Isaiah 21

Isaiah

21 ¹A prophecy against the desert of the sea.

As whirlwinds in the south sweep through,
so, it comes from the wilderness, from a terrible land.

²A harsh vision was declared unto me:

Unnamed individual

“The traitor is betraying,
and the destroyer is destroying.”

Military leader

“Go up, O Elam;
lay siege, O Media!”

Unnamed individual

“I have caused all of the sighing to cease.”

Isaiah

³Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;
pangs have seized me, as the pangs of a woman who is in labor.

I was bowed down at what I heard;
I was dismayed at what I saw.

⁴My heart went astray, shuddering fell upon me;
the twilight that I desired put me to trembling.

⁵Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower,
eat, drink,

arise, O you officers.
Anoint the shield.

⁶For thus the Lord said unto me,

The Lord

“Go, post a watchman;
let him declare what he sees.”

Isaiah

⁷And he saw chariots, with teams of horses,
riders on donkeys, riders on camels;

and he paid attention,
great attention.

⁸And the seer[1] cried,

Seer

“My Lord,

I stand continually upon the watchtower all day,
and I am stationed at my post all night.

⁹And, behold, this is coming: a chariot of a man,
a pair of horsemen.”

Isaiah

And he answered and said,

Unnamed messenger

“Babylon is fallen, is fallen;
and all the graven images of its gods he has shattered to the ground.”

The Lord

¹⁰“O my threshed!
O child of my threshing floor!”

Isaiah

I have declared that which I have heard from the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel.

Isaiah

¹¹A prophecy against Dumah:
One calls to me from Seir,

Individual from Seir

“Watchman, what of the night?
Watchman, what of the night?”

Isaiah

¹²The watchman said,

Watchman

“The morning is coming,
and also, the night;

if you will inquire,
then inquire,

return,
come.”

Isaiah

¹³A prophecy against Arabia:

You will lodge in the forest in Arabia, O caravans of Dedanim.

¹⁴Bring water to meet the thirsty, O inhabitants of the land of Tema;
go up to the refugee with bread.

¹⁵Because they fled from swords,
from the drawn sword,

and from the bent bow,
and from the heat of battle.

¹⁶For thus the Lord said unto me,

The Lord

“Within a year, as a hired worker would count it, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end, ¹⁷and the remnant of the number of archers, the mighty men of Kedar, will be few.”

Isaiah

For the LORD God of Israel has spoken it.