Add parallel Print Page Options

For my sword has drunk its fill in the sky.
    Behold, it will come down on Edom,
    and on the people of my curse, for judgment.
Yahweh’s sword is filled with blood.
    It is covered 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.
The wild oxen will come down with them,
    and the young bulls with the mighty bulls;
    and their land will be drunken with blood,
    and their dust made greasy with fat.

For Yahweh has a day of vengeance,
    a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
Its streams will be turned into pitch,
    its dust into sulfur,
    And its land will become burning pitch.
10 It won’t be quenched night or day.
    Its smoke will go up forever.
    From generation to generation, it will lie waste.
    No one will pass through it forever and ever.
11 But the pelican and the porcupine will possess it.
    The owl and the raven will dwell in it.
He will stretch the line of confusion over it,
    and the plumb line of emptiness.
12 They shall call its nobles to the kingdom, but none shall be there;
    and all its princes shall be nothing.
13 Thorns will come up in its palaces,
    nettles and thistles in its fortresses;
    and it will be a habitation of jackals,
    a court for ostriches.
14 The wild animals of the desert will meet with the wolves,
    and the wild goat will cry to his fellow.
Yes, the night creature[a] shall settle there,
    and shall find herself a place of rest.
15 The arrow snake will make her nest there,
    and lay, hatch, and gather under her shade.
    Yes, the kites will be gathered there, every one with her mate.

16 Search in the book of Yahweh, and read:
    not one of these will be missing.
    None will lack her mate.
    For my mouth has commanded,
    and his Spirit has gathered them.
17 He has cast the lot for them,
    and his hand has divided it to them with a measuring line.
    They shall possess it forever.
    From generation to generation they will dwell in it.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 34:14 literally, lilith, which could also be a night demon or night monster

And when my sword has finished its work in the heavens,
    it will fall upon Edom,
    the nation I have marked for destruction.
The sword of the Lord is drenched with blood
    and covered with fat—
with the blood of lambs and goats,
    with the fat of rams prepared for sacrifice.
Yes, the Lord will offer a sacrifice in the city of Bozrah.
    He will make a mighty slaughter in Edom.
Even men as strong as wild oxen will die—
    the young men alongside the veterans.
The land will be soaked with blood
    and the soil enriched with fat.

For it is the day of the Lord’s revenge,
    the year when Edom will be paid back for all it did to Israel.[a]
The streams of Edom will be filled with burning pitch,
    and the ground will be covered with fire.
10 This judgment on Edom will never end;
    the smoke of its burning will rise forever.
The land will lie deserted from generation to generation.
    No one will live there anymore.
11 It will be haunted by the desert owl and the screech owl,
    the great owl and the raven.[b]
For God will measure that land carefully;
    he will measure it for chaos and destruction.
12 It will be called the Land of Nothing,
    and all its nobles will soon be gone.[c]
13 Thorns will overrun its palaces;
    nettles and thistles will grow in its forts.
The ruins will become a haunt for jackals
    and a home for owls.
14 Desert animals will mingle there with hyenas,
    their howls filling the night.
Wild goats will bleat at one another among the ruins,
    and night creatures[d] will come there to rest.
15 There the owl will make her nest and lay her eggs.
    She will hatch her young and cover them with her wings.
And the buzzards will come,
    each one with its mate.

16 Search the book of the Lord,
    and see what he will do.
Not one of these birds and animals will be missing,
    and none will lack a mate,
for the Lord has promised this.
    His Spirit will make it all come true.
17 He has surveyed and divided the land
    and deeded it over to those creatures.
They will possess it forever,
    from generation to generation.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 34:8 Hebrew to Zion.
  2. 34:11 The identification of some of these birds is uncertain.
  3. 34:12 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
  4. 34:14 Hebrew Lilith, possibly a reference to a mythical demon of the night.