Isaiah 34:5–17

⁵When My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens,

then it will come down upon Edom,

upon the people I have devoted to destruction.

⁶The sword of the LORD is bathed in blood.

It drips with fat —

with the blood of lambs and goats,

with the fat of the kidneys of rams.

For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah,

a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

⁷And the wild oxen will fall with them,

the young bulls with the strong ones.

Their land will be drenched with blood,

and their soil will be soaked with fat.

⁸For the LORD has a day of vengeance,

a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.^b

⁹Edom’s streams will be turned to tar,

and her soil to sulfur;

her land will become a blazing pitch.

¹⁰It will not be quenched— day or night.

Its smoke will ascend forever.

From generation to generation it will lie desolate;

no one will ever again pass through it.

¹¹The desert owl and screech owl will possess it,

and the great owl and raven will dwell in it.^c

The LORD will stretch out over Edom

a measuring line of chaos

and a plumb line of destruction.

¹²No nobles will be left to proclaim a king,

and all her princes will come to nothing.

¹³Her towers will be overgrown with thorns,

her fortresses with thistles and briers.

She will become a haunt for jackals,^d

an abode for ostriches.^e

¹⁴The desert creatures will meet with hyenas,

and one wild goat will call to another.

There the night creature^f will settle

and find her place of repose.

¹⁵There the owl will make her nest;

she will lay and hatch her eggs

and gather her brood under her shadow.

Even there the birds of prey will gather,

each with its mate.

¹⁶Search and read the scroll of the LORD:

Not one of these will go missing,

not one will lack her mate,

because He has ordered it by His mouth,

and He will gather them by His Spirit.

¹⁷He has allotted their portion;

His hand has distributed it by measure.

They will possess it forever;

they will dwell in it from generation to generation.