1Come close, you nations, and listen. Pay attention, you people. The earth, everyone in it, the world, and everything on it will listen.

2The LORD is angry with all the nations. He is furious with all their armies. He has claimed them for destruction. He has handed them over to be slaughtered.

3Their dead bodies will be thrown out. A stench will rise from their corpses. Mountains will be red with their blood.

4All the stars in the sky will rot. The heavens will be rolled up like a scroll. The stars will fall like leaves from a grapevine, like green figs from a fig tree.

5When my sword is covered [with blood] in the heavens, it will fall on Edom and on the people I've claimed for destruction.

6The LORD's sword is covered with blood. It is covered with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of rams' kidneys. The LORD will receive a sacrifice in Bozrah, a huge slaughter in the land of Edom.

7Wild oxen will be killed with them, young bulls along with rams. Their land will be drenched with blood. Their dust will be covered with fat.

8The LORD will have a day of vengeance, a year of revenge in defense of Zion.

9Edom's streams will be turned to tar. Its soil will be turned to burning sulfur. Its land will become blazing tar.

10They will not be extinguished day or night, and smoke will always go up from them. Edom will lie in ruins for generations. No one will ever travel through it.

11Pelicans and herons will take possession of the land. Owls and crows will live there. He will stretch the measuring line of chaos and the plumb line of destruction over it.

12There are no nobles to rule a kingdom. All of its princes have disappeared.

13Its palaces are covered with thorns. Its fortresses have nettles and thistles. It will become a home for jackals and a place for ostriches.

14Hyenas will meet with jackals. Male goats will call to their mates. Screech owls will rest there and find a resting place for themselves.

15Owls will make their nests there, lay eggs, and hatch them. They will gather their young in the shadow of [their wings]. Vultures also will gather there, each one with its mate.

16Search the LORD's book, and read it. Not one of these animals will be missing. Not one will lack a mate, because the LORD has commanded it, and his Spirit will gather them together.

17He is the one who throws dice for them, and his hand divides up [the land] for them with a measuring line. They will possess it permanently and live there for generations.