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¹ The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on, it comes from the desert, from a terrible land.² A stern vision is told to me; the plunderer plunders, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, O Elam, lay siege, O Media; all the sighing she has caused I bring to an end.³ Therefore my loins are filled with anguish; pangs have seized me, like the pangs of a woman in travail; I am bowed down so that I cannot hear, I am dismayed so that I cannot see.⁴ My mind reels, horror has appalled me; the twilight I longed for has been turned for me into trembling.⁵ They prepare the table, they spread the rugs, they eat, they drink. Arise, O princes, oil the shield!⁶ For thus the Lord said to me: "Go, set a watchman, let him announce what he sees.⁷ When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs, riders on asses, riders on camels, let him listen diligently, very diligently."⁸ Then he who saw cried: "Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord, continually by day, and at my post I am stationed whole nights.⁹ And, behold, here come riders, horsemen in pairs!" And he answered, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the images of her gods he has shattered to the ground."¹⁰ O my threshed and winnowed one, what I have heard from the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, I announce to you.

¹¹ The oracle concerning Dumah. One is calling to me from Se'ir, "Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?"¹² The watchman says: "Morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire; come back again."

¹³ The oracle concerning Arabia. In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge, O caravans of De'danites.¹⁴ To the thirsty bring water, meet the fugitive with bread, O inhabitants of the land of Tema.¹⁵ For they have fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow, and from the press of battle.¹⁶ For thus the Lord said to me, "Within a year, according to the years of a hireling, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end;¹⁷ and the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the sons of Kedar will be few; for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken."