Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon

1The [†]oracle concerning the [†]wilderness of the sea.

As whirlwinds in the [†]Negev sweep on,

It comes from the wilderness, from a fearsome land.

2A harsh vision has been declared to me;

The treacherous one still deals treacherously, and the destroyer still destroys.

Go up, Elam, lay siege, Media;

I have made an end of all [†]the groaning she has caused.

3For this reason my loins are full of anguish;

Pains have seized me like the pains of a woman in labor.

I am so bewildered I cannot hear, so terrified I cannot see.

4My heart [†]reels; [†]horror terrorizes me;

The twilight I longed for has been turned for me into trembling.

5They set the table, they [†]spread out the cloth, they eat, they drink;

“Rise up, commanders, oil the shields,”

6For thus the Lord says to me,

“Go, station the lookout, let him declare what he sees.

7Indeed, he shall see riders, horsemen in pairs,

Riders of donkeys, riders of camels,

So let him pay close attention, very close attention.”

8Then [†]the lookout called,

“O Lord, I stand continually by day on the watchtower,

And I am stationed every night at my guard post.

9Now behold, here comes a troop of riders, horsemen in pairs.”

And one answered and said, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;

And all the graven images of her gods [†]are shattered on the ground.”

10O my trampled people and my [†]afflicted of the threshing floor!

What I have heard from Yahweh of hosts,

The God of Israel, I have declared to you.

Oracles Concerning Dumah and Arabia

11The [†]oracle concerning [†]Dumah.

One keeps calling to me from Seir,

“Watchman, [†]how far gone is the night?

Watchman, [†]how far gone is the night?”

12The watchman says,

“Morning comes but also night.

If you would inquire, inquire;

Come back again.”

13The [†]oracle about [†]Arabia.

In the thickets of [†]Arabia you [†]must spend the night,

O caravans of Dedanites.

14Bring water to meet the thirsty,

O inhabitants of the land of Tema,

Meet with bread the one who has fled.

15For they have fled from the swords,

From the drawn sword, and from the bent bow

And from the heaviness of battle.

16For thus the Lord said to me, “In a year, as [†]a hired man would count it, all the glory of Kedar will end; 17and the remainder of the number of bowmen, the mighty men of the sons of Kedar, will be few; for Yahweh, the God of Israel, has spoken.”