Highway of Holiness

33 Woe to you, destroyer,
While you were not destroyed;
And he who is treacherous, while others did not deal treacherously with him.
As soon as you finish destroying, you will be destroyed;
As soon as you cease to deal treacherously, others will deal treacherously with you.
² Lord, be gracious to us; we have waited for You.
Be their strength every morning,
Our salvation also in the time of distress.
³ At the sound of a roar, peoples flee;
At the lifting up of Yourself, nations disperse.
⁴ Your plunder is gathered as the caterpillar gathers;
Like an infestation of locusts, people storm it.
⁵ The Lord is exalted, for He dwells on high;
He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.
⁶ And He will be the stability of your times,
A wealth of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge;
The fear of the Lord is his treasure.
⁷ Behold, their brave men cry out in the streets,
The ambassadors of peace weep bitterly.
⁸ The highways are desolate, the traveler has ceased,
He has broken the covenant, he has despised the cities,
He has no regard for mankind.
⁹ The land mourns and wastes away,
Lebanon is shamed and withers;
Sharon is like a desert plain,
And Bashan and Carmel lose their foliage.
¹⁰ “Now I will arise,” says the Lord,
“Now I will be exalted, now I will be lifted up.
¹¹ You have conceived chaff, you will give birth to stubble;
My breath will consume you like a fire.
¹² The peoples will be burned to lime,
Like cut thorns which are burned in the fire.

34 Come near, you nations, to hear; and listen, you peoples!
Let the earth and all it contains hear, and the world and all that springs from it.
² For the Lord’s anger is against all the nations,
And His wrath against all their armies.
He has utterly destroyed them,
He has turned them over to slaughter.
³ So their slain will be thrown out,
And their corpses will give off their stench,
And the mountains will be drenched with their blood.
⁴ And all the heavenly lights will wear away,
And the sky will be rolled up like a scroll;
All its lights will also wither away
As a leaf withers from the vine,
Or as one withers from the fig tree.
⁵ For My sword has drunk its fill in heaven;
Behold it shall descend for judgment upon Edom,
And upon the people whom I have designated for destruction.
⁶ The sword of the Lord is filled with blood,
It drips with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats,
With the fat of the kidneys of rams.
For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
⁷ Wild oxen will also fall with them
And young bulls with strong ones;
So their land will be soaked with blood,
And their dust become greasy with fat.
⁸ For the Lord has a day of vengeance,
A year of retribution for the cause of Zion.
⁹ Its streams will be turned into pitch,
And its loose earth into brimstone,
And its land will become burning pitch.
¹⁰ It will not be extinguished night or day;
Its smoke will go up forever.
From generation to generation it will be desolate;
None will pass through it forever and ever.
¹¹ But pelican and hedgehog will possess it,
And owl and raven will dwell in it;
And He will stretch over it the line of desolation
And the plumb line of emptiness.
¹² Its nobles—there is no one there
Whom they may proclaim king—
And all its officials will be nothing.
¹³ Thorns will come up in its fortified towers,
Weeds and thistles in its fortified cities;
It will also be a haunt of jackals
And a habitat of ostriches.
¹⁴ The desert creatures will meet with the wolves,
The goat also will cry to its kind.
Yes, the night-bird will settle there
And will find herself a resting place.
¹⁵ The tree snake will make its nest and lay eggs there,
And it will hatch and gather them under its protection.
Yes, the hawks will be gathered there,
Every one with its kind.

Not one of these will be missing;
None will lack its mate.
For His 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 by the measuring line.
They shall possess it forever;
From generation to generation they will dwell in it.

35 The wilderness and the desert will rejoice,
And the desert will shout for joy and blossom;
Like the crocus
² It will blossom profusely
And rejoice with joy and jubilation.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,
The majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They will see the glory of the Lord,
The majesty of our God.
³ Strengthen the exhausted, and make the feeble strong.
⁴ Say to those with anxious heart,
“Take courage, fear not.
Behold, your God will come with vengeance;
The retribution of God will come,
But He will save you.”
⁵ Then the eyes of those who are blind will be opened,
And the ears of those who are deaf will be unstopped.
⁶ Then those who limp will leap like a deer,
And the tongue of those who cannot speak will shout for joy.
For waters will burst forth in the wilderness,
And streams in the desert.
⁷ The scorched land will become a pool
And the thirsty ground springs of water;
In the haunt of jackals, its resting place,
Grass becomes reeds and rushes.
⁸ A highway will be there, a roadway,
And it will be called the Highway of Holiness.
The unclean will not travel on it,
But it will be for the one who walks that way,
And fools will not wander on it.
⁹ No lion will be there,
Nor will any vicious animal go up on it;
They will not be found there.
But the redeemed will walk there,
¹⁰ And the redeemed of the Lord will return
And come to Zion with joyful shouting,
And everlasting joy will be on their heads.
They will obtain gladness and joy,
And sorrow and sighing will flee away.