Chapter 21
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 .
9 Behold , here comes a troop of men , horsemen in pairs ." He answered , " Fallen , fallen is Babylon; and all the engraved images of her gods are broken to the ground.
10 You are my threshing , and the grain of my floor !" That which I have heard from the LORD of Hosts , the God of Israel , I have declared to you .
11 The burden of Dumah . One calls to me out of Seir , " Watchman , what of the night ? Watchman , what of the night ?"
12 The watchman said, " The morning comes, and also the night . If you will inquire , inquire . Come back again ."
13 The burden on Arabia . You will lodge in the thickets in Arabia , you caravans of Dedanites .
14 They brought water to him who was thirsty . The inhabitants of the land of Tema met the fugitives with their bread .
15 For they fled away from the swords , from the drawn sword , from the bent bow , and from the heat of battle .
16 For the Lord said to me , " Within a year , as a worker bound by contract would count it , all the glory of Kedar will fail ,
17 and the residue of the number of the archers , the mighty men of the children of Kedar , will be few ; for the LORD , the God of Israel , has spoken it ."