Judgment on the Nations
Draw near, aO 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.
2 For the Lord is enraged against all the nations,
and furious against all their host;
he has adevoted them to destruction, has given them over for slaughter.
3 Their slain shall be cast out,
and athe stench of their corpses shall rise;
bthe mountains shall flow with their blood.
4 aAll 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.
5 For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens;
behold, it descends for judgment upon aEdom,
upon the people bI have devoted to destruction.
6 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 the kidneys of rams.
aFor the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 aWild oxen shall bfall with them,
and cyoung steers with cthe mighty bulls.
Their land shall drink its fill of blood,
and their soil shall be gorged with fat.
8 aFor the Lord has a day of vengeance,
a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
9 aAnd the streams of Edom shall be turned into pitch,
and her soil into sulfur;
her land shall become burning pitch.
10 Night and day ait shall not be quenched;
bits smoke shall go up forever.
cFrom generation to generation it shall lie waste;
none shall pass through it forever and ever.
11 aBut the hawk and the porcupine shall possess it,
the owl and the raven shall dwell in it.
bHe shall stretch the line of cconfusion over it,
and the plumb line of emptiness.
12 Its nobles—there is no one there to call it a kingdom,
and all its princes shall be nothing.
13 aThorns shall grow over its strongholds,
nettles and thistles in its fortresses.
It shall be the haunt of bjackals,
an abode for ostriches.
14 aAnd wild animals shall meet with hyenas;
the wild goat shall cry to his fellow;
indeed, there the night bird settles
and finds for herself a resting place.
15 There the owl nests and lays
and hatches and gathers her young in her shadow;
indeed, there athe hawks are gathered,
each one with her mate.
16 Seek 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.
17 aHe has cast the lot for them;
his hand has portioned it out to them with the line;
they shall possess it forever;
from generation to generation they shall dwell in it.