Isaiah 21:1-12 ▼

1 The oracle of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the Negev sweep through, it comes from the wilderness, from an awesome land.

2 A grievous vision is declared to me. The treacherous man deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam; attack. I have stopped all of Media's sighing.

3 Therefore my thighs are filled with anguish. Pains have taken hold on me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am in so much pain that I can't hear. I so am dismayed that I can't see.

4 My heart flutters. Horror has frightened me. The twilight that I desired has been turned into trembling for me.

5 They prepare the table. They set the watch. They eat. They drink. Rise up, you princes, oil the shield.

6 For the Lord said to me, |Go, set a watchman. Let him declare what he sees.

7 When he sees chariots, horsemen in pairs, riders on donkeys, riders on camels, let him listen diligently, very diligently.|

8 Then the lookout shouted: |Lord, I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime, and every night I stay at my post.

9 Look, here comes a troop of men, horsemen in pairs.| He answered, |Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the engraved images of her gods are broken to the ground.

10 You are my threshing, and the grain of my floor.| That which I have heard from the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared to you.

11 The burden of Dumah. One 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. Come back again.|