¹Come near , you nations , to hear !

Listen , you peoples .

Let the earth and all it contains hear ,

the world , and everything that comes from it .

²For the LORD is enraged against all the nations ,

and angry with all their armies .

He has utterly destroyed them .

He has given them over for slaughter .

³Their slain will also be cast out ,

and the stench of their dead bodies will come up .

The mountains will melt in their blood .

⁴All of the army of the sky will be dissolved .

The sky will be rolled up like a scroll ,

and all its armies will fade away ,

as a leaf fades from off a vine or a fig tree .

⁵For my sword has drunk its fill in the sky .

Behold , it will come down on Edom,

and on the people of my curse , for judgement.

⁶The LORD ’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 the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah ,

and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

⁷The 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 .

⁸For the LORD has a day of vengeance ,

a year of recompense for the cause of Zion .

⁹Its streams will be turned into pitch ,

its dust into sulphur,

and its land will become burning pitch .

¹⁰It 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 .

¹¹But 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 .

¹²They shall call its nobles to the kingdom , but none shall be there ;

and all its princes shall be nothing .

¹³Thorns will come up in its palaces,

nettles and thistles in its fortresses ;

and it will be a habitation of jackals ,

a court for ostriches .

¹⁴The wild animals of the desert will meet with the wolves,

and the wild goat will cry to his fellow .

Yes, the night creature shall settle there ,

and shall find herself a place of rest .

¹⁵The 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 .

¹⁶Search in the book of the LORD , 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 .

¹⁷He 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 .