The Book of the Prophet Isaiah

⭑ Catholic Public Domain Version 2009 ⭑

- Chapter 34 -

O nations and peoples: draw near, and listen, and pay attention! Let the earth and its fullness hear, the entire world and all its offspring.(a)

For the indignation of the Lord is over all the nations, and his fury is over all their armies. He has put them to death, and he has given them over to slaughter.

Their slain will be cast out, and from their carcasses a foul odor will rise up. The mountains will languish because of their blood.

And the entire army of the heavens will languish, and the heavens will be folded like a book. And their entire army will fall away, as a leaf falls from the vine or from the fig tree.(b)

Judgment on Edom

(Isaiah 21:11–12)

“For my sword in heaven has been inebriated. Behold, it will descend upon Idumea, and upon the people of my slaughter, unto judgment.”(c)

The sword of the Lord has been filled with blood. It has been thickened by the blood of lambs and he-goats, by the innermost blood of rams. For the victim of the Lord is in Bozrah, and a great slaughter is in the land of Edom.

And the single-horned beasts will descend with them, and the bulls along with the mighty. Their land will be inebriated by blood, and their ground by the fat of their lazy ones.(d)

For this is the day of the vengeance of the Lord, the year of retribution for the judgment of Zion.(e)

And its torrents will be turned into tar, and its soil into sulfur. And its land will become burning tar.

Night and day, it will not be extinguished; its smoke will rise up without ceasing. From generation to generation it will remain desolate. No one will pass through it, forever and ever.

The pelican and the hedgehog will possess it. And the ibis and the raven will live in it. And a measuring line will be extended over it, so that it may be reduced to nothing, and a plumb line, unto desolation.

Its nobles will not be in that place. Instead, they will call upon the king, and all its leaders will be as nothing.

And thorns and nettles will rise up in its houses, and the thistle in its fortified places. And it will be the lair of serpents and the pasture of ostriches.

And demons and monsters will meet, and the hairy ones will cry out to one another. There, the ogress has lain down and found rest for herself.(f)

In that place, the hedgehog has kept its den, and has raised its young, and has dug around them, and has kept them warm in its shadow. In that place, the birds of prey have joined together, one to another.

Search and read diligently in the book of the Lord. Not one of them was lacking; not one has sought for the other. For what has proceeded from my mouth, he has commanded, and his very Spirit has gathered them.

And he has cast lots over them. And his hand has distributed this to them by measure. They will possess it, even unto eternity. From generation to generation, they will dwell in it.

Footnotes

(a)34:1 The word ‘gentes’ could also be translated as ‘Gentiles.’ But in the Christian context, the word would refer to unbelievers in general, rather than to all non-Jews.(Conte)

(b)34:4 And all the host of the heavens:That is, the sun, moon, and stars.(Challoner)

(c)34:5 Idumea:Under the name of Idumea, or Edom a people that were enemies of the Jews, are here understood the wicked in general, the enemies of God and his church.(Challoner)

(d)34:7 The unicorns:That is, the great and mighty.(Challoner)

(e)34:8 The year of recompenses, etc:When the persecutors of Sion, that is, of the church, shall receive their reward.(Challoner)

(f)34:14 Mythological elements such as these, in Sacred Scripture, are used poetically, not literally.(Conte)