21:1 The burden of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the South sweeping on, it cometh from the wilderness, from a dreadful land.
21:2 A grievous vision is declared unto me: 'The treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth. Go up, O Elam! besiege, O Media! All the sighing thereof have I made to cease.'
21:3 Therefore are my loins filled with convulsion; pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman in travail; I am bent so that I cannot hear; I am affrighted so that I cannot see.
21:4 My heart is bewildered, terror hath overwhelmed me; the twilight that I longed for hath been turned for me into trembling.
21:5 They prepare the table, they light the lamps, they eat, they drink--' Rise up, ye princes, anoint the shield.'
21:6 For thus hath the Lord said unto me: Go, set a watchman; let him declare what he seeth!
21:7 And when he seeth a troop, horsemen by pairs, a troop of asses, a troop of camels, he shall hearken diligently with much heed.
21:8 And he cried as a lion: 'Upon the watch-tower, O Lord, I stand continually in the daytime, and I am set in my ward all the nights.'
21:9 And, behold, there came a troop of men, horsemen by pairs. And he spoke and said: 'Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the graven images of her gods are broken unto the ground.'
21:10 O thou my threshing, and the winnowing of my floor, that which I have heard from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you.
21:11 The burden of Dumah. One calleth unto me out of Seir: 'Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?'
21:12 The watchman said: 'The morning cometh, and also the night--if ye will inquire, inquire ye; return, come.'
21:13 The burden upon Arabia. In the thickets in Arabia shall ye lodge, O ye caravans of Dedanites.
21:14 Unto him that is thirsty bring ye water! The inhabitants of the land of Tema did meet the fugitive with his 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 hath the Lord said unto me: 'Within a year, according to the years of a hireling, and all the glory of Kedar shall fail;
21:17 and the residue of the number of the archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, shall be diminished; for the Lord, the God of Israel, hath spoken it.'