- 1
- ¶ THE prophecy concerning the desert of the sea.
As a whirlwind from the south, sweeping through from the wilderness; so it comes from a far off land.
- 2
- A grievous vision is declared to me: the oppressor oppresses, and the plunderer plunders.
Go up, O Elam, and the mountains of Media; all the sighing thereof I have made to cease.
- 3
- Therefore my loins are filled with pain;
pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman in travail; I was dismayed so that I could not hear, I was terrified so that I could not see.
- 4
- My heart failed, pangs made me quake;
the beauty of my pleasures has been turned into terror to me.
- 5
- Prepare the tables, watch in the watchtowers, eat, drink;
arise, O princes, and anoint the shields.
- 6
- For thus has the LORD said to me: Go, set a watchman, that he may declare what he sees.
- 7
- And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a rider on an ass and a rider on a camel;
and he hearkened diligently with much heed;
- 8
- Then the watchman cried into my ears, saying, I the LORD stand continually in the daytime, and I stand upon my watchtower every night.
- 9
- And, behold, there came a man from the pair of horsemen.
And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods are broken to the ground.
- 10
- There is no one to reap and no one to thresh;
that which I have heard of the LORD God of Israel, I have declared to you.
- 11
- ¶ The prophecy concerning Dumah.
He called to me from Seir. Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?
- 12
- The watchman says, The morning comes, and also the night;
if you will inquire, inquire; you will come back again.
- 13
- ¶ The prophecy concerning Arabia.
In the evening you shall lodge in the forest, in the highway of Dornim.
- 14
- Meet the thirsty, bring water, O you inhabitants of the land of the south!
Meet those who are fleeing with your bread.
- 15
- For they have fled from the swords, from the drawn sword and from the bent bow and from the grievousness of war.
- 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 archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, shall be diminished;
for the LORD God of Israel has spoken it.
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