1Approach, O nations, and listen,Give heed, O peoples!Let the earth and those in it hear;The world, and what it brings forth.
2For GOD is angry at all the nations,Furious at all their host;They have been doomed, consigned to slaughter.
3Their slain shall be left lying,And the stench of their corpses shall mount;And the hills shall be drenched with their blood,
4All the host of heaven shall molder.aAll the host of heaven shall molder 1QIsᵃ reads “And the valleys shall be cleft, / And all the host of heaven shall wither.” The heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll,And all their host shall witherLike a leaf withering on the vine,Or shriveled fruit on a fig tree.
5For My sword shall be drunkbbe drunk 1QIsᵃ reads “be seen”; cf. Targum. in the sky;Lo, it shall come down upon Edom,Upon the people I have doomed,To wreak judgment.
6GOD
has a sword; it is sated with blood,It is gorged with fat—The blood of lambs and he-goats,The kidney fat of rams.For GOD holds a sacrifice in Bozrah,A great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7Wild oxen shall fall with them,cwith them Emendation yields “with fatted calves.” Young bulls with mighty steers;And their land shall be drunk with blood,Their soil shall be saturated with fat.
8For it is GOD’s day of retribution,The year of vindication for Zion’s cause.
9ItsdIts I.e., Edom’s. streams shall be turned to pitchAnd its soil to sulfur.Its land shall become burning pitch,
10Night and day it shall never go out;Its smoke shall rise for all time.Through the ages it shall lie in ruins;Through the aeons none shall traverse it.
11Jackdaws and owlseJackdaws and owls Meaning of Heb. uncertain. shall possess it;Great owls and ravens shall dwell there.[God] shall measure it with a line of chaosAnd with weights of emptiness.fmeasure it … emptiness I.e., plan chaos and emptiness for it; cf. 28.17; Lam. 2.8.
12It shall be called “No kingdom is there,”gIt shall be called “No kingdom is there” Meaning of Heb. uncertain. Its nobles and all its lords shall be nothing.
13Thorns shall grow up in its palaces,Nettles and briers in its strongholds.It shall be a home of jackals,An abode of ostriches.
14hMost of the creatures in vv. 14–15 cannot be identified with certainty. Wildcats shall meet hyenas,Goat-demons shall greet each other;There too the lilithililith A kind of demon. shall reposeAnd find herselfjGoat-demons…lilith…herself Or “Owls…night-bird…itself.” a resting place.
15There the arrow-snake shall nest and lay eggs,And shall brood and hatch in its shade.There too the buzzards shall gatherWith one another.
16Search and read it in the scroll of GOD:Not one of these shall be absent,Not one shall miss its fellow.For God’skGod’s Heb. “My.” mouth has spoken,It is God’s spirit that has assembled them—
17The One who apportioned it to them by lot,Whose hand divided it for them with the line.They shall possess it for all time,They shall dwell there through the ages.