Isaiah 34

Judgment on the Nations

¹Come near, O nations, to listen;

pay attention, O peoples.

Let the earth hear, and all that fills it,

the world and all that springs from it.

²Yahweh is angry with all the nations

and furious with all their armies.

He will devote them to destruction;

He will give them over to slaughter.

³Their slain will be left unburied,

and the stench of their corpses will rise;

the mountains will flow with their blood.

⁴All the stars of heaven will be dissolved.

The skies will be rolled up like a scroll,

and all their stars will fall

like withered leaves from the vine,

like foliage from the fig tree.

• IS 34:4[PROPHECY]The sky would roll up like a scroll and the stars would fall → STILL TO COME
• IS 34:4[ALLUDED TO]The New Testament refers to this → MT 24:29
• IS 34:4[ALLUDED TO]The New Testament refers to this → MK 13:24-25
• IS 34:4[ALLUDED TO]The New Testament refers to this → 2PE 3:12
• IS 34:4[ALLUDED TO]The New Testament refers to this → REV 6:14

Judgment on Edom// Isaiah 21:11–12

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 Yahweh is bathed in blood.

It drips with fat—

with the blood of lambs and goats,

with the fat of the kidneys of rams.

For Yahweh 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 Yahweh has a day of vengeance,

a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.

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.

• IS 34:10[PROPHECY]Edom would lie desolate from generation to generation → HISTORY: Babylon's king Nabonidus struck Edom about 553 BC. About 125 BC the Jewish ruler John Hyrcanus conquered the Edomites and made them part of Judea. Recorded by Josephus, Antiquities 13.9.1.

¹¹The desert owl and screech owl will possess it,

and the great owl and raven will dwell in it.

Yahweh 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,

an abode for ostriches.

¹⁴The desert creatures will meet with hyenas,

and one wild goat will call to another.

There the night creature 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 Yahweh:

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.