Isaiah, 21

¹ A pronouncement against the wilderness of the sea:^*1 It is coming like storm winds that sweep through in the south, From the wilderness, from a fearsome land.

² A harsh vision has been told to me: The treacherous one is acting treacherously, And the destroyer is destroying. Go up, O Eʹlam! Lay siege, O Meʹdi·a! I will put an end to all the sighing she caused.

³ That is why I am in great anguish.^*1 Convulsions have seized me, Like those of a woman giving birth. I am too distressed to hear; I am too disturbed to see.

⁴ My heart falters; I shudder in terror. The twilight I longed for makes me tremble.

⁵ Set the table and arrange the seats! Eat and drink! Get up, you princes, anoint^*1 the shield!

⁶ For this is what Jehovah said to me: “Go, post a lookout and have him report what he sees.”

⁷ And he saw a war chariot with a team of horses, A war chariot of donkeys, A war chariot of camels. He watched carefully, with great attentiveness.

⁸ Then he called out like a lion: “Upon the watchtower, O Jehovah, I am standing constantly by day, And I am stationed at my guardpost every night.

⁹ Look at what is coming: Men in a war chariot with a team of horses!” Then he spoke up and said: “She has fallen! Babylon has fallen! All the graven images of her gods he has shattered to the ground!”

¹⁰ O my people who have been threshed, The product^*1 of my threshing floor, I have reported to you what I have heard from Jehovah of armies, the God of Israel.

¹¹ A pronouncement against Duʹmah:^*1 Someone is calling out to me from Seʹir: “Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?”

¹² The watchman said: “The morning is coming, and also the night. If you would inquire, inquire. Come again!”

¹³ A pronouncement against the desert plain: In the forest in the desert plain you will spend the night, O caravans of Deʹdan.

¹⁴ Bring water to meet the thirsty one, You inhabitants of the land of Teʹma, And bring bread for the one fleeing.

¹⁵ For they have fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, From the bent bow, and from the cruelty of the war.

¹⁶ For this is what Jehovah said to me: “Within one year, like the years of a hired worker,^*1 all the glory of Keʹdar will come to an end.

¹⁷ The remaining bowmen of the warriors of Keʹdar will be few, for Jehovah the God of Israel has spoken.”