34 Gather around, everyone. All peoples take note!
The earth and everything in it,
The world and all that comes from it should hear this, too,
2 For the Eternal One is furious with all the nations. He has had it with their armies.
He has marked them for destruction, and has given them over to slaughter.
3 Their blood will run like rivers down the mountains,
their corpses tossed out, heaped up, and randomly piled in a great stinking mound.
4 All the stars in the once-vibrant heavens will vanish:
and the sky will be rolled up like a scroll.
All the starry hosts will wither and fall,
like grape leaves crisped by fall or fig leaves shriveled by winter.[a]
5 Eternal One: For once my sword has had its fill in the heavens;
I’ll set it against Edom, those people who despise My own.
I have marked Edom for judgment and destruction.
6 The Eternal One indeed has a blood-gulping sword.
It drinks up fat and blood from the innards
And flesh of lambs, goats, and rams—the sacrifice.
And now the Eternal is coming to sacrifice the Edomites—
A great slaughter in their capital Bozrah,
7 And great wild cattle will be slaughtered
along with them—bulls, oxen, and steers—
Until their land is soggy with blood and oozes with their fat.
8 For the Eternal has determined a time for retaliation,
a time to vindicate Zion, ravaged by Babylon and Edom.
The Edomites take advantage of Judah during the Babylonian conquest. Like parasites they eat away at the land, the strength, and the resources of Judah. Edom is a place of incorrigible violence, filled with devastating evils. In a word, Edom has become like Sodom and Gomorrah. God cannot let that stand, so He comes to vindicate His covenant people. The image Isaiah paints here of Edom and its grim future is hellish. The great, bustling civilization of Edom is reduced to nothing and eventually annihilated; its land becomes a wasteland, the haunt of fearsome desert creatures.
9 Edom’s waters will be made thick and black as oily pitch.
Its dust will turn to brimstone, and the land will ignite with burning pitch.
10 Edom’s fiery judgment will burn day and night for all time;
the smoke from it will ascend forever.
For generations to come it will be a wasteland,
and no person will make it their home ever again.
11 Desert owls and screech owls, great owls and ravens
will take up residence in that bleak place.
When God measures the land,
desolation will be its width and chaos will mark its length.
12 The land will be known as No Kingdom.
No nobles are there to name a king. Its line of princes will cease.
13 Its great towers will be covered in thorns.
Nasty nettles and thistles will overrun its strong cities.
Wild jackals will slink around the premises,
and ostriches will make themselves at home.
14 Among the howling and hissing wild creatures and demons,
Lilith herself, demoness of the night, will call Edom her haunt,
A place to recoup and rest between her devastating forays.
15 Owls of all sorts will take up habitation there,
nesting and laying their eggs.
They will hatch their young and cover them beneath their wings.
Vultures and their mates will gather there.
16 You can look for it and read all about it in the book of the Eternal One.
None of these creatures will be missing and none will lack a mate
Because His voice has given the order
and His Spirit has gathered them in that place.
17 He has determined where they should live;
He has handed it over to them and it will be theirs for all time.
They will live there, one generation after the next, forever.