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,[#34:7 Lit go down]

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.

⁹And its streams will be turned into pitch,[#34:9 Edom’s]

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,[#34:11 Or owl , jackdaw]

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;[#34:14 Or howling creatures]

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,[#34:15 Or tree snake]

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.