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The Nations Will Be Judged

34 Everyone of every nation,
    the entire earth,
and all its creatures,
    come here and listen!
The Lord is terribly angry
    with the nations;
he has condemned them
    to be slaughtered.
Their dead bodies will be left
    to rot and stink;
their blood will flow
    down the mountains.
(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

(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.

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.
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.

The Lord has chosen
    the year and the day,
when he will take revenge
    and come to Zion's defense.
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 The Book of the Lord[f]
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.

Footnotes

  1. 34.4 star: Stars were worshiped as gods.
  2. 34.4 scroll: A roll of paper or specially prepared leather used for writing on.
  3. 34.5 has done … above: The Standard Hebrew Text; the Dead Sea Scrolls “appears in the skies above.”
  4. 34.11 Owls … animals: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
  5. 34.15 Owls … shadows: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
  6. 34.16 The Book of the Lord: The book that Isaiah refers to is unknown.

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