Isaiah 34

Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it.

1Come close, all you nations, and listen. Pay attention, all you peoples. Let the earth hear, and everything in it. Let the world hear, and all that grows from it.

2For the indignation of the LORD is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter.

2The LORD is angry with all the nations. He is angry with all their armies. He has decided to destroy them. He will hand them over to be killed.

3Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood.

3Their dead will be thrown out and left lying there. The bodies will smell terrible. Blood will run down the mountains like water.

4And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.

4All the stars in the sky will melt away. The sky will be rolled up like a scroll, a long paper that rolls. The stars will fall like dry leaves off a vine. They will fall like old figs off a fig tree.

5For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment.

5The LORD says: My sword is done with its work up in the heavens. Now it will come down on Edom. It will come down on the people I have marked for destruction.

NoteThe King James Bible says "Idumea." That is the old name for Edom, a country just south of Judah.

6The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for the LORD hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea.

6The LORD's sword is covered with blood. It drips with fat. There is blood of lambs and goats on it. There is fat from the insides of male sheep. The LORD has a sacrifice in the town of Bozrah. There will be a great killing in the land of Edom.

7And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.

7Wild oxen will fall down dead along with them. Young bulls and strong bulls will fall too. Their land will be soaked with blood. Their dirt will be soaked with fat.

NoteThe King James Bible says "unicorns" here. The word meant a wild ox, a big strong wild cow, not the horse with one horn in storybooks.

8For it is the day of the LORD’s vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.

8This is the day when the LORD pays back what is owed. It is the year He settles the case for Zion, God's city Jerusalem.

9And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.

9Edom's streams will turn into thick black tar. Her dirt will turn into sulfur, a yellow rock that burns. Her whole land will burn like hot tar.

Note"Pitch" means thick black tar. "Brimstone" is the old word for sulfur, a yellow rock that catches fire easily.

10It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.

10The fire will not go out, day or night. Its smoke will keep rising up forever. The land will lie empty for years and years. No one will ever pass through it again.

11But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness.

11Desert owls and screech owls will take the land over. Big owls and ravens will live there. The LORD will stretch a measuring line across Edom. But He measures it out for emptiness and ruin.

12They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing.

12No important leaders will be left to name a king. All her princes will come to nothing.

13And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls.

13Thorns will grow up inside her fine houses. Weeds and prickly bushes will fill her strong towers. Jackals, which are wild dogs, will live there. Ostriches, which are tall birds, will make their home there.

14The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest.

14Desert animals will meet up with hyenas there. Wild goats will call out to each other. A night creature will settle down there. She will find herself a place to rest.

15There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate.

15There the owl will build her nest. She will lay her eggs and hatch them. She will gather her babies under her wings. Birds that hunt will gather there too, each with its mate.

16Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them.

16Look in the LORD's book and read it. Not one of these creatures will be missing. Not one of them will be without a mate. God said it with His own mouth. His Spirit will gather them all together.

NoteIn 1611, "want" meant to lack or be without something. It does not mean wishing for something here.

17And he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath divided it unto them by line: they shall possess it for ever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein.

17God has decided which part of the land each one gets. His own hand measured it out for them. They will own that land forever. They will live there from parent to child, on and on.