1Come near, you nations, and hear. Listen, you peoples. Let the earth hear, and everything in it, the world, and all that comes out of it.
2For the LORD is angry with all the nations, and furious with all their armies. He has completely destroyed them. He has handed them over to be slaughtered.
3Their dead will be thrown out, and the stink of their bodies will rise up, and the mountains will be melted with their blood.
4All the army of heaven will melt away, and the skies will be rolled up like a scroll. All their army will fall down, as a leaf falls from the vine, and as a fig falls from the fig tree.
5For my sword has drunk its fill in heaven. Look, it will come down on Idumea, on the people I have cursed, to judge them.
6The sword of the LORD is filled with blood. It is covered with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, and with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea.
7The unicorns will come down with them, and the young bulls with the strong bulls. Their land will be soaked with blood, and their dust will be covered with fat.
8For it is the day when the LORD takes vengeance, the year when he pays back those who fought against Zion.
9The streams of Idumea will be turned into tar, and its dust into burning sulphur, and its land will become burning tar.
10It will not be put out, night or day. Its smoke will go up for ever. From one generation to the next it will lie waste. No one will pass through it, for ever and ever.
11But the cormorant and the bittern will take it over, and the owl and the raven will live there. He will stretch over it the measuring line of confusion and the stones of emptiness.
12They will call for her nobles to rule the kingdom, but none will be there, and all her princes will be nothing.
13Thorns will grow up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in her strongholds. It will be a home for dragons, and a court for owls.
14The wild animals of the desert will meet the wild animals of the island, and the satyr will call to his companion. The screech owl too will rest there, and find a resting place for herself.
15There the great owl will make her nest, and lay her eggs, and hatch them, and gather her young under her shadow. There the vultures also will be gathered, each one with her mate.
16Search the book of the LORD, and read. Not one of these will be missing, and none will be without her mate. For my mouth has commanded it, and his spirit has gathered them.
17He has cast the lot for them, and his hand has measured out the land for them with a line. They will possess it for ever. From one generation to the next they will live in it.