1 An oracle concerning the Desert by the Sea: |
2 A dire vision has been shown to me:
The traitor betrays, the looter takes loot.
Elam, attack! Media, lay siege!
I will bring to an end all the groaning she caused. |
3 At this my body is racked with pain,
pangs seize me, like those of a woman in labor;
I am staggered by what I hear,
I am bewildered by what I see. |
4 My heart falters,
fear makes me tremble;
the twilight I longed for
has become a horror to me. |
5 They set the tables,
they spread the rugs,
they eat, they drink!
Get up, you officers,
oil the shields! |
6 This is what the Lord says to me: |
7 When he sees chariots
with teams of horses,
riders on donkeys
or riders on camels,
let him be alert,
fully alert." |
8 And the lookout1 21:8 Dead Sea Scrolls and Syriac; Masoretic Text A lion shouted, |
9 Look, here comes a man in a chariot
with a team of horses.
And he gives back the answer:
'Babylon has fallen, has fallen!
All the images of its gods
lie shattered on the ground!' " |
10 O my people, crushed on the threshing floor,
I tell you what I have heard
from the LORD Almighty,
from the God of Israel. |
11 An oracle concerning Dumah2 21:11 Dumah means silence or stillness , a wordplay on Edom . : |
12 The watchman replies,
"Morning is coming, but also the night.
If you would ask, then ask;
and come back yet again." |
13 An oracle concerning Arabia: |
14 bring water for the thirsty;
you who live in Tema,
bring food for the fugitives. |
15 They flee from the sword,
from the drawn sword,
from the bent bow
and from the heat of battle. |
16 This is what the Lord says to me: "Within one year, as a servant bound by contract would count it, all the pomp of Kedar will come to an end. |
17 The survivors of the bowmen, the warriors of Kedar, will be few." The LORD , the God of Israel, has spoken. |
