1 ARST You people of all nations, come near and listen; pay careful attention. I want the world and everything that is in it to hear what I say. BSB BSB: Come near, O nations, to listen; pay attention, O peoples. Let the earth hear, and all that fills it, the world and all that springs from it.
2 ARST Yahweh is angry with the people of all nations; he is furious with all their armies. He has decided that they must be destroyed, and he will slaughter them. BSB BSB: The LORD is angry with all the nations and furious with all their armies. He will devote them to destruction; He will give them over to slaughter.
3 ARST Their corpses will not be buried, and as a result their bodies will stink, and the mountains will collapse because of their blood. BSB BSB: Their slain will be left unburied, and the stench of their corpses will rise; the mountains will flow with their blood.
4 ARST The sky will disappear like a scroll that is rolled up and thrown away. Stars will fall from the sky like withered leaves fall from grapevines, or like shriveled figs fall from fig trees. BSB BSB: All the stars of heaven will be dissolved. The skies will be rolled up like a scroll, and all their stars will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like foliage from the fig tree.
5 ARST When Yahweh has finished his work of destroying objects in the sky, he will punish the people of Edom, the people group that he has said must be destroyed. BSB BSB: When My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens, then it will come down upon Edom, upon the people I have devoted to destruction.
6 ARST It is as though Yahweh will have a sword that is covered with blood and fat— the blood of lambs and goats and the fat of the kidneys of rams to be sacrificed. It is as though Yahweh will offer a sacrifice in Bozrah and kill many people in other cities in Edom. BSB BSB: The sword of the LORD is bathed in blood. It drips with fat—with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 ARST Even wild oxen will be killed, as well as young calves and big bulls. The ground will be soaked with blood, and the dirt will be covered with the fat of those animals. BSB BSB: And the wild oxen will fall with them, the young bulls with the strong ones. Their land will be drenched with blood, and their soil will be soaked with fat.
8 ARST That will be the time when Yahweh gets revenge for what those people did to the people of Judah. BSB BSB: For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
9 ARST The streams in Edom will be full of burning pitch, and the ground will be covered with burning sulfur and burning pitch. BSB BSB: Edom’s streams will be turned to tar, and her soil to sulfur; her land will become a blazing pitch.
10 ARST Yahweh will never finish punishing Edom with fire; the smoke will rise forever. No one will ever live in that land, and no one will even travel through it. BSB BSB: It will not be quenched—day or night. Its smoke will ascend forever. From generation to generation it will lie desolate; no one will ever again pass through it.
11 ARST Ravens and various kinds of owls and small animals will live there. Yahweh will measure that land carefully; he will measure it to to decide where to cause chaos and destruction. BSB BSB: The desert owl and screech owl will possess it, and the great owl and raven will dwell in it. The LORD will stretch out over Edom a measuring line of chaos and a plumb line of destruction.
12 ARST There will be no more princes; the people who have authority will have no kingdom to rule; the princes will disappear. BSB BSB: No nobles will be left to proclaim a king, and all her princes will come to nothing.
13 ARST The deserted palaces and fortified buildings will be full of thorns and thistles. The ruins will be places for jackals and ostriches to live. BSB BSB: Her towers will be overgrown with thorns, her fortresses with thistles and briers. She will become a haunt for jackals, an abode for ostriches.
14 ARST Animals that live in the desert and hyenas will be there, and wild goats will bleat to each other. There will also be creatures that roam around at night and rest there. BSB BSB: The desert creatures will meet with hyenas, and one wild goat will call to another. There the night creature will settle and find her place of repose.
15 ARST Owls will make their nests there and lay their eggs in the nests; and when the eggs hatch, the mother birds will cover them with their wings. There will also be hawks there, each with its mate. BSB BSB: There the owl will make her nest; she will lay and hatch her eggs and gather her brood under her shadow. Even there the birds of prey will gather, each with its mate.
16 ARST If you read what is written in the book that contains messages from Yahweh, you will find out what he will do to Edom. All of those animals and birds will be there, and each one will have a mate, because that is what Yahweh has promised, and his spirit will cause them all to gather there. BSB BSB: Search and read the scroll of the LORD: Not one of these will go missing, not one will lack her mate, because He has ordered it by His mouth, and He will gather them by His Spirit.
17 ARST He has decided what parts of the land of Edom each will live in, and those are the places where each bird or animal will live. Their descendants will possess those areas forever, throughout all generations. BSB BSB: He has allotted their portion; His hand has distributed it by measure. They will possess it forever; they will dwell in it from generation to generation.
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