Isaiah 21

XXI

1THE ORACLE CONCERNING THE DESERT OF THE SEA.

Like the southern tempests violently rushing along,

From the desert he cometh, from a terrible land.

2A dreadful vision hath been revealed unto me:

The plunderer plundereth, and the spoiler spoileth!

Go up, O Elam; form the siege, O Media!

All her sighing have I made to cease.

3Therefore are my loins filled with dreadful pain;

Pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman in travail:

I am convulsed, so that I cannot hear; I am astonished, so that I cannot see.

4My heart is bewildered; terror hath come upon me:

The night of my pleasure hath he turned into fear unto me.

5The table is prepared, the watch is set; they eat, they drink;

Arise, ye princes; anoint the shield.

6For thus hath the Lord said unto me:

Go, set a watchman on his station;

What he shall see, he shall report.

7And he beheld riders, a couple of horsemen,

Riders on asses, riders on camels:

And he hearkened diligently with much heed.

8Then he cried out like a lion:

O my lord, I keep my station on the watch all the day long;

And on my ward have I continued every night.

9And, behold, there come men riding, a couple of horsemen.

Then he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen;

And all the sculptured images of her gods have they broken in pieces against the ground.

10O my threshing, and the corn of my floor!

What I have heard of Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel,

That I have declared unto you.

11THE ORACLE CONCERNING DOMAH.

A voice crieth unto me from Seir:

Watchman, what of the night?

Watchman, what of the night?

12The watchman said;

The morning cometh, and also the night.

If ye will inquire, inquire ye: come again and again.

13THE ORACLE AGAINST ARABIA.

In the thickets of Arabia shall ye lodge,

O ye travelling companies of Dedan!

14To meet the thirsty they brought water,

They the inhabitants of the land of Tema;

With his bread they approached the wanderer.

15For from the face of the sword have they fled,

From the face of the drawn sword;

And from the face of the bended bow;

And from the face of the grievousness of war.

16For thus hath the Lord said unto me:

Within yet a year, as the years of a hireling,

All the glory of Kedar shall fail:

17And the residue of the number of the mighty bow men of the sons of Kedar, shall be diminished:

For Jehovah , the God of Israel, hath spoken it.

Translated by Rev John Jones (Ioan Tegid).Published at Oxford in 1830, second edition 1842.
Published by: British & Foreign Bible Society