The Nations Will Be Judged
1Everyone of every nation,
the entire earth,
and all its creatures,
come here and listen!
2The Lord is terribly angry
with the nations;
he has condemned them
to be slaughtered.
3Their 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.
6The 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.
7Edom'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.
8The Lord has chosen
the year and the day,
when he will take revenge
and come to Zion's defense.
9Edom'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.
11Owls, hawks, and wild animals
will make it their home.
God will leave it in ruins,
merely a pile of rocks.
The End of Edom
12Edom will be called
“Kingdom of Nothing.”
Its rulers will also be nothing.
13Its palaces and fortresses
will be covered with thorns;
only wolves and ostriches
will make their home there.
14Wildcats and hyenas
will hunt together,
demons will scream to demons,
and creatures of the night
will live among the ruins.
15Owls will nest there
to raise their young
among its shadows,
while families of vultures
circle around.
16In 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.”
17The Lord has decided
where they each should live;
they will be there forever,
generation after generation.