Isaiah 21

1. The burden against the Wilderness of the Sea: As tempests in the south pass, it comes from the desert, from a dreadful land.

2. A harsh vision is revealed to me; the deceiver deceives, and the plunderer plunders. Go up, O Elam; besiege, O Media! I have caused all her sighing to cease.

3. Therefore my loins are filled with pain; pangs have taken hold upon me like the pangs of a woman who travails; I was bowed down from hearing; I was so frightened that I could not see.

4. My heart is bewildered, terror overwhelms me; the twilight of my pleasure has been turned into trembling.

5. Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink; arise, rulers. Anoint the shield,

6. For thus the LORD has said to me, “Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he sees.”

7. And when he sees a chariot with a pair of horsemen, a chariot of a donkey, and a chariot of a camel, then let him listen, very attentively.

8. And he cried out as a lion, “My LORD, without ceasing, I stand upon the watchtower by day, and I am stationed at my post every night.

9. And, behold, here comes a chariot of a man, a pair of horsemen.” And he answered and said, “Babylon has fallen, has fallen! And all the graven images of her gods He has smashed to the ground.”

10. O my threshing, and the grain of my floor! That which I have heard of the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared to you.

11. The burden against Dumah: He calls to me out of Seir, “Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?”

12. The watchman said, “The morning comes, and also the night; if you will inquire, inquire, and come again.”

13. The burden against Arabia: You shall lodge in the forest of Arabia, O traveling companies of Dedanites.

14. Bring water for the thirsty, O inhabitants of Tema, meet the fugitive with bread,

15. For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war;

16. For so has the LORD said to me, “Within a year, according to the years of a hireling, all the glory of Kedar shall fail;

17. And the rest of the number of archers, the mighty men of the sons of Kedar, shall be cut down; for the LORD, God of Israel, has spoken it.”