God Judges His Enemies

¹Come close to me, you nations, and listen!

Pay attention to me, you peoples!

Let all the world hear me,

the earth and all that springs from it.

²For Yahweh has turned his anger toward the nations

and his fury against all their armies.

He has doomed them to destruction

and will annihilate them all.

³Their slain will be cast out,

the stench of their corpses will rise,

and the mountains will stream with their blood.

⁴The heavenly powers will fade away to nothing,[#34:4 Or “The host of heaven,” which can refer to demonic powers. See 2 Kings 17:16; 21:3, 5; 23:4–5; Eph. 6:10–18.; #34:4 The Dead Sea scroll 1QIsa adds “and the valleys will be split open.”]

and the heavens will be rolled up like a scroll.

All their mighty host will wither

as leaves fall from a withered vine

or fruit from a withering fig tree.

⁵The Lord says :

“Indeed, my judgment-sword has appeared in the heavens,

and when it has drunk its fill,

you will see it descend on the people of Edom,

those whom I have doomed to judgment.”

⁶Lord Yahweh has a judgment-sword dripping with blood.

It is smeared with fat,

dripping with the blood of lambs and goats,

and covered with the fat of rams’ kidneys.

Lord Yahweh has a sacrifice in Bozrah

and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

⁷Cattle and young bulls will also be slain;[#34:7 This is likely aurochs, an extinct species of wild cattle.]

their land will be drenched with blood

and the dust soaked with fat.

⁸For Lord Yahweh has a day of vengeance,

a year of vindication for Zion’s cause.

⁹Edom’s streams will be turned to pitch and its soil to sulfur;

her land will become blazing pitch.

¹⁰Night and day it will never be extinguished;

its smoke will go up forever and ever.

Through the endless ages it will lie desolate;

no one will pass through it forever.

¹¹Nothing but desert hawks and wild animals will live there;[#34:11 The exact identities of the animals listed here are uncertain. Some translations include hedgehogs, pelicans, porcupines, hawks, and several types of owls.]

owls and ravens will find a home there.

The Lord will stretch out over it a measuring line of chaos

and the plumb line of emptiness.

¹²It will be named No Kingdom There,

and all its rulers and princes will come to nothing.

¹³Its palaces will be overgrown with thorns,

its fortresses with thistles and briars.

It will become a haunt for demons and an abode for owls.

¹⁴Wild beasts will mingle with wolves

and goat-demons will howl to one another.

There too the night-demon will settle in and find her rest.

¹⁵There the arrow-snake will build her nest, lay her eggs,

and hatch her brood in the shadows.

There too the vultures will gather to breed.

¹⁶Seek for Yahweh ’s book and read it carefully.

You will learn that none of these prophecies will fail;

none will lack a fulfillment as its companion.

For the Lord has issued his decree.

It is his Spirit that has gathered them.

¹⁷He is the one who apportioned it to them by lot,

whose hand measured the share of each.

They will possess it for all time

and dwell there throughout the ages.