Fallen, fallen is Babylon

¹An oracle about the wilderness near the sea.

Like whirlwinds sweeping through the arid southern plain,

it comes from the desert, from a fearsome land.

²A harsh vision was proclaimed to me:

The betrayer betrays, and the destroyer destroys.

Go up, Elam! Lay siege, Media!

Put an end to all her groaning.

³Therefore, I’m shaken to my core in anguish.

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

I’m too bent over to hear,

too dismayed to see.

⁴My heart pounds; convulsions overpower me.

He has turned my evening of pleasure into dread—

⁵setting the table, spreading the cloth, eating, drinking.

“Arise, captains!

Polish the shields.”

⁶The Lord said this to me:

“Go, post a lookout to report what he sees.

⁷When he sees chariots, pairs of horsemen,

donkey riders, camel riders,

he should listen carefully,

⁸Then the seer called out:[#21.8 DSS (1QIsa ), Syr; MT a lion]

“Upon a watchtower, Lord,

and upon my observation post

⁹Here they come:

charioteers, pairs of horsemen!”

One spoke up and said,

“Fallen, fallen is Babylon,

¹⁰Oh, my downtrodden people, threshed on my threshing floor,

what I heard from the LORD of heavenly forces,

the God of Israel, I reported to you.

A mysterious dialogue

¹¹An oracle about Dumah.[#21.11 LXX Edom]

Someone is calling to me from Seir:

“Guard, how long is the night?

Guard, how long is the night?”

¹²The guard said,

“Morning has come, but it is still night.

If you must inquire, inquire;

¹³An oracle about the desert.

In the woods, in the desert where you camp,

caravans of the Dedanites

¹⁴meet the thirsty with water;

inhabitants of the land of Tema greet the refugees with bread.

¹⁵They have fled from swords,

from the drawn sword,

from the bent bow

and from the intensity of battle.

¹⁶So the Lord said to me: Within a year, according to the number of years for which a laborer is hired, all the glory of Kedar will end;

¹⁷there will be few Kedarite archers remaining. The LORD God of Israel has spoken.