Isaiah 21:1–10

¹This is the burden against the Desert by the Sea:

Like whirlwinds sweeping through the Negev,

an invader comes from the desert,

from a land of terror.

²A dire vision is declared to me:

“The traitor still betrays,

and the destroyer still destroys.

Go up, O Elam! Lay siege, O Media!

I will put an end to all her groaning.”

³Therefore my body is filled with anguish.

Pain grips me, like the pains of a woman in labor.

I am bewildered to hear,

I am dismayed to see.

⁴My heart falters;

fear makes me tremble.

The twilight I desired

has turned to horror.

⁵They prepare a table, they lay out a carpet,

they eat, they drink!

Rise up, O princes, oil the shields!

⁶For this is what the Lord says to me:

“Go, post a lookout

and have him report what he sees.

⁷When he sees chariots with teams of horsemen,

riders on donkeys, riders on camels,

he must be alert, fully alert.”

⁸Then the lookout^a shouted:

“Day after day, my lord,

I stand on the watchtower;

night after night

I stay at my post.

⁹Look, here come the riders,

horsemen in pairs.”

And one answered, saying:

“Fallen, fallen is Babylon!^b

All the images of her gods

lie shattered on the ground!”

¹⁰O my people, crushed on the threshing floor,

I tell you what I have heard

from the LORD of Hosts,

the God of Israel.