Isaiah 21:1-12 ▼

1 The burden of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the South sweeping on, It cometh from the wilderness, from a dreadful land.

2 A grievous vision is declared unto me: 'The treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth. Go up, O Elam! besiege, O Media! All the sighing thereof have I made to cease.'

3 Therefore are my loins filled with convulsion; Pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman in travail; I am bent so that I cannot hear; I am affrighted so that I cannot see.

4 My heart is bewildered, terror hath overwhelmed me; The twilight that I longed for hath been turned for me into trembling.

5 They prepare the table, they light the lamps, they eat, they drink-- 'Rise up, ye princes, anoint the shield.'

6 For thus hath the Lord said unto me: Go, set a watchman; let him declare what he seeth!

7 And when he seeth a troop, horsemen by pairs, A troop of asses, a troop of camels, He shall hearken diligently with much heed.

8 And he cried as a lion: 'Upon the watch-tower, O Lord, I stand continually in the daytime, And I am set in my ward all the nights.'

9 And, behold, there came a troop of men, horsemen by pairs. And he spoke and said: 'Fallen, fallen is Babylon; And all the graven images of her gods are broken unto the ground.'

10 O thou my threshing, and the winnowing of my floor, That which I have heard from the LORD of hosts, The God of Israel, have I declared unto you.

11 The burden of Dumah. One calleth unto me out of Seir: 'Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?'

12 The watchman said: 'The morning cometh, and also the night-- If ye will inquire, inquire ye; return, come.'