Isaiah 34:1--35:10

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.