Isaiah 34:15-17
The Message
8-15 It’s God’s scheduled time for vengeance,
the year all Zion’s accounts are settled.
Edom’s streams will flow sluggish, thick with pollution,
the soil sterile, poisoned with waste,
The whole country
a smoking, stinking garbage dump—
The fires burning day and night,
the skies black with endless smoke.
Generation after generation of wasteland—
no more travelers through this country!
Vultures and skunks will police the streets;
owls and crows will feel at home there.
God will reverse creation. Chaos!
He will cancel fertility. Emptiness!
Leaders will have no one to lead.
They’ll name it No Kingdom There,
A country where all kings
and princes are unemployed.
Thistles will take over, covering the castles,
fortresses conquered by weeds and thornbushes.
Wild dogs will prowl the ruins,
ostriches have the run of the place.
Wildcats and hyenas will hunt together,
demons and devils dance through the night.
The night-demon Lilith, evil and rapacious,
will establish permanent quarters.
Scavenging carrion birds will breed and brood,
infestations of ominous evil.
16-17 Get and read God’s book:
None of this is going away,
this breeding, brooding evil.
God has personally commanded it all.
His Spirit set it in motion.
God has assigned them their place,
decreed their fate in detail.
This is permanent—
generation after generation, the same old thing.
Isaiah 34:15-17
New International Version
15 The owl will nest there and lay eggs,
she will hatch them, and care for her young
under the shadow of her wings;(A)
there also the falcons(B) will gather,
each with its mate.
16 Look in the scroll(C) of the Lord and read:
None of these will be missing,(D)
not one will lack her mate.
For it is his mouth(E) that has given the order,(F)
and his Spirit will gather them together.
17 He allots their portions;(G)
his hand distributes them by measure.
They will possess it forever
and dwell there from generation to generation.(H)
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
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