Isaiah, chapter 34
Chapters 34 and 35 contain messages that probably refer to the same period as Isaiah 56–66, that is, after the exile (see the Introduction to Isaiah). They also have elements that are similar to ideas found in Isaiah 24–27. The nations are judged, and God's people return to Zion.
The Nations Will Be Judged
veryone 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.
3Their dead bodies will be left to rot and stink;
their blood will flow down the mountains.
4Each star will disappear—
the sky will roll up like a scroll.
Everything in the sky will dry up and wilt
like leaves on a vine or fruit on a tree.
Trouble for Edom
5 After the sword of the Lord has done what it wants
to the skies above,
it will come down on Edom, the nation that the Lord
has doomed for destruction.
6The 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.
7Edom'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.
8The Lord has chosen the year and the day,
when he will take revenge and come to Zion's defense.
9Edom's streams will turn into tar and its soil into sulfur—
then the whole country will go up in flames.
10 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 will make it their home.
God will leave it in ruins, merely a pile of rocks.
The End of Edom
12Edom will be called “Kingdom of Nothing.”
Its rulers will also be nothing.
13Its palaces and fortresses will be covered with thorns;
only wolves and ostriches will make their home there.
14Wildcats and hyenas will hunt together,
demons will scream to demons,
and creatures of the night will live among the ruins.
15Owls will nest there to raise their young
among its shadows,
while families of vultures circle around.
16In The Book of the Lord 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.”
17The Lord has decided where they each should live;
they will be there forever,
generation after generation.