The Judgment of the Nations, the Restoration of the Redeemed, and the Threat Against Jerusalem
Isaiah 34
1 Come near, you nations, to hear! Listen, you peoples. Let the earth and all that is in it hear, the world, and everything that comes from it.
2 For Yahweh is enraged against all the nations, and angry with all their armies. He has utterly destroyed them. He has given them over for slaughter.
3 Their slain will also be cast out, and the stench of their dead bodies will come up. The mountains will be melted with their blood.
4 All of the army of the sky will be dissolved. The sky will be rolled up like a scroll, and all its armies will fade away, as a leaf fades from off a vine or a fig tree.
5 For my sword has drunk its fill in the sky. Behold, it will come down on Edom, and on the people of my curse, for judgment.
6 Yahweh’s sword is filled with blood. It is covered with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for Yahweh has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 The wild oxen will come down with them, and the young bulls with the mighty bulls; and their land will be drunken with blood, and their dust made greasy with fat.
8 For Yahweh has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
9 Its streams will be turned into pitch, its dust into sulfur, and its land will become burning pitch.
10 It won’t be quenched night or day. Its smoke will ascend forever. From generation to generation, it will lie waste. No one will pass through it forever and ever.
11 But the pelican and the porcupine will possess it. The owl and the raven will dwell in it. He will stretch the line of confusion over it, and the plumb line of emptiness.
12 They shall call its nobles to the kingdom, but none shall be there; and all its princes shall be nothing.
13 Thorns will come up in its palaces, nettles and thistles in its fortresses; and it will be a habitation of jackals, a court for ostriches.
14 The wild animals of the desert will meet with the wolves, and the wild goat will cry to his fellow. Yes, the night creature will settle there, and will find herself a place of rest.
15 The arrow snake will make her nest there, and lay, hatch, and gather under her shadow. Yes, the kites will be gathered there, every one with her mate.
16 Search in the book of Yahweh, and read: not one of these will be missing. None will lack her mate. For my mouth has commanded, and his Spirit has gathered them.
17 He has cast the lot for them, and his hand has divided it to them with a measuring line. They shall possess it forever. From generation to generation they will dwell in it.
Isaiah 35
1 The wilderness and the dry land will be glad. The desert will rejoice and blossom like a rose.
2 It will blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing. Lebanon’s glory will be given to it, the excellence of Carmel and Sharon. They will see Yahweh’s glory, the excellence of our God.
3 Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.
4 Tell those who have a fearful heart, “Be strong. Don’t be afraid. Behold, your God will come with vengeance, God’s retribution. He will come and save you.
5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.
6 Then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing; for waters will break out in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.
7 The burning sand will become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water. Grass with reeds and rushes will be in the habitation of jackals, where they lay.
8 A highway will be there, a road, and it will be called The Holy Way. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it will be for those who walk in the Way. Wicked fools will not go there.
9 No lion will be there, nor will any ravenous animal go up on it. They will not be found there; but the redeemed will walk there.
10 Yahweh’s ransomed ones will return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
Isaiah 36
1 Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah, and took them.
2 The king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a great army. He stood by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller’s field.
3 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, came out to him, with Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder.
4 Rabshakeh said to them, “Now tell Hezekiah, ‘The great king, the king of Assyria, says, “What confidence is this in which you trust?
5 I say that your counsel and strength for the war are only vain words. Now in whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me?
6 Behold, you trust in the staff of this bruised reed, even in Egypt; on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.
7 But if you tell me, ‘We trust in Yahweh our God,’ isn’t that he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’?”
8 “Now therefore, please give pledges to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them.
9 How then can you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put your trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?
10 Have I now come up without Yahweh against this land to destroy it? Yahweh said to me, ‘Go up against this land, and destroy it.’”
11 Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in the Syrian language; for we understand it. Don’t speak to us in the Jews’ language, in the ears of the people who are on the wall.”
12 But Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me to your master and to you to speak these words? Hasn’t he sent me to the men who sit on the wall, who will eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”
13 Then Rabshakeh stood and called out with a loud voice in the Jews’ language, and said, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!
14 The king says, ‘Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you; for he will not be able to deliver you.
15 Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in Yahweh, saying, “Yahweh will surely deliver us. This city won’t be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”
16 Don’t listen to Hezekiah, for the king of Assyria says, “Make your peace with me, and come out to me; and every one of you eat from his own vine, and every one of his fig tree, and every one drink the waters of his own cistern;
17 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.
18 Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, ‘Yahweh will deliver us.’ Have any of the gods of the nations delivered their lands out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?
20 Who are they among all the gods of these countries, that have delivered their country out of my hand, that Yahweh should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?”’”
21 But they remained silent, and answered him not a word; for the king’s commandment was, “Don’t answer him.”
22 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, came with Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.
Scripture: World English Bible (WEB), public domain.
