The Judgment of the Nations

34 You nations, come here and listen;
you peoples, pay attention!(A)
Let the earth and all that fills it hear,
the world and all that comes from it.(B)
The Lord is angry with all the nations,
furious with all their armies.(C)
He will set them apart for destruction,(D)
giving them over to slaughter.
Their slain will be thrown out,
and the stench of their corpses will rise;(E)
the mountains will flow[a] with their blood.(F)
All[b] the stars in the sky(G) will dissolve.
The sky will roll up like a scroll,(H)
and its stars will all wither
as leaves wither on the vine,
and foliage on the fig tree.(I)

The Judgment of Edom

When my sword has drunk its fill[c](J) in the heavens,
it will then come down on Edom(K)
and on the people I have set apart for destruction.
The Lord’s sword is covered with blood.
It drips with fat,
with the blood of lambs and goats,
with the fat of the kidneys of rams.(L)
For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,(M)
a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
The wild oxen will be struck[d] down with them,
and young bulls with the mighty bulls.
Their land will be soaked with[e] blood,
and their soil will be saturated with fat.
For the Lord has a day of vengeance,(N)
a time of paying back Edom
for its hostility against Zion.
Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch,
her soil into sulfur;(O)
her land will become burning pitch.
10 It will never go out—day or night.
Its smoke will go up forever.(P)
It will be desolate, from generation to generation;
no one will pass through it forever and ever.(Q)
11 Eagle owls[f] and herons[g] will possess it,
and long-eared owls and ravens will dwell there.(R)
The Lord will stretch out a measuring line
and a plumb line(S) over her
for her destruction and chaos.(T)
12 No nobles will be left to proclaim a king,
and all her princes will come to nothing.
13 Her palaces will be overgrown with thorns;
her fortified cities, with thistles and briers.(U)
She will become a dwelling for jackals,
an abode[h] for ostriches.(V)
14 The desert creatures will meet hyenas,
and one wild goat will call to another.
Indeed, the night birds will stay there
and will find a resting place.
15 Sand partridges[i] will make their nests there;
they will lay and hatch their eggs
and will gather their broods under their shadows.
Indeed, the birds of prey will gather there,
each with its mate.(W)
16 Search and read the scroll of the Lord:(X)
Not one of them will be missing,
none will be lacking its mate,
because he has ordered it by my[j] mouth,
and he will gather them by his Spirit.
17 He has cast the lot for them;
his hand allotted their portion with a measuring line.
They will possess it forever;(Y)
they will dwell in it from generation to generation.

Footnotes

  1. 34:3 Or melt, or dissolve
  2. 34:4 DSS read And the valleys will be split, and all
  3. 34:5 DSS read sword will appear
  4. 34:7 Or will go
  5. 34:7 Or will drink its fill of
  6. 34:11 Or Pelicans
  7. 34:11 Or hedgehogs
  8. 34:13 DSS, LXX, Syr, Tg; MT reads jackals, grass
  9. 34:15 Or Arrow snakes, or Owls
  10. 34:16 Some Hb mss; other Hb mss, DSS, Syr, Tg read his

Judgment on the Nations

34 Draw near, O nations, to hear;
    O peoples, give heed!
Let the earth hear and all that fills it,
    the world and all that comes from it.(A)
For the Lord is enraged against all the nations
    and furious against all their hordes;
    he has doomed them, has given them over for slaughter.(B)
Their slain shall be cast out,
    and the stench of their corpses shall rise;
    the mountains shall flow with their blood.(C)
All the host of heaven shall rot away,
    and the skies roll up like a scroll.
All their host shall wither
    like a leaf withering on a vine
    or fruit withering on a fig tree.(D)

When my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens,
    upon Edom it will fall,
    upon the people I have doomed to judgment.(E)
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.
For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
    a great slaughter in the land of Edom.(F)
Wild oxen shall fall with them
    and young steers with the mighty bulls.
Their land shall be soaked with blood,
    and their soil made rich with fat.(G)

For the Lord has a day of vengeance,
    a year of vindication for Zion’s cause.[a](H)
And the streams of Edom[b] shall be turned into pitch
    and her soil into sulfur;
    her land shall become burning pitch.(I)
10 Night and day it shall not be quenched;
    its smoke shall go up forever.
From generation to generation it shall lie waste;
    no one shall pass through it forever and ever.(J)
11 But the desert owl[c] and the screech owl[d] shall possess it;
    the great owl and the raven shall live in it.
He shall stretch the line of confusion
    and the plummet of chaos over it.(K)
12 They shall call its nobles No Kingdom There,
    and all its princes shall be nothing.
13 Thorns shall grow over its strongholds,
    nettles and thistles in its fortresses.
It shall be the haunt of jackals,
    an abode for ostriches.(L)
14 Wildcats shall meet with hyenas;
    goat-demons shall call to each other;
there also Lilith shall repose
    and find a place to rest.(M)
15 There shall the owl nest
    and lay and hatch and brood in its shadow;
there also the buzzards shall gather,
    each one with its mate.(N)
16 Seek and read from the book of the Lord:
    Not one of these shall be missing;
    none shall be without its mate.
For his mouth, it has commanded,
    and his spirit, it has gathered them.(O)
17 He has cast the lot for them;
    his hand has portioned it out to them with the line.
[[They shall possess it;
    from generation to generation they shall live in it.(P)

Footnotes

  1. 34.8 Or of recompense by Zion’s defender
  2. 34.9 Heb her streams
  3. 34.11 Meaning of Heb uncertain
  4. 34.11 Meaning of Heb uncertain