Isaiah 34: What Desolation Looks Like

Isaiah has a dire message for the nation of Edom in chapter 34: destruction is coming.  The land will be turned into wilderness, and the prophet paints a grim picture of what such desolation looks like.

The day of Edom's judgment begins with a great deal of bloodshed.  "When my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens, lo, it will descend upon Edom, upon the people I have doomed to judgment.  The Lord has a sword; it is sated with blood, it is gorged with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of kidneys of rams...The land shall be soaked with blood, and their soil made rich with fat" (vs. 5-7).

Here is the end result:

• The streams of Edom shall be turned into pitch, soil into sulfur and land into burning pitch (vs. 9).
• Its smoke shall go up forever (vs. 10).
• The land shall lie waste with no one passing through it any more (vs. 10).
• Wild animals shall take over: hawk, hedgehog, owl, raven, jackals, ostriches, wildcats, buzzards, etc. (vs. 11-15).
• It will be called "No Kingdom There" (vs. 12).
• Thorns and thistles will overgrow the land (vs. 13).

God has decreed that the land will be taken from the Edomites and given over to the wilderness forever.