²A grievous vision is told me: he that is unfaithful dealeth unfaithfully: and he that is a spoiler, spoileth. Go up, O Elam, besiege, O Mede: I have made all the mourning thereof to cease.

³Therefore are my loins filled with pain, anguish hath taken hold of me, as the anguish of a woman in labour: I fell down at the hearing of it, I was troubled at the seeing of it.

⁴My heart failed, darkness amazed me: Babylon my beloved is become a wonder to me.

⁵Prepare the table, behold in the watchtower them that eat and drink: arise, ye princes, take up the shield.

⁶For thus hath the Lord said to me: Go, and set a watchman: and whatsoever he shall see, let him tell.

⁷And he saw a chariot with two horsemen, a rider upon an ass, and a rider upon a camel: and he beheld them diligently with much heed.

⁸And a lion cried out: I am upon the watchtower of the Lord, standing continually by day: and I am upon my ward, standing whole nights.

⁹Behold this man cometh, the rider upon the chariot with two horsemen, and he answered, and said: Babylon is fallen, she is fallen, and all the graven gods thereof are broken unto the ground.

¹⁰O my thrashing, and the children of my floor, that which I have heard of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared unto you.

¹¹The burden of Duma calleth to me out of Seir: Watchman, what of the night? watchman, what of the night?

¹²The watchman said: The morning cometh, also the night: if you seek, seek: return, come.

¹³The burden in Arabia. In the forest at evening you shall sleep, in the paths of Dedanim.

¹⁴Meeting the thirsty bring him water, you that inhabit the land of the south, meet with bread him that fleeth.

¹⁵For they are fled from before the swords, from the sword that hung over them, from the bent bow, from the face of a grievous battle.

¹⁶For thus saith the Lord to me: Within a year, according to the years of a hireling, all the glory of Cedar shall be taken away.

¹⁷And the residue of the number of strong archers of the children of Cedar shall be diminished: for the Lord the God of Israel hath spoken it.

Chapter 22

The burden of the valley of vision. What aileth thee also, that thou too art wholly gone up to the housetops?

²Full of clamour, a populous city, a joyous city: thy slain are not slain by the sword, nor dead in battle.

³All the princes are fled together, and are bound hard: all that were found, are bound together, they are fled far off.

⁴Therefore have I said: Depart from me, I will weep bitterly: labour not to comfort me, for the devastation of the daughter of my people.

⁵For it is a day of slaughter and of treading down, and of weeping to the Lord the God of hosts in the valley of vision, searching the wall, and magnificent upon the mountain.

⁶And Elam took the quiver, the chariot of the horseman, and the shield was taken down from the wall.

⁷And thy choice valleys shall be full of chariots, and the horsemen shall place themselves in the gate.

⁸And the covering of Juda shall be discovered, and thou shalt see in that day the armoury of the house of the forest.

⁹And you shall see the breaches of the city of David, that they are many: and you have gathered together the waters of the lower pool,

¹⁰And have numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and broken down houses to fortify the wall.

¹¹And you made a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool: and you have not looked up to the maker thereof, nor regarded him even at a distance, that wrought it long ago.

¹²And the Lord, the God of hosts, in that day shall call to weeping, and to mourning, to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:

¹³And behold joy and gladness, killing calves, and slaying rams, eating flesh, and drinking wine: Let us eat and drink; for to morrow we shall die.

¹⁴And the voice of the Lord of hosts was revealed in my ears: Surely this iniquity shall not be forgiven you till you die, saith the Lord God of hosts.

¹⁵Thus saith the Lord God of hosts: Go, get thee in to him that dwelleth in the tabernacle, to Sobna who is over the temple: and thou shalt say to him:

¹⁶What dost thou here, or as if thou wert somebody here? for thou hast hewed thee out a sepulchre here, thou hast hewed out a monument carefully in a high place, a dwelling for thyself in a rock.

¹⁷Behold the Lord will cause thee to be carried away, as a cock is carried away, and he will lift thee up as a garment.

¹⁸He will crown thee with a crown of tribulation, he will toss thee like a ball into a large and spacious country: there shalt thou die, and there shall the chariot of thy glory be, the shame of the house of thy Lord.

¹⁹And I will drive thee out from thy station, and depose thee from thy ministry.

²⁰And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliacim the son of Helcias,

²¹And I will clothe him with thy robe, and will strengthen him with thy girdle, and will give thy power into his hand: and he shall be as a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Juda.

²²And I will lay the key of the house of David upon his shoulder: and he shall open, and none shall shut: and he shall shut, and none shall open.

²³And I will fasten him as a peg in a sure place, and he shall be for a throne of glory to the house of his father.

²⁴And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father’s house, divers kinds of vessels, every little vessel, from the vessels of cups even to every instrument of music.

²⁵In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, shall the peg be removed, that was fastened in the sure place: and it shall be broken and shall fall: and that which hung thereon, shall perish, because the Lord hath spoken it.

Chapter 23

The burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of the sea, for the house is destroyed, from whence they were wont to come: from the land of Cethim it is revealed to them.

²Be silent, you that dwell in the island: the merchants of Sidon passing over the sea, have filled thee.

³The seed of the Nile in many waters, the harvest of the river is her revenue: and she is become the mart of the nations.

⁴Be thou ashamed, O Sidon: for the sea speaketh, even the strength of the sea, saying: I have not been in labour, nor have I brought forth, nor have I nourished up young men, nor brought up virgins.

⁵When it shall be heard in Egypt, they will be sorry when they shall hear of Tyre:

⁶Pass over the seas, howl, ye inhabitants of the island.

⁷Is not this your city, which gloried from of old in her antiquity? her feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn.

⁸Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, that was formerly crowned, whose merchants were princes, and her traders the nobles of the earth?

⁹The Lord of hosts hath designed it, to pull down the pride of all glory, and bring to disgrace all the glorious ones of the earth.

¹⁰Pass thy land as a river, O daughter of the sea, thou hast a girdle no more.

¹¹He stretched out his hand over the sea, he troubled kingdoms: the Lord hath given a charge against Chanaan, to destroy the strong ones thereof.

¹²And he said: Thou shalt glory no more, O virgin daughter of Sidon, who art oppressed: arise and sail over to Cethim, there also thou shalt have no rest.

¹³Behold the land of the Chaldeans, there was not such a people, the Assyrians founded it: they have led away the strong ones thereof into captivity, they have destroyed the houses thereof, they have brought it to ruin.

¹⁴Howl, O ye ships of the sea, for your strength is laid waste.

¹⁵And it shall come to pass in that day that thou, O Tyre, shalt be forgotten, seventy years, according to the days of one king: but after seventy years, there shall be unto Tyre as the song of a harlot.

¹⁶Take a harp, go about the city, harlot that hast been forgotten: sing well, sing many a song, that thou mayst be remembered.

¹⁷And it shall come to pass after seventy years, that the Lord will visit Tyre, and will bring her back again to her traffic: and she shall commit fornication again with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.

¹⁸And her merchandise and her hire shall be sanctified to the Lord: they shall not be kept in store, nor laid up: for her merchandise shall be for them that shall dwell before the Lord, that they may eat unto fulness, and be clothed for a continuance.

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