1THE 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.

2A 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.

3Therefore 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.

4My heart failed, pangs made me quake; the beauty of my pleasures has been turned into terror to me.

5Prepare the tables, watch in the watchtowers, eat, drink; arise, O princes, and anoint the shields.

6For thus has the LORD said to me: Go, set a watchman, that he may declare what he sees.

7And 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;

8Then the watchman cried into my ears, saying, I the LORD stand continually in the daytime, and I stand upon my watchtower every night.

9And, 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.

10There 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.

11The prophecy concerning Dumah. He called to me from Seir. Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?

12The watchman says, The morning comes, and also the night; if you will inquire, inquire; you will come back again.

13The prophecy concerning Arabia. In the evening you shall lodge in the forest, in the highway of Dornim.

14Meet the thirsty, bring water, O you inhabitants of the land of the south! Meet those who are fleeing with your bread.

15For they have fled from the swords, from the drawn sword and from the bent bow and from the grievousness of war.

16For thus has the LORD said to me: Within a year, according to the years of a hireling, all the glory of Kedar shall fail; 17And 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.