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.
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 causedI bring to an end.
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.
4. My heart staggers; horror has appalled me; the twilight I longed forhas 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 donkeys, riders on camels,let him listen diligently,very diligently.”
8. Then he who saw cried out: “Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,continually by day,and at my post I am stationedwhole nights.
9. And behold, here come riders,horsemen in pairs!” And he answered, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the carved images of her godshe 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.