1The burden of the desert of the sea. Like whirlwinds sweeping through the south, so it comes from the desert, from a terrible land.
2A hard vision has been shown to me. The traitor deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam. Lay siege, Media. I have put an end to all her sighing.
3So my body is filled with pain. Sharp pains have gripped me, like the pains of a woman in labour. I was bent down when I heard it. I was terrified when I saw it.
4My heart pounded, and fear made me tremble. He has turned the night of my delight into terror for me.
5Set the table, keep watch in the watchtower, eat, drink. Get up, you princes, and oil the shield.
6For this is what the Lord has said to me: "Go, post a watchman, and let him tell what he sees."
7And he saw a chariot with a pair of horsemen, a chariot of donkeys, and a chariot of camels. And he listened closely, with great care.
8And he cried out, "A lion. My lord, I stand on the watchtower all day long, and I am set at my post through whole nights."
9"Look, here comes a chariot of men, with a pair of horsemen." And he answered and said, "Babylon has fallen, has fallen, and all the carved images of her gods he has broken to the ground."
10O my threshing, and the grain of my floor: what I have heard from the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, I have told you.
11The burden of Dumah. Someone calls to me out of Seir, "Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?"
12The watchman said, "The morning comes, and also the night. If you will ask, then ask. Come back, come."
13The burden upon Arabia. You will spend the night in the forest in Arabia, you travelling companies of Dedanim.
14The people who live in the land of Tema brought water to the thirsty. They went out with their bread to meet the one who fled.
15For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, and from the cruelty of war.
16For this is what the Lord has said to me: "Within a year, counted like the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to nothing."
17"And the rest of the archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, will be few in number. For the LORD God of Israel has spoken it."