Yahweh’s Wrath Against the Nations

1Draw near, O nations, to hear; and pay attention, O peoples!

Let the earth hear, as well as its fullness, the world and all that springs from it.

2For the indignation of Yahweh is against all the nations,

And His wrath against all their [†]hosts;

He has [†]devoted them to destruction;

He has given them over to slaughter.

3So their slain will be cast out,

And their corpses [†]will give off their stench,

And the mountains will [†]be drenched with their blood.

4And all the host of heaven will rot away,

And the sky will be rolled up like a scroll;

All their hosts will also wither away

As a leaf withers from the vine,

Or as one withers from the fig tree.

5For My sword is satiated in heaven;

Behold, it shall descend for judgment upon Edom

And upon the people whom I have devoted to destruction.

6The sword of Yahweh is filled with blood;

It is [†]sated with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats,

With the fat of the kidneys of rams.

For Yahweh has a sacrifice in Bozrah

And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

7And wild oxen will also [†]fall with them,

And young bulls with strong ones;

Thus their land will be soaked with blood,

And their dust [†]become greasy with fat.

8For Yahweh has a day of vengeance,

A year of recompense for the [†]cause of Zion.

9[†]And its streams will be turned into pitch,

And its dust into brimstone,

And its land will become burning pitch.

10It will not be quenched night or day;

Its smoke will go up forever.

From generation to generation it will be laid waste;

None will pass through it forever and ever.

11But [†]pelican and hedgehog will possess it,

And [†]owl and raven will dwell in it;

And He will stretch over it the line of utter formlessness

And the [†]plumb line of utter void.

12Its nobles—there is no one there

Whom they may proclaim king—

And all its princes will be non-existent.

13And thorns will come up in its fortified towers,

Weeds and thistles in its fortified cities;

It will also be a haunt of jackals

And an abode of ostriches.

14And the desert creatures will meet with the [†]wolves;

The [†]hairy goat also will cry to its kind;

Surely, the [†]night creature will obtain relief there

And will find itself a resting place.

15The [†]owl will make its nest and find its escape there,

And it will hatch its eggs and gather them in its shade.

Surely, the [†]falcons will be gathered there,

Every one with its kind.

16Seek from the book of Yahweh, and read:

Not one of these will be missing;

None will lack its mate.

For [†]His mouth has commanded,

And His Spirit has gathered them.

17He has cast the lot for them,

And His hand has divided it to them by line.

They shall possess it forever;

From generation to generation they will dwell in it.