God Will Punish His Enemies
1 Come, people of all nations! Gather around and listen. Let the whole earth and everyone living on it come here and listen. 2 The Lord is angry with all the nations and all their armies. He has condemned them to destruction. 3 Their corpses will not be buried, but will lie there rotting and stinking; and the mountains will be red with blood. 4 The sun, moon, and stars will crumble to dust. The sky will disappear like a scroll being rolled up, and the stars will fall like leaves dropping from a vine or a fig tree.
5 The Lord has prepared his sword in heaven, and now it will strike Edom, those people whom he has condemned to destruction. 6 His sword will be covered with their blood and fat, like the blood and fat of lambs and goats that are sacrificed. The Lord will offer this sacrifice in the city of Bozrah; he will make this a great slaughter in the land of Edom. 7 The people will fall like wild oxen and young bulls, and the earth will be red with blood and covered with fat. 8 This is the time when the Lord will rescue Zion and take vengeance on her enemies.
9 The rivers of Edom will turn into tar, and the soil will turn into sulfur. The whole country will burn like tar. 10 It will burn day and night, and smoke will rise from it forever. The land will lie waste age after age, and no one will ever travel through it again. 11 Owls and ravens will take over the land. The Lord will make it a barren waste again, as it was before the creation. 12 There will be no king to rule the country, and the leaders will all be gone. 13 Thorns and thistles will grow up in all the palaces and walled towns, and jackals and owls will live in them. 14 Wild animals will roam there, and demons will call to each other. The night monster will come there looking for a place to rest. 15 Owls will build their nests, lay eggs, hatch their young, and care for them there. Vultures will gather there, one after another.
16 Search in the Lord's book of living creatures and read what it says. Not one of these creatures will be missing, and not one will be without its mate. The Lord has commanded it to be so; he himself will bring them together. 17 It is the Lord who will divide the land among them and give each of them a share. They will live in the land age after age, and it will belong to them forever.
The Nations Will Be Judged
1 Everyone of every nation,
the entire earth,
and all its creatures,
come here and listen!
2 The Lord is terribly angry
with the nations;
he has condemned them
to be slaughtered.
3 Their dead bodies will be left
to rot and stink;
their blood will flow
down the mountains.
4 Each star will disappear—
the sky will roll up
like a scroll.
Everything in the sky
will dry up and wilt
like leaves on a vine
or fruit on a tree.
Trouble for Edom
5 After the sword of the Lord
has done what it wants
to the skies above,
it will come down on Edom,
the nation that the Lord
has doomed for destruction.
6 The sword of the Lord
is covered with blood
from lambs and goats,
together with fat
from kidneys of rams.
This is because the Lord
will slaughter many people
and make a sacrifice of them
in the city of Bozrah
and everywhere else
in Edom.
7 Edom's leaders are wild oxen.
They are powerful bulls,
but they will die
with the others.
Their country will be soaked
with their own blood,
and its soil made fertile
with their own fat.
8 The Lord has chosen
the year and the day,
when he will take revenge
and come to Zion's defense.
9 Edom's streams will turn into tar
and its soil into sulfur—
then the whole country
will go up in flames.
10 It will burn night and day
and never stop smoking.
Edom will be a desert,
generation after generation;
no one will ever travel
through that land.
11 Owls, hawks, and wild animals
will make it their home.
God will leave it in ruins,
merely a pile of rocks.
The End of Edom
12 Edom will be called
“Kingdom of Nothing.”
Its rulers will also be nothing.
13 Its palaces and fortresses
will be covered with thorns;
only wolves and ostriches
will make their home there.
14 Wildcats and hyenas
will hunt together,
demons will scream to demons,
and creatures of the night
will live among the ruins.
15 Owls will nest there
to raise their young
among its shadows,
while families of vultures
circle around.
16 In The Book of the Lord
you can search and find
where it is written,
“The Lord brought together
all of his creatures
by the power of his Spirit.
Not one is missing.”
17 The Lord has decided
where they each should live;
they will be there forever,
generation after generation.
