[21:1] The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on, it comes from the wilderness, from a terrible land.
[21:2] A stern vision is told to me; the traitor betrays, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, O Elam; lay siege, O Media; all the sighing she has caused I bring to an end.
[21:3] Therefore my loins are filled with anguish; pangs have seized me, like the pangs of a woman in labor; I am bowed down so that I cannot hear; I am dismayed so that I cannot see.
[21:4] My heart staggers; horror has appalled me; the twilight I longed for has been turned for me into trembling.
[21:5] They prepare the table, they spread the rugs, they eat, they drink. Arise, O princes; oil the shield!
[21:6] For thus the Lord said to me: “Go, set a watchman; let him announce what he sees.
[21:7] When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs, riders on donkeys, riders on camels, let him listen diligently, very diligently.”
[21:8] Then he who saw cried out: “Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord, continually by day, and at my post I am stationed whole nights.
[21:9] And behold, here come riders, horsemen in pairs!” And he answered, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the carved images of her gods he has shattered to the ground.”
[21:10] O my threshed and winnowed one, what I have heard from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I announce to you.
[21:11] The oracle concerning Dumah. One is calling to me from Seir, “Watchman, what time of the night? Watchman, what time of the night?”
[21:12] The watchman says: “Morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire; come back again.”
[21:13] The oracle concerning Arabia. In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge, O caravans of Dedanites.
[21:14] To the thirsty bring water; meet the fugitive with bread, O inhabitants of the land of Tema.
[21:15] For they have fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow, and from the press of battle.
[21:16] For thus the Lord said to me, “Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end.
[21:17] 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.”