The Book of the Prophet Isaiah 21 Foretelling the Fall of Babylon

 The Book of the Prophet Isaiah 21

Foretelling the Fall of Babylon

1 The burden of the wilderness of the sea. Like a stormy south wind that sweeps away everything, it will come from the desert, from the horrible land.

2 A grim vision has come before me: the treacherous man deals treacherously, and the destroyer goes about destroying. Go up, O Elam, besiege, O Mesopotamia, for I have made all her groaning to cease.

3 Therefore my loins are filled with great infirmity; anguish has seized me like the pangs of a woman in labor; I am so afflicted that I cannot hear, and so faint that I cannot see.

4 My heart yearns, horror terrifies me; the twilight I longed for has turned into trembling. 

5 They spread the table, they stand watch, they eat, they drink: arise, you princes, and anoint the shield.

6 For thus said the Lord to me: Go, set a watchman, and let him report what he sees.

7 And when he sees a band of horsemen paired together, a band of donkeys, and a band of camels, let him listen attentively with great care.

8 And he cried out like a lion, saying, Lord, I stand continually on the watchtower by day, and I stand guard all night.

9 And behold, now comes a band of men, and horsemen paired together. Then he answered and said, "Babylon is fallen, she is fallen! And all the carved images of her gods are broken to the ground.

10 Ah! My threshing floor, and the wheat of my threshing floor! What I have heard from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared to you.