Judgment on the Nations
1 hDraw near, O nations, to hear,
and give attention, O peoples!
iLet 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 host;
he has devoted them to destruction,1 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 jAll the host of heaven shall rot away,
and the skies kroll up like a scroll.
All their host shall lfall,
as leaves fall from the vine,
like leaves falling from the fig tree.
5 For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens;
behold, it descends for judgment upon mEdom,
upon the people I have devoted to destruction.
6 The Lord has a nsword; 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 osacrifice 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 drink its fill of blood,
and their soil shall be gorged with fat.
8 pFor the Lord has a qday of vengeance,
a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
9 And the streams of Edom2 shall be turned into pitch,
and her soil into sulfur;
her land shall become burning pitch.
10 Night and day rit shall not be quenched;
sits smoke shall go up forever.
From generation to generation it shall lie waste;
none shall pass through it forever and ever.
11 But the hawk and the porcupine3 shall possess it,
the owl and the raven shall dwell in it.
He shall stretch the tline of confusion4 over it,
and the plumb line of emptiness.
12 Its nobles—there is no one there to call it a kingdom,
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.5
14 And wild animals shall meet with hyenas;
the wild goat shall cry to his fellow;
indeed, there the night bird6 settles
and finds for herself a resting place.
15 There the owl nests and lays
and hatches and gathers her young in her shadow;
indeed, there the hawks are gathered,
each one with her mate.
16 Seek and read from the book of the Lord:
Not one of these shall be missing;
none shall be without her 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 forever;
from generation to generation they shall dwell in it.
The Ransomed Shall Return
1 uThe wilderness and the dry land shall be glad;
the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus;
2 it shall blossom abundantly
and rejoice with joy and singing.
The glory of vLebanon shall be given to it,
the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
wThey shall see the glory of the Lord,
the majesty of our God.
3 xStrengthen the weak hands,
and make firm the feeble knees.
4 Say to those who have an anxious heart,
“Be strong; fear not!
Behold, your God
will come with yvengeance,
with the recompense of God.
He will come and save you.”
5 Then zthe eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
6 then shall the lame man aleap like a deer,
and the tongue of the bmute sing for joy.
For waters break forth in the wilderness,
and cstreams in the desert;
7 the burning sand shall become a pool,
and the thirsty ground springs of water;
in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down,
the grass shall become reeds and rushes.
8 And a dhighway shall be there,
and it shall be called the Way of Holiness;
ethe unclean shall not pass over it.
It shall belong to those who walk on the way;
even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.7
9 No lion shall be there,
nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;
they shall not be found there,
but the fredeemed shall walk there.
10 gAnd the ransomed of the Lord shall return
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain gladness and joy,
and hsorrow and sighing shall flee away.
The Seven Seals
1 Now I watched when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder, “Come!” 2 And I looked, and behold, a vwhite horse! And its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he came out wconquering, and to conquer.
3 When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, xbright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
5 When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” And I looked, and behold, a yblack horse! And its rider had a pair of scales in his hand. 6 And I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures, saying, z“A quart1 of wheat for a denarius,2 and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and ado not harm the oil and wine!”
7 When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” 8 And I looked, and behold, a bpale horse! And its rider’s name was Death, cand Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill dwith sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.
9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the ealtar fthe souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, gholy and true, how long before you will judge and havenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 Then they were each given a iwhite robe and told to jrest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers3 should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.
12 When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great kearthquake, and lthe sun became mblack as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, 13 and nthe stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. 14 oThe sky vanished like a scroll that is being prolled up, and qevery mountain and island was removed from its place. 15 Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave4 and free, rhid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16 calling to the mountains and rocks, s“Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 for the tgreat day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”
