21:1 A prophecy against the Desert by the Sea: Like whirlwinds sweeping through the southland, an invader comes from the desert, from a land of terror.
21:2 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.
21:3 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.
21:4 My heart falters, fear makes me tremble; the twilight I longed for has become a horror to me.
21:5 They set the tables, they spread the rugs, they eat, they drink! Get up, you officers, oil the shields!
21:6 This is what the Lord says to me: “Go, post a lookout and have him report what he sees.
21:7 When he sees chariots with teams of horses, riders on donkeys or riders on camels, let him be alert, fully alert.”
21:8 And the lookout* shouted, “Day after day, my lord, I stand on the watchtower; every night I stay at my post. / *Dead Sea Scrolls and Syriac; Masoretic Text A lion
21:9 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!’”
21:10 My people who are crushed on the threshing floor, I tell you what I have heard from the Lord Almighty, from the God of Israel.
21:11 A prophecy against Dumah*: Someone calls to me from Seir, “Watchman, what is left of the night? Watchman, what is left of the night?” / *Dumah, a wordplay on Edom, means silence or stillness.
21:12 The watchman replies, “Morning is coming, but also the night. If you would ask, then ask; and come back yet again.”
21:13 A prophecy against Arabia: You caravans of Dedanites, who camp in the thickets of Arabia,
21:14 bring water for the thirsty; you who live in Tema, bring food for the fugitives.
21:15 They flee from the sword, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow and from the heat of battle.
21:16 This is what the Lord says to me: “Within one year, as a servant bound by contract would count it, all the splendor of Kedar will come to an end.
21:17 The survivors of the archers, the warriors of Kedar, will be few.” The Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken.