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1 The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.
Like whirlwinds sweeping through the Negev, it comes from the wilderness, from a fearful land.
2 A harsh vision has been told to me: the traitor betrays, and the plunderer plunders.
“Go up, Elam!
Lay siege, Media!
I have put an end to all her sighing.”
3 Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;
pangs have seized me like the pangs of a woman in labor.
I am bent double by what I hear, terrified by what I see.
4 My heart reels;
horror overwhelms me.
The twilight I longed for has become a terror to me.
5 Set the table;
spread the rugs;
eat and drink!
Rise, rulers;
oil the shield!
6 For thus the Lord said to me: “Go, post a watchman;
let him report what he sees.
7 When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs, riders on donkeys, riders on camels, let him pay attention, very close attention.”
8 Then he called out like a lion, “On the watchtower, Lord, I stand continually by day, and at my post I am stationed through all the nights.
9 And look, here comes a troop of riders, horsemen in pairs!”
Then he answered and said, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon!
All the carved images of her gods he has shattered to the ground.”
10 O my threshed people, grain of my threshing floor!
What I have heard from the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared to you.
11 The oracle concerning Dumah.
Someone calls to me from Seir, “Watchman, what remains of the night?
Watchman, what remains of the night?”
12 The watchman says, “Morning comes, and also night.
If you would inquire, inquire;
return, come.”
13 The oracle concerning Arabia.
In the thickets of Arabia you will lodge, caravans of Dedanites.
14 Bring water to meet the thirsty, inhabitants of the land of Tema;
meet the fugitive with bread.
15 For they have fled from swords, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow, and from the weight of war.
16 For thus the Lord said to me: “Within a year, as a hired worker counts years, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end.
17 The remaining number of archers, the mighty men of the people of Kedar, will be few, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.”