Good News Bible

Isaiah 34:5-12 Good News Bible (GNB)

5. The Lord has prepared his sword in heaven, and now it will strike Edom, those people whom he has condemned to destruction.

6. His sword will be covered with their blood and fat, like the blood and fat of lambs and goats that are sacrificed. The Lord will offer this sacrifice in the city of Bozrah; he will make this a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

7. The people will fall like wild oxen and young bulls, and the earth will be red with blood and covered with fat.

8. This is the time when the Lord will rescue Zion and take vengeance on her enemies.

9. The rivers of Edom will turn into tar, and the soil will turn into sulphur. The whole country will burn like tar.

10. It will burn day and night, and smoke will rise from it for ever. The land will lie waste age after age, and no one will ever travel through it again.

11. Owls and ravens will take over the land. The Lord will make it a barren waste again, as it was before the creation.

12. There will be no king to rule the country, and the leaders will all be gone.