World English Bible

Isaiah 21

1 The burden of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the South sweep through, it comes from the wilderness, from an awesome land.

2 A grievous vision is declared to me; the treacherous man deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam; besiege, Media; all the sighing of it have I made to cease.

3 Therefore are my loins filled with anguish; pangs have taken hold on me, as the pangs of a woman in travail: I am pained so that I can't hear; I am dismayed so that I can't see.

4 My heart flutters, horror has frightened me; the twilight that I desired has been turned into trembling to me.

5 They prepare the table, they set the watch, they eat, they drink: rise up, 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 when he sees a troop, horsemen in pairs, a troop of donkeys, a troop of camels, he shall listen diligently with much heed.

8 He cried as a lion: Lord, I stand continually on the watch-tower in the day-time, and am set in my ward whole nights;

9 and, behold, here comes a troop of men, horsemen in pairs. He answered, Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the engraved images of her gods are broken to the ground.

10 You my threshing, and the grain of my floor! that which I have heard from Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared to you.

11 The burden of Dumah. One 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 you: turn you, come.

13 The burden on Arabia. In the forest in Arabia shall you lodge, you caravans of Dedanites.

14 To him who was thirsty they brought water; the inhabitants of the land of Tema did meet the fugitives with their bread.

15 For they fled away from the swords, from the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, and from the heat of battle.

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 the archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, shall be few; for Yahweh, the God of Israel, has spoken it.