XXXIV. 1 Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye peoples; let the earth hear, and the fulness thereof; the world, and all that come forth of it.

2 For the LORD hath indignation against all nations, and fury against all their host; he hath laid them under the ban, he hath given them to slaughter.

3 And their smitten shall be cast out, and their carcases, their stink shall go up, and mountains shall be melted with their blood.

4 And all the host of heaven shall waste away, and the heavens shall be rolled up as a scroll, and all their host shall fade, as a leaf fadeth from a vine, and as a fading (leaf) from a ﬁg tree.

5 For my sword hath drenched itself in heaven; behold, it shall come down upon Edom, and upon the people of my ban, for judgment.

6 The LORD hath a sword, it is ﬁlled with blood, it is made rich with fat, with the blood of lambs and he goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for the ’LORD bath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter ’the land of Edom.

7 And ’ oxen shall come down with them, and bullocks with bulls; and their land shall be drenched with blood, and their dust made rich with fat.

8 For the Lord hatha day of vengeance, and a year of recompense for the quarrel of Zion.

9 And her streams shall be turned into pitch, and her dust into brimstone; and the land thereof shall become pitch that burneth.

10 Night and day it shall not be quenched; for ever its smoke shall go up; from generation to generation it shall lie waste; for ever and ever there shall be none passing through it.

4. ‘waste,’ or, ‘moulder away.7. ‘come ’ i.e. to slaughter: some take it ‘fall.8. Or, ‘to plead for ’10. Some rearrange the clauses, joining the adverbial phrase of each clause to the previous one, and leaving the last unqualified. Cf. Lxx.

11 But the pelican and the bittern shall possess it; and the horned owl and the raven shall dwell in it; and he shall stretch out upon it the line of wasteness and the plummet of void.

12 As for the nobles thereof, none shall be there to proclaim the kingdom ; and all her princes shall be no more.

13 And her castles shall spring up (with) thorns; nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof; and it shall be a habitation for jackals, a court for [daughters of ] ostriches.

14 And desert creatures shall meet the wolves, and the shaggy beast shall call to his fellow; the screech owl surely shall repose there, and ﬁnd for herself a resting-place.

15 There shall the arrowsnake make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather in her shadow; there surely shall the kites be , brought together, each with her mate.

16 Inquire ye out of the book of the Lord, and read; none of these is missing, none shall want her mate; for my mouth, it hath commanded, and his spirit, it hath brought them together.

17 And he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath divided it unto them by line; they shall possess it for ever, to generation and generation shall they dwell therein.