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Judgement on the Nations

34Draw near, O nations, to hear;
   O peoples, give heed!
Let the earth hear, and all that fills it;
   the world, and all that comes from it.
² For the Lord is enraged against all the nations,
   and furious against all their hordes;
   he has doomed them, has given them over for slaughter.
³ Their slain shall be cast out,
   and the stench of their corpses shall rise;
   the mountains shall flow with their blood.
⁴ All the host of heaven shall rot away,
   and the skies roll up like a scroll.
All their host shall wither
   like a leaf withering on a vine,
   or fruit withering on a fig tree.

⁵ When my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens,
   lo, it will descend upon Edom,
   upon the people I have doomed to judgement.
⁶ The Lord has a sword; it is sated with blood,
   it is gorged 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 Wild oxen shall fall with them,
   and young steers with the mighty bulls.
Their land shall be soaked with blood,
   and their soil made rich with fat.

⁸ For the Lord has a day of vengeance,
   a year of vindication by Zion’s cause.^*
9 And the streams of Edom^* shall be turned into pitch,
   and her soil into sulphur;
   her land shall become burning pitch.
¹⁰ Night and day it shall not be quenched;
   its smoke shall go up for ever.
From generation to generation it shall lie waste;
   no one shall pass through it for ever and ever.
¹¹ But the hawk^* and the hedgehog^* shall possess it;
   the owl^* and the raven shall live in it.
He shall stretch the line of confusion over it,
   and the plummet of chaos over^* its nobles.
¹² They shall name it No Kingdom There,
   and all its princes shall be nothing.
¹³ Thorns shall grow over its strongholds,
   nettles and thistles in its fortresses.
It shall be the haunt of jackals,
   an abode for ostriches.
¹⁴ Wildcats shall meet with hyenas,
   goat-demons shall call to each other;
there too Lilith shall repose,
   and find a place to rest.
¹⁵ There shall the owl nest
   and lay and hatch and brood in its shadow;
there too the buzzards shall gather,
   each one with its mate.
¹⁶ Seek and read from the book of the Lord:
   Not one of these shall be missing;
   none shall be without its mate.
For the mouth of the Lord has commanded,
   and his spirit has gathered them.
¹⁷ He has cast the lot for them,
   his hand has portioned it out to them with the line;
they shall possess it for ever,
   from generation to generation they shall live in it.

The Return of the Redeemed to Zion

35The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad,
   the desert shall rejoice and blossom;
like the crocus ²it shall blossom abundantly,
   and rejoice with joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
   the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory of the Lord,
   the majesty of our God.

³ Strengthen the weak hands,
   and make firm the feeble knees.
⁴ Say to those who are of a fearful heart,
   ‘Be strong, do not fear!
Here is your God.
   He will come with vengeance,
with terrible recompense.
   He will come and save you.’

⁵ Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
   and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
⁶ then the lame shall leap like a deer,
   and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.
For waters shall break forth in the wilderness,
   and streams in the desert;
⁷ the burning sand shall become a pool,
   and the thirsty ground springs of water;
the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp,^*
   the grass shall become reeds and rushes.

⁸ A highway shall be there,
   and it shall be called the Holy Way;
the unclean shall not travel on it,^*
   but it shall be for God’s people;^*
   no traveller, not even fools, shall go astray.
⁹ No lion shall be there,
   nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;
they shall not be found there,
   but the redeemed shall walk there.
¹⁰ And the ransomed of the Lord shall return,
   and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
   they shall obtain joy and gladness,
   and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.