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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. 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. 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. ⁴ My heart wavered, fearfulness frightened me; The night for which I longed He turned into fear for me. ⁵ Prepare the table, Set a watchman in the tower, Eat and drink. Arise, you princes, Anoint the shield! ⁶ For thus has the Lord said to me: "Go, set a watchman, Let him declare what he sees." 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. ⁸ Then he cried, "A lion, [fn] my Lord!I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime;I have sat at my post every night. 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." 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.

¹¹ The burden against Dumah. He calls to me out of Seir, "Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?" ¹² The watchman said, "The morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire; Return! Come back!"

¹³ The burden against Arabia. In the forest in Arabia you will lodge, O you traveling companies of Dedanites. ¹⁴ O inhabitants of the land of Tema, Bring water to him who is thirsty; With their bread they met him who fled. ¹⁵ For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, From the bent bow, and from the distress of war. 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;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."