< Isaiah 21 >
1 The burden of the wilderness of the sea. Like windstorms in the south for passing through, It has come from the wilderness, From a fearful land.
2 A hard vision has been declared to me, The treacherous dealer is dealing treacherously, And the destroyer is destroying. Go up, O Elam, besiege, O Media, I have caused all its sighing to cease.
3 Therefore my loins have been filled [with] great pain, Pangs have seized me as pangs of a travailing woman, I have been bent down by hearing, I have been troubled by seeing.
4 My heart has wandered, trembling has terrified me, He has made the twilight of my desire a fear to me,
5 Arrange the table, watch in the watchtower, Eat, drink, rise, you heads, anoint the shield,
6 For thus said the Lord to me: “Go, station the watchman, Let him declare that which he sees.”
7 And he has seen a chariot—a couple of horsemen, The rider of a donkey, the rider of a camel, And he has given attention—He has increased attention!
8 And he cries, “A lion, my lord! I am continually standing on a watchtower by day, And I am stationed on my ward whole nights.
9 And behold, this, the chariot of a man is coming, A couple of horsemen.” And he answers and says: “Fallen, fallen has Babylon, And He has broken all the carved images of her gods to the earth.
10 O my threshing, and the son of my floor, That which I heard from YHWH of Hosts, God of Israel, I have declared to you!”
11 The burden of Dumah. [One] is calling to me from Seir, “Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?”
12 The watchman has said, “Morning has come, and also night, If you inquire, inquire, return, come.”
13 The burden on Arabia. You lodge in a forest in Arabia, O caravans of Dedanim.
14 Inhabitants of the land of Tema Have brought water to meet the thirsty, With his bread they came before a fugitive.
15 For they fled from the face of destructions, From the face of an outstretched sword, And from the face of a trodden bow, And from the face of the grievousness of battle.
16 For thus said the Lord to me: “Within a year, as years of a hired worker, All the glory of Kedar has been consumed.
17 And the remnant of the number of bow-men, The mighty of the sons of Kedar, are few, For YHWH, God of Israel, has spoken!”
