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¹ The burden of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the South sweeping on, it cometh from the wilderness, from a dreadful land.² A grievous vision is declared unto me: 'The treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth. Go up, O Elam! besiege, O Media! All the sighing thereof have I made to cease.'³ Therefore are my loins filled with convulsion; pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman in travail; I am bent so that I cannot hear; I am affrighted so that I cannot see.⁴ My heart is bewildered, terror hath overwhelmed me; the twilight that I longed for hath been turned for me into trembling.⁵ They prepare the table, they light the lamps, they eat, they drink--'Rise up, ye princes, anoint the shield.' ⁶ For thus hath the Lord said unto me: Go, set a watchman; let him declare what he seeth!⁷ And when he seeth a troop, horsemen by pairs, a troop of asses, a troop of camels, he shall hearken diligently with much heed.⁸ And he cried as a lion: 'Upon the watch-tower, O Lord, I stand continually in the daytime, and I am set in my ward all the nights.'⁹ And, behold, there came a troop of men, horsemen by pairs. And he spoke and said: 'Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the graven images of her gods are broken unto the ground.'¹⁰ O thou my threshing, and the winnowing of my floor, that which I have heard from the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you.

¹¹ The burden of Dumah. One calleth unto me out of Seir: 'Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?'¹² The watchman said: 'The morning cometh, and also the night--if ye will inquire, inquire ye; return, come.'

¹³ The burden upon Arabia. In the thickets in Arabia shall ye lodge, O ye caravans of Dedanites.¹⁴ Unto him that is thirsty bring ye water! The inhabitants of the land of Tema did meet the fugitive with his bread.¹⁵ For they fled away from the swords, from the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war. ¹⁶ For thus hath the Lord said unto me: 'Within a year, according to the years of a hireling, and all the glory of Kedar shall fail;¹⁷ and the residue of the number of the archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, shall be diminished; for the LORD, the God of Israel, hath spoken it.'