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1The burden of the desert of the sea.
As whirlwinds in the Negev sweep through,
it comes from the wilderness, from an awesome land.
2 A grievous vision is declared to me.
The treacherous man deals treacherously,
and the destroyer destroys.
Go up, Elam; attack!
I have stopped all of Media’s sighing.
3 Therefore my thighs are filled with anguish.
Pains have taken hold on me like the pains of a woman in labor.
I am in so much pain that I cannot hear.
I so am dismayed that I cannot see.
Horror has frightened me.
The twilight that I desired
has been turned into trembling for me.
5 They prepare the table. They set the watch.
They eat. They drink.
Rise up, you officials, oil the shield!
“Go, set a watchman.
Let him declare what he sees.
horsemen in pairs,
a troop of donkeys,
a troop of camels,
he will listen diligently with great attentiveness.”
“Lord, I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime,
and every night I stay at my post.
9 Behold, here comes a troop of men,
horsemen in pairs.”
He answered,
“Fallen, fallen is Babylon,
and all the carved images of her gods
are broken to the ground.
and the grain of my floor!”
What I have heard from Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel,
I have declared to you.
“The morning comes, and also the night.
If you will inquire, inquire.
Come back again.”
14 They brought water to him who was thirsty.
The inhabitants of the land of Tema
met the fugitives with their bread.
15 For they fled away from the swords,
from the drawn sword,
from the bent bow
and from the heat of battle.
16For the Lord said to me, “Within a year, as a worker bound by contract would count it, all the glory of Kedar will fail,
17and the residue of the number of the archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, will be few; for Yahweh, the God of Israel, has spoken it.”
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