1 This is the burden against the Desert by the Sea: Like whirlwinds sweeping through the Negev, an invader comes from the desert, from a land of terror.
2 A dire vision is declared to me: “The traitor still betrays, and the destroyer still destroys. Go up, O Elam! Lay siege, O Media! I will put an end to all her groaning.”
3 Therefore my body is filled with anguish. Pain grips me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am bewildered to hear, I am dismayed to see.
4 My heart falters; fear makes me tremble. The twilight I desired has turned to horror.
5 They prepare a table, they lay out a carpet, they eat, they drink! Rise up, O princes, oil the shields!
6 For this is what the Lord says to me: “Go, post a lookout and have him report what he sees.
7 When he sees chariots with teams of horsemen, riders on donkeys, riders on camels, he must be alert, fully alert.”
8 Then the lookout shouted: “Day after day, my lord, I stand on the watchtower; night after night I stay at my post.
9 Look, here come the riders, horsemen in pairs.” And one answered, saying: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon! All the images of her gods lie shattered on the ground!”
10 O my people, crushed on the threshing floor, I tell you what I have heard from the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel.