is covered with fat;

it drips with the blood of young rams and goats

and is covered with the fat of rams’ kidneys.

For the Lord is holding a sacrifice in Bozrah,

a bloody slaughter in the land of Edom.

34:7 Wild oxen will be slaughtered along with them,

as well as strong bulls.

Their land is drenched with blood,

their soil is covered with fat.

34:8 For the Lord has planned a day of revenge,

a time when he will repay Edom for her hostility toward Zion.

34:9 Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch

and her soil into brimstone;

her land will become burning pitch.

34:10 Night and day it will burn;

its smoke will ascend continually.

Generation after generation it will be a wasteland

and no one will ever pass through it again.

34:11 Owls and wild animals will live there,

all kinds of wild birds will settle in it.

The Lord will stretch out over her

the measuring line of ruin

and the plumb line of destruction.

34:12 Her nobles will have nothing left to call a kingdom

and all her officials will disappear.

34:13 Her fortresses will be overgrown with thorns;

thickets and weeds will grow in her fortified cities.

Jackals will settle there;

ostriches will live there.

34:14 Wild animals and wild dogs will congregate there;

wild goats will bleat to one another.

Yes, nocturnal animals will rest there

and make for themselves a nest.

34:15 Owls will make nests and lay eggs there;

they will hatch them and protect them.

Yes, hawks will gather there,

each with its mate.

34:16 Carefully read the scroll of the Lord!

Not one of these creatures will be missing,

none will lack a mate.

For the Lord has issued the decree,

and his own spirit gathers them.

34:17 He assigns them their allotment;

he measures out their assigned place.

They will live there permanently;

they will settle in it through successive generations.

The Land and Its People Are Transformed

35:1 Let the desert and dry region be happy;

let the wilderness rejoice and bloom like a lily!

35:2 Let it richly bloom;

let it rejoice and shout with delight!

It is given the grandeur of Lebanon,

the splendor of Carmel and Sharon.

They will see the grandeur of the Lord,

the splendor of our God.

35:3 Strengthen the hands that have gone limp,

steady the knees that shake!

35:4 Tell those who panic,

“Be strong! Do not fear!

Look, your God comes to avenge!

With divine retribution he comes to deliver you.”

35:5 Then blind eyes will open,

deaf ears will hear.

35:6 Then the lame will leap like a deer,

the mute tongue will shout for joy;

for water will flow in the desert,

streams in the wilderness.

35:7 The dry soil will become a pool of water,

the parched ground springs of water.

Where jackals once lived and sprawled out,

grass, reeds, and papyrus will grow.

35:8 A thoroughfare will be there –

it will be called the Way of Holiness.

The unclean will not travel on it;

it is reserved for those authorized to use it –

fools will not stray into it.

35:9 No lions will be there,

no ferocious wild animals will be on it –

they will not be found there.

Those delivered from bondage will travel on it,

35:10 those whom the Lord has ransomed will return that way.

They will enter Zion with a happy shout.

Unending joy will crown them,

happiness and joy will overwhelm them;

grief and suffering will disappear.