Isaiah 34

¹ Come near and listen, you nations, pay attention, you peoples. Let the earth and its contents listen, theworld and its entire population.

² For Yahweh is angry with al the nations, enraged with al their hordes. He has vowed them todestruction, handed them over to slaughter.

³ Their dead wil be thrown away, the stench wil rise from their corpses, the mountains wil run with theirblood,

⁴ the entire array of heaven wil fall apart. The heavens wil be rol ed up like a scrol and al their array willfade away, as fade the leaves fal ing from the vine, as fade those fal ing from the fig tree.

⁵ For my sword has drunk deep in the heavens: see how it now fal s on Edom, on the people vowed todestruction, to punish them.

⁶ Yahweh's sword is gorged with blood, it is greasy with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with thefat of the kidneys of rams. For Yahweh has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

⁷ The wild oxen will fal with them, the bullocks with the bul s; their land wil be drenched with blood andtheir dust wil be greasy with fat.

⁸ For this wil be Yahweh's day of vengeance, the year of retribution in Zion's lawsuit.

⁹ Its streams will turn into pitch, its dust into brimstone, its country wil turn into blazing pitch.

¹⁰ Never quenched night or day, its smoke rising for ever, it wil lie waste age after age, no one wil travelthrough it for ever and ever.

¹¹ It wil be the haunt of pelican and hedgehog, the owl and the raven wil live there; over it Yahweh wilstretch the measuring line of chaos and the plumb-line of emptiness.

¹² There will be no more nobles to proclaim the royal authority; there will be an end of al its princes.

¹³ Brambles wil grow in its bastions, nettles and thorn-bushes in its fortresses, it will be the lair ofjackals, an enclosure for ostriches.

¹⁴ Wild cats wil meet hyenas there, satyr will cal to satyr, there Lilith too wil lurk and find somewhere torest.

¹⁵ The snake wil nest and lay eggs there, will hatch and gather its young into the shade; and there thevultures wil assemble, each one with its mate.

¹⁶ Search in Yahweh's book, and read, not one of these will be missing, not one of them lacking a mate;for thus his mouth has ordained it, and his spirit has brought them together.

¹⁷ He has thrown the lot for each, his hand has measured out their share; they wil possess it for ever,and live there age after age.