21:1  The burden against the Wilderness of the Sea.
As whirlwinds in the South pass through,
So it comes from the desert, from a terrible land.

21:2  A distressing vision is declared to me;
The treacherous dealer deals treacherously,
And the plunderer plunders.
Go up, O Elam!
Besiege, O Media!
All its sighing I have made to cease.

21:3  Therefore my loins are filled with pain;
Pangs have taken hold of me, like the pangs of a woman in labor.
I was distressed when I heard it;
I was dismayed when I saw it.

21:4  My heart wavered, fearfulness frightened me;
The night for which I longed He turned into fear for me.

21:5  Prepare the table,
Set a watchman in the tower,
Eat and drink.
Arise, you princes,
Anoint the shield!

21:6  For thus has the Lord said to me:
“ Go, set a watchman,
Let him declare what he sees.”

21:7  And he saw a chariot with a pair of horsemen,
A chariot of donkeys, and a chariot of camels,
And he listened earnestly with great care.

21:8  Then he cried, “A lion, my Lord!
I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime;
I have sat at my post every night.

21:9  And look, here comes a chariot of men with a pair of horsemen!”
Then he answered and said,
“ Babylon is fallen, is fallen!
And all the carved images of her gods
He has broken to the ground.”

21:10  Oh, my threshing and the grain of my floor!
That which I have heard from the LORD of hosts,
The God of Israel,
I have declared to you.

21:11  The burden against Dumah.
He calls to me out of Seir,
“ Watchman, what of the night?
Watchman, what of the night?”

21:12  The watchman said,
“ The morning comes, and also the night.
If you will inquire, inquire;
Return! Come back!”

21:13  The burden against Arabia.
In the forest in Arabia you will lodge,
O you traveling companies of Dedanites.

21:14  O inhabitants of the land of Tema,
Bring water to him who is thirsty;
With their bread they met him who fled.

21:15  For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword,
From the bent bow, and from the distress of war.

21:16  For thus the LORD has said to me: “Within a year, according to the year of a hired man, all the glory of Kedar will fail;

21:17  and the remainder of the number of archers, the mighty men of the people of Kedar, will be diminished; for the LORD God of Israel has spoken it.”