Judgement on the Nations

1Draw near, O nations, to hear,

and give attention, O peoples!

Let the earth hear, and all that fills it;

the world, and all that comes from it.

2For the LORD is enraged against all the nations,

and furious against all their host;

he has devoted them to destruction,34:2 That is, set apart (devoted) as an offering to the Lord (for destruction); also verse 5 has given them over for slaughter.

3Their slain shall be cast out,

and the stench of their corpses shall rise;

the mountains shall flow with their blood.

4All the host of heaven shall rot away,

and the skies roll up like a scroll.

All their host shall fall,

as leaves fall from the vine,

like leaves falling from the fig tree.

5For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens;

behold, it descends for judgement upon Edom,

upon the people I have devoted to destruction.

6The 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 the kidneys of rams.

For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah,

a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

7Wild oxen shall fall with them,

and young steers with the mighty bulls.

Their land shall drink its fill of blood,

and their soil shall be gorged with fat.

8For the LORD has a day of vengeance,

a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.

9And the streams of Edom34:9 Hebrew her streams shall be turned into pitch,

and her soil into sulphur;

her land shall become burning pitch.

10Night and day it shall not be quenched;

its smoke shall go up for ever.

From generation to generation it shall lie waste;

none shall pass through it for ever and ever.

11But the hawk and the porcupine34:11 The identity of the animals rendered hawk and porcupine is uncertain shall possess it,

the owl and the raven shall dwell in it.

He shall stretch the line of confusion34:11 Hebrew formlessness over it,

and the plumb line of emptiness.

12Its nobles—there is no one there to call it a kingdom,

and all its princes shall be nothing.

13Thorns shall grow over its strongholds,

nettles and thistles in its fortresses.

It shall be the haunt of jackals,

an abode for ostriches.34:13 Or owls

14And wild animals shall meet with hyenas;

the wild goat shall cry to his fellow;

indeed, there the night bird34:14 Identity uncertain settles

and finds for herself a resting-place.

15There the owl nests and lays

and hatches and gathers her young in her shadow;

indeed, there the hawks are gathered,

each one with her mate.

16Seek and read from the book of the LORD:

Not one of these shall be missing;

none shall be without her mate.

For the mouth of the LORD has commanded,

and his Spirit has gathered them.

17He has cast the lot for them;

his hand has portioned it out to them with the line;

they shall possess it for ever;

from generation to generation they shall dwell in it.