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34. Judgment Against the Nations

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 on all their armies.
He will totally destroy The Hebrew term refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the LORD, often by totally destroying them; also in verse 5. them,
   he will give them over to slaughter.
³ Their slain will be thrown out,
   their dead bodies will stink;
   the mountains will be soaked with their blood.
⁴ All the stars in the sky will be dissolved
   and the heavens 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 the land of 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 or 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 The precise identification of these birds is uncertain. and screech owl The precise identification of these birds is uncertain. will possess it;
   the great owl The precise identification of these birds is uncertain. 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 lie down
   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.

3. Their slain shall be cast out. By this circumstance he shews that it will be a great calamity, for if a few persons are “slain,” they are committed to the earth; but when so great a multitude is slain at one time, that there are not left as many as are necessary for burying them, there is no thought of interment, and therefore the air is polluted by the stench of their carcases. Hence it is evident, that God is sufficiently powerful to lay low innumerable armies. Perhaps, also, the Prophet intended to heighten the picture of the judgment of God, because to the slaughter of the nations there will be added shame and disgrace, so that they shall be deprived of the honor and duty of burial

And the mountains shall melt on account of their blood. Another figure of speech is employed to shew more fully the extent of the slaughter, for the “blood” will flow from “the mountains,” as if the very mountains were melted, just as when the waters run down violently after heavy showers, and sweep away the soil along with them. Thus, also, he shows that there will be no means of escape, because the sword will rage as cruelly on the very mountains as on the field of battle.