Isaiah 21

Chapter 21

¹The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.

As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,

it comes from the desert,

from a terrible land.

²A stern vision is told to me;

the plunderer plunders,

and the destroyer destroys.

Go up, O Elam,

lay siege, O Media;

all the sighing she has caused

I bring to an end.

³Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;

pangs have seized me,

like the pangs of a woman in travail;

I am bowed down so that I cannot hear,

I am dismayed so that I cannot see.

⁴My mind reels, horror has appalled me;

the twilight I longed for

has been turned for me into trembling.

⁵They prepare the table,

they spread the rugs,

they eat, they drink.

Arise, O princes,

oil the shield!

⁶For thus the Lord said to me:

“Go, set a watchman,

let him announce what he sees.

⁷When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,

riders on asses, riders on camels,

let him listen diligently,

very diligently.”

⁸Then he who saw^g cried:

“Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,

continually by day,

and at my post I am stationed

whole nights.

⁹And, behold, here come riders,

horsemen in pairs!”

And he answered,

“Fallen, fallen is Babylon;

and all the images of her gods

he has shattered to the ground.”

¹⁰O my threshed and winnowed one,

what I have heard from the Lord of hosts,

the God of Israel, I announce to you.

¹¹The oracle concerning Dumah.

One is calling to me from Seir,

“Watchman, what of the night?

Watchman, what of the night?”

¹²The watchman says:

“Morning comes, and also the night.

If you will inquire, inquire;

come back again.”

¹³The oracle concerning Arabia.

In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge,

O caravans of Dedanites.

¹⁴To the thirsty bring water,

meet the fugitive with bread,

O inhabitants of the land of Tema.

¹⁵For they have fled from the swords,

from the drawn sword,

from the bent bow,

and from the press of battle.

¹⁶For thus the Lord said to me, “Within a year, according to the years of a hireling, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end; ¹⁷and the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the sons of Kedar will be few; for the Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken.”