Isaiah 21:1–10

A JUDGMENT ON BABYLON

21A pronouncement^q concerning the desert by the sea:^r

Like storms that pass over the Negev,

it comes from the desert, from the land of terror.

²A troubling vision is declared to me:

“The treacherous one acts treacherously,^s

and the destroyer destroys.

Advance, Elam! Lay siege, you Medes!

I will put an end to all the groaning.”

³Therefore I am^A filled with anguish.

Pain grips me, like the pain of a woman in labor.^t

I am too perplexed to hear,

too dismayed to see.

⁴My heart staggers;

horror terrifies me.

He has turned my last glimmer of hope^B

into sheer terror.^u

⁵Prepare a table,^v and spread out a carpet!

Eat and drink!

Rise up, you princes, and oil the shields!

⁶For the Lord has said to me,

“Go, post a lookout;

let him report what he sees.

⁷When he sees riders—

pairs of horsemen,

riders on donkeys,

riders on camels—

he must pay close attention.”

⁸Then the lookout^C reported,

“Lord, I stand on the watchtower all day,^a

and I stay at my post all night.

⁹Look, riders come—

horsemen in pairs.”

And he answered, saying,

“Babylon has fallen,^b has fallen.

All the images of her gods

have been shattered on the ground.”^c

¹⁰My people who have been crushed

on the threshing floor,^d

I have declared to you

what I have heard from the Lord of Armies,

the God of Israel.