English / ERV
Isaiah 34
Easy-to-Read Version, 2006
- 1All you nations, come near and listen! Listen, all you people. The earth and everyone on it should listen to these things. Everything in this world should hear this.
- 2The LORD is angry with all the nations and their armies. He will destroy them all and put them to death.
- 3Their bodies will be thrown outside. The stink will rise from the bodies, and the blood will flow down the mountains.
- 4The skies will be rolled shut like a scroll,[1] and the stars will die and fall like leaves from a vine or a fig tree. All the stars[2] in the sky will rot away.
- 5The Lord says, “This will happen when my sword in the sky is covered with blood.” Look, the LORD’s sword will cut through Edom. He judged them guilty, and they must die.[3]
- 6The LORD decided there should be a time for killing in Bozrah and in Edom. So the sword of the LORD is covered with blood and fat. The blood is from the “goats.” The fat is from the kidneys of the “rams.”[4]
- 7So the rams, the cattle, and the strong bulls will be killed. The land will be filled with their blood. The dirt will be covered with their fat.
- 8This will happen because the LORD has chosen a time for punishment. He has chosen a year when people must pay for the wrong they did to Zion.
- 9Edom’s rivers will be like hot tar. Edom’s ground will be like burning sulfur.
- 10The fires will burn day and night—no one will stop the fire. The smoke will rise from Edom forever. The land will be destroyed forever and ever. No one will ever travel through that land again.
- 11Birds and small animals will own that land. It will be a home for owls and ravens. God will leave that land in ruins. People will call it “the empty desert.”[5]
- 12The free men[6] and leaders will all be gone, and there will be nothing left for them to rule.