¹The burden of the Desert of the Sea.

Like the passing of whirlwinds in the south,

It is coming from the desert

– From a fearsome country.

²A harsh vision has been shown to me:

The traitor betraying, and the plunderer plundering.

Go up, Elam! Besiege, Media!

I have put a stop to all sighing.

³This is why my waist is in pain:

Writhings have seized me,

Like the writhings of a woman giving birth.

I am bent with pain at hearing it;

I am terrified at seeing it.

⁴My heart is distraught.

Something horrible has terrified me;

It has made my pleasant night

My time of trepidation.

⁵Prepare the table,

Let the watch keep watch,

Eat and drink,

Arise, you commanders;

Anoint the shield.

⁶For this is what the Lord^* says to me:

“Go and appoint a watchman

Who will report what he sees.”

⁷And he saw a chariot fleet

– Horsemen in pairs,

A chariot fleet with donkeys,

A chariot fleet with camels –

And he listened attentively,

Very attentively.

⁸And he called out, “A lion.

O Lord^*,

I stand continually on the watchtower by day,

And I am stationed at my guard post every night.

⁹And here is what is coming:

A manned chariot fleet and horsemen in pairs.”

And he answered and said,

“Babylon has fallen; it has fallen.

And he has torn all the carved images of its gods

Down to the ground.”

¹⁰O threshed people of mine,

And my product of the threshing floor,

I have reported to you

What I have heard from the Lord of hosts

– The God of Israel.

¹¹The burden of Idumea.

He is calling out to me from Seir,

“Watchman, what is there to report from the night?

Watchman, what is there to report from the night?”

¹²The watchman said,

“The morning is coming,

And also the night.

If you will inquire,

Do inquire.

Return and come.”

¹³The burden in Arabia.

You will lodge in the forest in Arabia,

You Dedanite travelling companies.

¹⁴The inhabitants of the land of Tema

Brought water to him who was thirsty;

They met the fugitive

With food for him.

¹⁵For they flee from swords,

From the drawn sword

And from the drawn bow,

And from the violence of war.

¹⁶For this is what the Lord^* said to me:

“In another year

According to the contractual years of a hired worker,

All the glory of Kedar

Will come to an end.

¹⁷And the number of archers remaining

– The warriors from among the sons of Kedar –

Will become few,

For the Lord God of Israel has spoken.”

Reference(s) in Chapter 21: v.9 ↔ Revelation 14:8, Revelation 18:2.