New International Version (NIV)

Praise to the Lord

1 Lord, you are my God;

I will exalt you and praise your name,

for in perfect faithfulness

you have done wonderful things,

things planned long ago.

2 You have made the city a heap of rubble,

the fortified town a ruin,

the foreigners’ stronghold a city no more;

it will never be rebuilt.

3 Therefore strong peoples will honor you;

cities of ruthless nations will revere you.

4 You have been a refuge for the poor,

a refuge for the needy in their distress,

a shelter from the storm

and a shade from the heat.

For the breath of the ruthless

is like a storm driving against a wall

5 and like the heat of the desert.

You silence the uproar of foreigners;

as heat is reduced by the shadow of a cloud,

so the song of the ruthless is stilled.

6 On this mountain theLordAlmighty will prepare

a feast of rich food for all peoples,

a banquet of aged wine—

the best of meats and the finest of wines.

7 On this mountain he will destroy

the shroud that enfolds all peoples,

the sheet that covers all nations;

8 he will swallow up death forever.

The SovereignLordwill wipe away the tears

from all faces;

he will remove his people’s disgrace

from all the earth.

TheLordhas spoken.

9 In that day they will say,

“Surely this is our God;

we trusted in him, and he saved us.

This is theLord, we trusted in him;

let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”

10 The hand of theLordwill rest on this mountain;

but Moab will be trampled in their land

as straw is trampled down in the manure.

11 They will stretch out their hands in it,

as swimmers stretch out their hands to swim.

God will bring down their pride

# despite the clevernessof their hands.

12 He will bring down your high fortified walls

and lay them low;

he will bring them down to the ground,

to the very dust.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/ISA/25-3b556b33cb4308208b71997aadf971de.mp3?version_id=111—

A Song of Praise

1 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

We have a strong city;

God makes salvation

its walls and ramparts.

2 Open the gates

that the righteous nation may enter,

the nation that keeps faith.

3 You will keep in perfect peace

those whose minds are steadfast,

because they trust in you.

4 Trust in theLordforever,

for theLord, theLordhimself, is the Rock eternal.

5 He humbles those who dwell on high,

he lays the lofty city low;

he levels it to the ground

and casts it down to the dust.

6 Feet trample it down—

the feet of the oppressed,

the footsteps of the poor.

7 The path of the righteous is level;

you, the Upright One, make the way of the righteous smooth.

8 Yes,Lord, walking in the way of your laws,

we wait for you;

your name and renown

are the desire of our hearts.

9 My soul yearns for you in the night;

in the morning my spirit longs for you.

When your judgments come upon the earth,

the people of the world learn righteousness.

10 But when grace is shown to the wicked,

they do not learn righteousness;

even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil

and do not regard the majesty of theLord.

11 Lord, your hand is lifted high,

but they do not see it.

Let them see your zeal for your people and be put to shame;

let the fire reserved for your enemies consume them.

12 Lord, you establish peace for us;

all that we have accomplished you have done for us.

13 Lordour God, other lords besides you have ruled over us,

but your name alone do we honor.

14 They are now dead, they live no more;

their spirits do not rise.

You punished them and brought them to ruin;

you wiped out all memory of them.

15 You have enlarged the nation,Lord;

you have enlarged the nation.

You have gained glory for yourself;

you have extended all the borders of the land.

16 Lord, they came to you in their distress;

when you disciplined them,

# they could barely whisper a prayer.

17 As a pregnant woman about to give birth

writhes and cries out in her pain,

so were we in your presence,Lord.

18 We were with child, we writhed in labor,

but we gave birth to wind.

We have not brought salvation to the earth,

and the people of the world have not come to life.

19 But your dead will live,Lord;

their bodies will rise—

let those who dwell in the dust

wake up and shout for joy—

your dew is like the dew of the morning;

the earth will give birth to her dead.

20 Go, my people, enter your rooms

and shut the doors behind you;

hide yourselves for a little while

until his wrath has passed by.

21 See, theLordis coming out of his dwelling

to punish the people of the earth for their sins.

The earth will disclose the blood shed on it;

the earth will conceal its slain no longer.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/ISA/26-e8b68efd7794a6114c24d5a5a288a3b2.mp3?version_id=111—

Deliverance of Israel

1 In that day,

theLordwill punish with his sword—

his fierce, great and powerful sword—

Leviathan the gliding serpent,

Leviathan the coiling serpent;

he will slay the monster of the sea.

2 In that day—

“Sing about a fruitful vineyard:

3 I, theLord, watch over it;

I water it continually.

I guard it day and night

so that no one may harm it.

4 I am not angry.

If only there were briers and thorns confronting me!

I would march against them in battle;

I would set them all on fire.

5 Or else let them come to me for refuge;

let them make peace with me,

yes, let them make peace with me.”

6 In days to come Jacob will take root,

Israel will bud and blossom

and fill all the world with fruit.

7 Has theLordstruck her

as he struck down those who struck her?

Has she been killed

as those were killed who killed her?

8 By warfareand exile you contend with her—

with his fierce blast he drives her out,

as on a day the east wind blows.

9 By this, then, will Jacob’s guilt be atoned for,

and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin:

When he makes all the altar stones

to be like limestone crushed to pieces,

# no Asherah polesor incense altars

will be left standing.

10 The fortified city stands desolate,

an abandoned settlement, forsaken like the wilderness;

there the calves graze,

there they lie down;

they strip its branches bare.

11 When its twigs are dry, they are broken off

and women come and make fires with them.

For this is a people without understanding;

so their Maker has no compassion on them,

and their Creator shows them no favor.

12 In that day theLordwill thresh from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, Israel, will be gathered up one by one.

13 And in that day a great trumpet will sound. Those who were perishing in Assyria and those who were exiled in Egypt will come and worship theLordon the holy mountain in Jerusalem.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/ISA/27-08581524df02779c8ab8f16d7eb5994a.mp3?version_id=111—

Woe to the Leaders of Ephraim and Judah

1 Woe to that wreath, the pride of Ephraim’s drunkards,

to the fading flower, his glorious beauty,

set on the head of a fertile valley—

to that city, the pride of those laid low by wine!

2 See, the Lord has one who is powerful and strong.

Like a hailstorm and a destructive wind,

like a driving rain and a flooding downpour,

he will throw it forcefully to the ground.

3 That wreath, the pride of Ephraim’s drunkards,

will be trampled underfoot.

4 That fading flower, his glorious beauty,

set on the head of a fertile valley,

will be like figs ripe before harvest—

as soon as people see them and take them in hand,

they swallow them.

5 In that day theLordAlmighty

will be a glorious crown,

a beautiful wreath

for the remnant of his people.

6 He will be a spirit of justice

to the one who sits in judgment,

a source of strength

to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

7 And these also stagger from wine

and reel from beer:

Priests and prophets stagger from beer

and are befuddled with wine;

they reel from beer,

they stagger when seeing visions,

they stumble when rendering decisions.

8 All the tables are covered with vomit

and there is not a spot without filth.

9 “Who is it he is trying to teach?

To whom is he explaining his message?

To children weaned from their milk,

to those just taken from the breast?

10 For it is:

Do this, do that,

# a rule for this, a rule for that;

a little here, a little there.”

11 Very well then, with foreign lips and strange tongues

God will speak to this people,

12 to whom he said,

“This is the resting place, let the weary rest”;

and, “This is the place of repose”—

but they would not listen.

13 So then, the word of theLordto them will become:

Do this, do that,

a rule for this, a rule for that;

a little here, a little there—

so that as they go they will fall backward;

they will be injured and snared and captured.

14 Therefore hear the word of theLord, you scoffers

who rule this people in Jerusalem.

15 You boast, “We have entered into a covenant with death,

with the realm of the dead we have made an agreement.

When an overwhelming scourge sweeps by,

it cannot touch us,

for we have made a lie our refuge

# and falsehoodour hiding place.”

16 So this is what the SovereignLordsays:

“See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone,

a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation;

the one who relies on it

will never be stricken with panic.

17 I will make justice the measuring line

and righteousness the plumb line;

hail will sweep away your refuge, the lie,

and water will overflow your hiding place.

18 Your covenant with death will be annulled;

your agreement with the realm of the dead will not stand.

When the overwhelming scourge sweeps by,

you will be beaten down by it.

19 As often as it comes it will carry you away;

morning after morning, by day and by night,

it will sweep through.”

The understanding of this message

will bring sheer terror.

20 The bed is too short to stretch out on,

the blanket too narrow to wrap around you.

21 TheLordwill rise up as he did at Mount Perazim,

he will rouse himself as in the Valley of Gibeon—

to do his work, his strange work,

and perform his task, his alien task.

22 Now stop your mocking,

or your chains will become heavier;

the Lord, theLordAlmighty, has told me

of the destruction decreed against the whole land.

23 Listen and hear my voice;

pay attention and hear what I say.

24 When a farmer plows for planting, does he plow continually?

Does he keep on breaking up and working the soil?

25 When he has leveled the surface,

does he not sow caraway and scatter cumin?

# Does he not plant wheat in its place,

# barley in its plot,

and spelt in its field?

26 His God instructs him

and teaches him the right way.

27 Caraway is not threshed with a sledge,

nor is the wheel of a cart rolled over cumin;

caraway is beaten out with a rod,

and cumin with a stick.

28 Grain must be ground to make bread;

so one does not go on threshing it forever.

The wheels of a threshing cart may be rolled over it,

but one does not use horses to grind grain.

29 All this also comes from theLordAlmighty,

whose plan is wonderful,

whose wisdom is magnificent.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/ISA/28-8ee69332a7646dd509b115a869f0b0b6.mp3?version_id=111—

Woe to David’s City

1 Woe to you, Ariel, Ariel,

the city where David settled!

Add year to year

and let your cycle of festivals go on.

2 Yet I will besiege Ariel;

she will mourn and lament,

# she will be to me like an altar hearth.

3 I will encamp against you on all sides;

I will encircle you with towers

and set up my siege works against you.

4 Brought low, you will speak from the ground;

your speech will mumble out of the dust.

Your voice will come ghostlike from the earth;

out of the dust your speech will whisper.

5 But your many enemies will become like fine dust,

the ruthless hordes like blown chaff.

Suddenly, in an instant,

6 theLordAlmighty will come

with thunder and earthquake and great noise,

with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire.

7 Then the hordes of all the nations that fight against Ariel,

that attack her and her fortress and besiege her,

will be as it is with a dream,

with a vision in the night—

8 as when a hungry person dreams of eating,

but awakens hungry still;

as when a thirsty person dreams of drinking,

but awakens faint and thirsty still.

So will it be with the hordes of all the nations

that fight against Mount Zion.

9 Be stunned and amazed,

blind yourselves and be sightless;

be drunk, but not from wine,

stagger, but not from beer.

10 TheLordhas brought over you a deep sleep:

He has sealed your eyes (the prophets);

he has covered your heads (the seers).

11 For you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll. And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I can’t; it is sealed.”

12 Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I don’t know how to read.”

13 The Lord says:

“These people come near to me with their mouth

and honor me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from me.

Their worship of me

# is based on merely human rules they have been taught.

14 Therefore once more I will astound these people

with wonder upon wonder;

the wisdom of the wise will perish,

the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”

15 Woe to those who go to great depths

to hide their plans from theLord,

who do their work in darkness and think,

“Who sees us? Who will know?”

16 You turn things upside down,

as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!

Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,

“You did not make me”?

Can the pot say to the potter,

“You know nothing”?

17 In a very short time, will not Lebanon be turned into a fertile field

and the fertile field seem like a forest?

18 In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll,

and out of gloom and darkness

the eyes of the blind will see.

19 Once more the humble will rejoice in theLord;

the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

20 The ruthless will vanish,

the mockers will disappear,

and all who have an eye for evil will be cut down—

21 those who with a word make someone out to be guilty,

who ensnare the defender in court

and with false testimony deprive the innocent of justice.

22 Therefore this is what theLord, who redeemed Abraham, says to the descendants of Jacob:

“No longer will Jacob be ashamed;

no longer will their faces grow pale.

23 When they see among them their children,

the work of my hands,

they will keep my name holy;

they will acknowledge the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob,

and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

24 Those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding;

those who complain will accept instruction.”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/ISA/29-597475a0d45c9d397fd0c8f706d935fe.mp3?version_id=111—

Woe to the Obstinate Nation

1 “Woe to the obstinate children,”

declares theLord,

“to those who carry out plans that are not mine,

forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit,

heaping sin upon sin;

2 who go down to Egypt

without consulting me;

who look for help to Pharaoh’s protection,

to Egypt’s shade for refuge.

3 But Pharaoh’s protection will be to your shame,

Egypt’s shade will bring you disgrace.

4 Though they have officials in Zoan

and their envoys have arrived in Hanes,

5 everyone will be put to shame

because of a people useless to them,

who bring neither help nor advantage,

but only shame and disgrace.”

6 A prophecy concerning the animals of the Negev:

Through a land of hardship and distress,

of lions and lionesses,

of adders and darting snakes,

the envoys carry their riches on donkeys’ backs,

their treasures on the humps of camels,

to that unprofitable nation,

7 to Egypt, whose help is utterly useless.

Therefore I call her

Rahab the Do-Nothing.

8 Go now, write it on a tablet for them,

inscribe it on a scroll,

that for the days to come

it may be an everlasting witness.

9 For these are rebellious people, deceitful children,

children unwilling to listen to theLord’s instruction.

10 They say to the seers,

“See no more visions!”

and to the prophets,

“Give us no more visions of what is right!

Tell us pleasant things,

prophesy illusions.

11 Leave this way,

get off this path,

and stop confronting us

with the Holy One of Israel!”

12 Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says:

“Because you have rejected this message,

relied on oppression

and depended on deceit,

13 this sin will become for you

like a high wall, cracked and bulging,

that collapses suddenly, in an instant.

14 It will break in pieces like pottery,

shattered so mercilessly

that among its pieces not a fragment will be found

for taking coals from a hearth

or scooping water out of a cistern.”

15 This is what the SovereignLord, the Holy One of Israel, says:

“In repentance and rest is your salvation,

in quietness and trust is your strength,

but you would have none of it.

16 You said, ‘No, we will flee on horses.’

Therefore you will flee!

You said, ‘We will ride off on swift horses.’

Therefore your pursuers will be swift!

17 A thousand will flee

at the threat of one;

at the threat of five

you will all flee away,

till you are left

like a flagstaff on a mountaintop,

like a banner on a hill.”

18 Yet theLordlongs to be gracious to you;

therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.

For theLordis a God of justice.

Blessed are all who wait for him!

19 People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you.

20 Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them.

21 Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”

22 Then you will desecrate your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, “Away with you!”

23 He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will graze in broad meadows.

24 The oxen and donkeys that work the soil will eat fodder and mash, spread out with fork and shovel.

25 In the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall, streams of water will flow on every high mountain and every lofty hill.

26 The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when theLordbinds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted.

27 See, the Name of theLordcomes from afar,

with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke;

his lips are full of wrath,

and his tongue is a consuming fire.

28 His breath is like a rushing torrent,

rising up to the neck.

He shakes the nations in the sieve of destruction;

he places in the jaws of the peoples

a bit that leads them astray.

29 And you will sing

as on the night you celebrate a holy festival;

your hearts will rejoice

as when people playing pipes go up

to the mountain of theLord,

to the Rock of Israel.

30 TheLordwill cause people to hear his majestic voice

and will make them see his arm coming down

with raging anger and consuming fire,

with cloudburst, thunderstorm and hail.

31 The voice of theLordwill shatter Assyria;

with his rod he will strike them down.

32 Every stroke theLordlays on them

with his punishing club

will be to the music of timbrels and harps,

as he fights them in battle with the blows of his arm.

33 Topheth has long been prepared;

it has been made ready for the king.

Its fire pit has been made deep and wide,

with an abundance of fire and wood;

the breath of theLord,

like a stream of burning sulfur,

sets it ablaze.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/ISA/30-736bebc43067db0de4b3b3d27e4d02b9.mp3?version_id=111—

Woe to Those Who Rely on Egypt

1 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help,

who rely on horses,

who trust in the multitude of their chariots

and in the great strength of their horsemen,

but do not look to the Holy One of Israel,

or seek help from theLord.

2 Yet he too is wise and can bring disaster;

he does not take back his words.

He will rise up against that wicked nation,

against those who help evildoers.

3 But the Egyptians are mere mortals and not God;

their horses are flesh and not spirit.

When theLordstretches out his hand,

those who help will stumble,

those who are helped will fall;

all will perish together.

4 This is what theLordsays to me:

“As a lion growls,

a great lion over its prey—

and though a whole band of shepherds

is called together against it,

it is not frightened by their shouts

or disturbed by their clamor—

so theLordAlmighty will come down

to do battle on Mount Zion and on its heights.

5 Like birds hovering overhead,

theLordAlmighty will shield Jerusalem;

he will shield it and deliver it,

he will ‘pass over’ it and will rescue it.”

6 Return, you Israelites, to the One you have so greatly revolted against.

7 For in that day every one of you will reject the idols of silver and gold your sinful hands have made.

8 “Assyria will fall by no human sword;

a sword, not of mortals, will devour them.

They will flee before the sword

and their young men will be put to forced labor.

9 Their stronghold will fall because of terror;

at the sight of the battle standard their commanders will panic,”

declares theLord,

whose fire is in Zion,

whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/ISA/31-0b909a4e6ee6183b8d48d4100e9122f1.mp3?version_id=111—

The Kingdom of Righteousness

1 See, a king will reign in righteousness

and rulers will rule with justice.

2 Each one will be like a shelter from the wind

and a refuge from the storm,

like streams of water in the desert

and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.

3 Then the eyes of those who see will no longer be closed,

and the ears of those who hear will listen.

4 The fearful heart will know and understand,

and the stammering tongue will be fluent and clear.

5 No longer will the fool be called noble

nor the scoundrel be highly respected.

6 For fools speak folly,

their hearts are bent on evil:

They practice ungodliness

and spread error concerning theLord;

the hungry they leave empty

and from the thirsty they withhold water.

7 Scoundrels use wicked methods,

they make up evil schemes

to destroy the poor with lies,

even when the plea of the needy is just.

8 But the noble make noble plans,

and by noble deeds they stand.

The Women of Jerusalem

9 You women who are so complacent,

rise up and listen to me;

you daughters who feel secure,

hear what I have to say!

10 In little more than a year

you who feel secure will tremble;

the grape harvest will fail,

and the harvest of fruit will not come.

11 Tremble, you complacent women;

shudder, you daughters who feel secure!

Strip off your fine clothes

and wrap yourselves in rags.

12 Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields,

for the fruitful vines

13 and for the land of my people,

a land overgrown with thorns and briers—

yes, mourn for all houses of merriment

and for this city of revelry.

14 The fortress will be abandoned,

the noisy city deserted;

citadel and watchtower will become a wasteland forever,

the delight of donkeys, a pasture for flocks,

15 till the Spirit is poured on us from on high,

and the desert becomes a fertile field,

and the fertile field seems like a forest.

16 TheLord’s justice will dwell in the desert,

his righteousness live in the fertile field.

17 The fruit of that righteousness will be peace;

its effect will be quietness and confidence forever.

18 My people will live in peaceful dwelling places,

in secure homes,

in undisturbed places of rest.

19 Though hail flattens the forest

and the city is leveled completely,

20 how blessed you will be,

sowing your seed by every stream,

and letting your cattle and donkeys range free.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/ISA/32-14b389af06f3dbc46735cc6ef2b1653e.mp3?version_id=111—

Distress and Help

1 Woe to you, destroyer,

you who have not been destroyed!

Woe to you, betrayer,

you who have not been betrayed!

When you stop destroying,

you will be destroyed;

when you stop betraying,

you will be betrayed.

2 Lord, be gracious to us;

we long for you.

Be our strength every morning,

our salvation in time of distress.

3 At the uproar of your army, the peoples flee;

when you rise up, the nations scatter.

4 Your plunder, O nations, is harvested as by young locusts;

like a swarm of locusts people pounce on it.

5 TheLordis exalted, for he dwells on high;

he will fill Zion with his justice and righteousness.

6 He will be the sure foundation for your times,

a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge;

# the fear of theLordis the key to this treasure.

7 Look, their brave men cry aloud in the streets;

the envoys of peace weep bitterly.

8 The highways are deserted,

no travelers are on the roads.

The treaty is broken,

# its witnessesare despised,

no one is respected.

9 The land dries up and wastes away,

Lebanon is ashamed and withers;

Sharon is like the Arabah,

and Bashan and Carmel drop their leaves.

10 “Now will I arise,” says theLord.

“Now will I be exalted;

now will I be lifted up.

11 You conceive chaff,

you give birth to straw;

your breath is a fire that consumes you.

12 The peoples will be burned to ashes;

like cut thornbushes they will be set ablaze.”

13 You who are far away, hear what I have done;

you who are near, acknowledge my power!

14 The sinners in Zion are terrified;

trembling grips the godless:

“Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire?

Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?”

15 Those who walk righteously

and speak what is right,

who reject gain from extortion

and keep their hands from accepting bribes,

who stop their ears against plots of murder

and shut their eyes against contemplating evil—

16 they are the ones who will dwell on the heights,

whose refuge will be the mountain fortress.

Their bread will be supplied,

and water will not fail them.

17 Your eyes will see the king in his beauty

and view a land that stretches afar.

18 In your thoughts you will ponder the former terror:

“Where is that chief officer?

Where is the one who took the revenue?

Where is the officer in charge of the towers?”

19 You will see those arrogant people no more,

people whose speech is obscure,

whose language is strange and incomprehensible.

20 Look on Zion, the city of our festivals;

your eyes will see Jerusalem,

a peaceful abode, a tent that will not be moved;

its stakes will never be pulled up,

nor any of its ropes broken.

21 There theLordwill be our Mighty One.

It will be like a place of broad rivers and streams.

No galley with oars will ride them,

no mighty ship will sail them.

22 For theLordis our judge,

theLordis our lawgiver,

theLordis our king;

it is he who will save us.

23 Your rigging hangs loose:

The mast is not held secure,

the sail is not spread.

Then an abundance of spoils will be divided

and even the lame will carry off plunder.

24 No one living in Zion will say, “I am ill”;

and the sins of those who dwell there will be forgiven.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/ISA/33-2f462f59c69b199d8e606281b468b1c5.mp3?version_id=111—

Judgment Against the Nations

1 Come near, you nations, and listen;

pay attention, you peoples!

Let the earth hear, and all that is in it,

the world, and all that comes out of it!

2 TheLordis angry with all nations;

his wrath is on all their armies.

# He will totally destroythem,

he will give them over to slaughter.

3 Their slain will be thrown out,

their dead bodies will stink;

the mountains will be soaked with their blood.

4 All the stars in the sky will be dissolved

and the heavens rolled up like a scroll;

all the starry host will fall

like withered leaves from the vine,

like shriveled figs from the fig tree.

5 My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens;

see, it descends in judgment on Edom,

the people I have totally destroyed.

6 The sword of theLordis bathed in blood,

it is covered with fat—

the blood of lambs and goats,

fat from the kidneys of rams.

For theLordhas a sacrifice in Bozrah

and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

7 And the wild oxen will fall with them,

the bull calves and the great bulls.

Their land will be drenched with blood,

and the dust will be soaked with fat.

8 For theLordhas a day of vengeance,

a year of retribution, to uphold Zion’s cause.

9 Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch,

her dust into burning sulfur;

her land will become blazing pitch!

10 It will not be quenched night or day;

its smoke will rise forever.

From generation to generation it will lie desolate;

no one will ever pass through it again.

11 The desert owland screech owlwill possess it;

# the great owland the raven will nest there.

God will stretch out over Edom

the measuring line of chaos

and the plumb line of desolation.

12 Her nobles will have nothing there to be called a kingdom,

all her princes will vanish away.

13 Thorns will overrun her citadels,

nettles and brambles her strongholds.

She will become a haunt for jackals,

a home for owls.

14 Desert creatures will meet with hyenas,

and wild goats will bleat to each other;

there the night creatures will also lie down

and find for themselves places of rest.

15 The owl will nest there and lay eggs,

she will hatch them, and care for her young

under the shadow of her wings;

there also the falcons will gather,

each with its mate.

16 Look in the scroll of theLordand read:

None of these will be missing,

not one will lack her mate.

For it is his mouth that has given the order,

and his Spirit will gather them together.

17 He allots their portions;

his hand distributes them by measure.

They will possess it forever

and dwell there from generation to generation.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/ISA/34-83cf92d927272c7e21ace2a969156b17.mp3?version_id=111—