Isaiah
21
- An oracle concerning the Desert by the Sea:
Like whirlwinds sweeping through the southland, an invader comes from the
desert, from a land of terror.
- A dire vision has been shown to me: The
traitor betrays, the looter takes loot. Elam, attack! Media, lay siege! I
will bring to an end all the groaning she caused.
- At this my body is racked with pain, pangs
seize me, like those of a woman in labor; I am staggered by what I hear, I
am bewildered by what I see.
- My heart falters, fear makes me tremble;
the twilight I longed for has become a horror to me.
- They set the tables, they spread the rugs,
they eat, they drink! Get up, you officers, oil the shields !
- This is what the Lord says to me: "Go,
post a lookout and have him report what he sees.
- When he sees chariots with teams of horses,
riders on donkeys or riders on camels, let him be alert, fully alert."
- And the lookout shouted, "Day after
day, my lord, I stand on the watchtower; every night I stay at my post.
- Look, here comes a man in a chariot with
a team of horses. And he gives back the answer: 'Babylon has fallen, has fallen!
All the images of its gods lie shattered on the ground !'"
- O my people, crushed on the threshing floor,
I tell you what I have heard from the LORD Almighty, from the God of Israel.
- An oracle concerning Dumah: Someone calls
to me from Seir, "Watchman, what is left of the night? Watchman, what
is left of the night ?"
- The watchman replies, "Morning is coming,
but also the night. If you would ask, then ask; and come back yet again."
- An oracle concerning Arabia: You caravans
of Dedanites, who camp in the thickets of Arabia,
- bring water for the thirsty; you who live
in Tema, bring food for the fugitives.
- They flee from the sword, from the drawn
sword, from the bent bow and from the heat of battle.
- This is what the Lord says to me: "Within
one year, as a servant bound by contract would count it, all the pomp of Kedar
will come to an end.
- The survivors of the bowmen, the warriors
of Kedar, will be few." The LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.
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