Isaie 21

¹The burden of the desert sea. As whirlwinds come from the South, it cometh from the desert, from an horrible land.

²A sore vision was told me: he that is incredulous doth unfaithfully: & he that is a spoiler, wasteth. Come up Ælam, besiege o Mede: I have made all the mourning thereof to cease.

³Therefore are my loins filled with sorrow, anguish hath possessed me, as the anguish of a woman that travaileth: I fell down when I heard it, I was troubled when I saw it.

⁴Mine heart failed, darkness made me astonished: Babylon my beloved is made a miracle unto me.

⁵Lay the table, look about in the watch tower the eaters and drinkers: arise ye Princes, take shield.

⁶For thus hath our Lord said to me: Go, and set a watchman: and what soever he shall see, let him tell.

⁷And he saw a chariot of two horsemen, a rider upon an ass, and a rider upon a camel: and he beheld them diligently with much looking.

⁸And a lion cried: I am upon the watch tower of our Lord, standing continually by day: and I am upon my watch, standing whole nights.

⁹Behold this man cometh, the rider upon the chariot of two horsemen, and he answered and said: Fallen, fallen is Babylon, and all the sculptiles of the gods thereof are broken to the ground.

¹⁰O my threshing, and children of my floor, the things that I have heard of the Lord of hosts the God of Israel, I have shewed unto you.

¹¹The burden of Duma cryeth to me out of Seir: Watchman what of the night? Watchman what of the night?

¹²The watchman said: morning is come and night: if you seek, seek: return, come.

¹³The burden in Arabia. In the forest at even you shall sleep, in the paths of Dedanim.

¹⁴Meeting the thirsty bring water, you that inhabit the land of the South, with bread meet him that flyeth.

¹⁵For they are fled from the face of the swords, from the face of the sword hanging over, from the face of the bow bent, from the face of a grievous battle.

¹⁶Because thus saith our Lord to me: Yet in one year, as in the year of an hired man, and all the glory of Cedar shall be taken away.

¹⁷And the remnant of the number of the strong archers of the children of Cedar shall be diminished: for our Lord the God of Israel hath spoken it.