^1. Come near, you nations, and listen; pay attention, you peoples! Let the earth hear, and all that is in it, the world, and all that comes out of it!

^2. The LORD is angry with all nations; his wrath is upon all their armies. He will totally destroy [1] them, he will give them over to slaughter.

^3. Their slain will be thrown out, their dead bodies will send up a stench; the mountains will be soaked with their blood.

^4. All the stars of the heavens will be dissolved and the sky rolled up like a scroll; all the starry host will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like shriveled figs from the fig tree.

^5. My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; see, it descends in judgment on Edom, the people I have totally destroyed.

^6. The sword of the LORD is bathed in blood, it is covered with fat-- the blood of lambs and goats, fat from the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah and a great slaughter in Edom.

^7. And the wild oxen will fall with them, the bull calves and the great bulls. Their land will be drenched with blood, and the dust will be soaked with fat.

^8. For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of retribution, to uphold Zion's cause.

^9. Edom's streams will be turned into pitch, her dust into burning sulfur; her land will become blazing pitch!

^10. It will not be quenched night and day; its smoke will rise forever. From generation to generation it will lie desolate; no one will ever pass through it again.

^11. The desert owl [4] and screech owl [3] will possess it; the great owl [2] and the raven will nest there. God will stretch out over Edom the measuring line of chaos and the plumb line of desolation.

^12. Her nobles will have nothing there to be called a kingdom, all her princes will vanish away.

^13. Thorns will overrun her citadels, nettles and brambles her strongholds. She will become a haunt for jackals, a home for owls.

^14. Desert creatures will meet with hyenas, and wild goats will bleat to each other; there the night creatures will also repose and find for themselves places of rest.

^15. The owl will nest there and lay eggs, she will hatch them, and care for her young under the shadow of her wings; there also the falcons will gather, each with its mate.

^16. Look in the scroll of the LORD and read: None of these will be missing, not one will lack her mate. For it is his mouth that has given the order, and his Spirit will gather them together.

^17. He allots their portions; his hand distributes them by measure. They will possess it forever and dwell there from generation to generation.