Isaiah, 21

1. Proclamation about the coastal desert: As whirlwinds sweeping over the Negeb, he comes from the desert, from a fearsome country.

2. A harsh vision has been shown me, 'The traitor betrays and the despoiler despoils. Advance, Elam, lay siege, Media!' I have cut short all groaning.

3. This is why my loins are racked with pain, why I am seized with pangs like the pangs of a woman in labour; I am too distressed to hear, too afraid to look.

4. My heart is bewildered, dread overwhelms me, the twilight I longed for has become my horror.

5. They lay the table, spread the cloth, they eat, they drink. Up, princes, grease the shield!

6. For this is what the Lord has told me, 'Go, post a look-out, let him report what he sees.

7. He will see cavalry, horsemen two by two, men mounted on donkeys, men mounted on camels; let him watch alertly, be very alert indeed!'

8. Then the look-out shouted, 'On the watchtower, Lord, I stay all day and at my post I stand all night.

9. Now the cavalry is coming, horsemen two by two.' He shouted again and said, 'Babylon has fallen, has fallen, and all the images of her gods he has shattered to the ground!'

10. You whom I have threshed, grain of my threshing-floor, what I have heard from Yahweh Sabaoth, God of Israel, I am telling you now.

11. Proclamation about Dumah: From Seir, someone shouts to me, 'Watchman, what time of night? Watchman, what time of night?'

12. The watchman answers, 'Morning is coming, then night again. If you want to ask, ask! Come back! Come here!'

13. Proclamation about the wastelands: In the thickets, on the wastelands, you spend the night, you caravans of Dedanites.

14. Bring water for the thirsty! The inhabitants of Tema went with bread to greet the fugitive.

15. For these have fled before the sword, the naked sword and the bent bow, the press of battle.

16. For this is what the Lord has told me, 'In one year's time as a hired worker reckons it, all the glory of Kedar will be finished

17. and, of the valiant archers, the Kedarites, hardly any will be left, for Yahweh, God of Israel, has spoken.'