Isaiah 21:1-8 ▼

1 The burden of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the South 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 seized me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am in so much pain that I can’t hear. I am so 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 a troop, horsemen in pairs, a troop of donkeys, a troop of camels, he shall listen diligently with great attentiveness.”

8 He cried like a lion: “Lord, I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime, and every night I stay at my post.