¹The oracle of the wilderness of the sea. Like whirlwinds in the South sweeping on, one is coming from the wilderness, from a fearsome land.

²A harsh vision has been told to me: the one who betrays is betraying, and the one who devastates is devastating. Go up, Elam! Show hostility, Media! I have made all her groaning cease.

³Therefore my loins are full of anguish; pangs have seized me, like the pangs of a woman giving birth. I am bent over from hearing, I am terrified from seeing.

⁴My heart has wandered; shuddering has overwhelmed me. It has turned the twilight of my desire into trembling for me.

⁵Arrange the table, spread out the rug, eat, drink! Rise, officials, anoint the shield!

⁶For thus the Lord said to me: Go, station the one who keeps watch; let him tell what he sees.

⁷And he saw a chariot, a pair of horsemen, a chariot of donkeys, a chariot of camels; and he listened closely, with great attention.

⁸And he called out like a lion: On the watchtower, O Lord, I am standing continually by day, and at my post I am stationed all the nights.

⁹And look, here comes a chariot with a man, a pair of horsemen! He answered and said: Fallen, fallen is Babylon, and all the idols of her gods he has broken to the land.

¹⁰O my threshed people, you son of my threshing floor, what I have heard from Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, I have told you.

¹¹The oracle of Dumah. Someone is calling to me from Seir: Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?

¹²The watchman said: Morning is coming, and also night. If you would inquire, inquire; come back, come.

¹³An oracle on Arabia. In the forest, in Arabia you will lodge, O caravans of Dedanites.

¹⁴To meet the thirsty, bring water; you who dwell in the land of Tema, meet the one who flees with his bread.

¹⁵For they have fled from the face of swords, from the face of a sword thrust out, and from the face of a bow bent, and from the face of the weight of battle.

¹⁶For thus the Lord said to me: In yet a year, like the years of a hired man, all the weightiness of Kedar will come to an end.

¹⁷And the remnant of the number of the bows of the mighty men of the sons of Kedar will be few, for Yahweh, the God of Israel has spoken.