21:1 The burden of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the South sweep through, it comes from the wilderness, from a terrible land.
21:2 A grievous vision is declared to me; the betrayer betrays, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, O Elam; besiege, O Media; all her sighing I have made to cease.
21:3 Therefore my loins are filled with anguish; pangs have taken hold on me, as the pangs of a woman in travail: I am pained so that I can't hear; I am dismayed so that I can't see.
21:4 My heart flutters, horror has frightened me; the twilight that I desired has been turned into trembling to me.
21:5 They prepare the table, they set the watch, they eat, they drink: rise up, you+ princes, anoint the shield.
21:6 For thus has the Lord said to me, Go, set a watchman: let him declare what he sees:
21:7 and when he sees a troop, horsemen in pairs, a troop of donkeys, a troop of camels, he will listen diligently with much heed.
21:8 And he cried as a lion: O Lord, I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime, and am set in my ward whole nights;
21:9 and, look, here comes a troop of men, horsemen in pairs. And he answered and said, Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the graven images of her gods are broken to the ground.
21:10 O you my threshing, and the grain of my floor! That which I have heard from Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared to you+.
21:11 The burden of Dumah. One calls to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?
21:12 The watchman said, The morning comes, and also the night: if you+ will inquire, inquire+: turn+, come+.
21:13 The burden on Arabia. In the forest in Arabia you+ will lodge, O you+ caravans of Dedanites.
21:14 To him who was thirsty they brought water; the inhabitants of the land of Tema met the fugitives with their bread.
21:15 For they fled away from the swords, from the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war.
21:16 For thus has the Lord said to me, Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will fail;
21:17 and the remnant of the number of the archers, the mighty men of the sons of Kedar, will be few; for Yahweh, the God of Israel, has spoken it.