Isaiah 21 - Legacy Standard Bible

Isaiah 21

Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon

The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.

As whirlwinds in the Negev sweep on,

It comes from the wilderness, from a fearsome land.

A harsh vision has been declared to me;

The treacherous one still deals treacherously, and the destroyer still destroys.

Go up, Elam, lay siege, Media;

I have made an end of all the groaning she has caused.

For this reason my loins are full of anguish;

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

I am so bewildered I cannot hear, so terrified I cannot see.

My heart reels; horror terrorizes me;

The twilight I longed for has been turned for me into trembling.

They set the table, they spread out the cloth, they eat, they drink;

“Rise up, commanders, oil the shields,”

6 For thus the Lord says to me,

“Go, station the lookout, let him declare what he sees.

Indeed, he shall see riders, horsemen in pairs,

Riders of donkeys, riders of camels,

So let him pay close attention, very close attention.”

8 Then the lookout called,

“O Lord, I stand continually by day on the watchtower,

And I am stationed every night at my guard post.

Now behold, here comes a troop of riders, horsemen in pairs.”

And one answered and said, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;

And all the graven images of her gods are shattered on the ground.”

O my trampled people and my afflicted of the threshing floor!

What I have heard from Yahweh of hosts,

The God of Israel, I have declared to you.

Oracles Concerning Dumah and Arabia

11 The oracle concerning Dumah.

One keeps calling to me from Seir,

“Watchman, how far gone is the night?

Watchman, how far gone is the night?”

The watchman says,

“Morning comes but also night.

If you would inquire, inquire;

Come back again.”

13 The oracle about Arabia.

In the thickets of Arabia you must spend the night,

O caravans of Dedanites.

Bring water to meet the thirsty,

O inhabitants of the land of Tema,

Meet with bread the one who has fled.

For they have fled from the swords,

From the drawn sword, and from the bent bow

And from the heaviness of battle.

16 For thus the Lord said to me, “In a year, as a hired man would count it, all the glory of Kedar will end; 17 and the remainder of the number of bowmen, the mighty men of the sons of Kedar, will be few; for Yahweh, the God of Israel, has spoken.”