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¹ THE prophecy concerning the desert of the sea. As a whirlwind from the south, sweeping through from the wilderness; so it comes from a far off land.² A grievous vision is declared to me: the oppressor oppresses, and the plunderer plunders. Go up, O Elam, and the mountains of Media; all the sighing thereof I have made to cease.³ Therefore my loins are filled with pain; pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman in travail; I was dismayed so that I could not hear, I was terrified so that I could not see.⁴ My heart failed, pangs made me quake; the beauty of my pleasures has been turned into terror to me.⁵ Prepare the tables, watch in the watchtowers, eat, drink; arise, O princes, and anoint the shields.⁶ For thus has the LORD said to me: Go, set a watchman, that he may declare what he sees.⁷ And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a rider on an ass and a rider on a camel; and he hearkened diligently with much heed;⁸ Then the watchman cried into my ears, saying, I the LORD stand continually in the daytime, and I stand upon my watchtower every night.⁹ And, behold, there came a man from the pair of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods are broken to the ground.¹⁰ There is no one to reap and no one to thresh; that which I have heard of the LORD God of Israel, I have declared to you.

¹¹ The prophecy concerning Dumah. He called to me from Seir. Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?¹² The watchman says, The morning comes, and also the night; if you will inquire, inquire; you will come back again.

¹³ The prophecy concerning Arabia. In the evening you shall lodge in the forest, in the highway of Dornim.¹⁴ Meet the thirsty, bring water, O you inhabitants of the land of the south! Meet those who are fleeing with your bread.¹⁵ For they have fled from the swords, from the drawn sword and from the bent bow and from the grievousness of war.¹⁶ For thus has the LORD said to me: Within a year, according to the years of a hireling, all the glory of Kedar shall fail;¹⁷ And the residue of the number of archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, shall be diminished; for the LORD God of Israel has spoken it.