1An oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea. Like whirlwinds sweeping through the Negev, it comes from the wilderness, from a fearsome land.
2A harsh vision has been declared to me: the betrayer betrays, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam! Lay siege, Media! I have put an end to all her groaning.
3Therefore my loins are filled with anguish; pangs have seized me like the pangs of a woman in labor. I am too bent over to hear, too terrified to see.
4My heart staggers; horror has terrified me. The twilight I longed for he has turned for me into trembling.
5Setting the table, spreading the rug, eating, drinking! Rise up, O commanders, oil the shield!
6For thus the Lord said to me: “Go, station the lookout; let him report what he sees.”
7And he sees a rider, a pair of horsemen, a rider on a donkey, a rider on a camel; then let him listen closely, with the utmost attention.
8Then a lion cried out, “Upon the watchtower, my Lord, I stand continually by day, and at my post I am stationed all through the nights.
9And behold, here comes a troop of riders, horsemen in pairs!” Then he answered and said, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon, and all the images of her gods he has shattered to the ground.”
10O my threshed one, son of my threshing floor! What I have heard from Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared to you.
11An oracle concerning Dumah. One calls to me from Seir: “Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?”
12The watchman said, “Morning comes, and also night. If you would inquire, inquire; return, come.”
13An oracle concerning Arabia. In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge, O caravans of the Dedanites.
14To meet the thirsty they brought water; the inhabitants of the land of Tema met the fugitive with their bread.
15For they have fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow, and from the heaviness of war.
16For thus the Lord said to me: “Within a year, like the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end.
17And the remnant of the number of the bowmen, the warriors of the sons of Kedar, will be few; for Yahweh, the God of Israel, has spoken.”
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