Isaiah 21:1-10

International Standard Version

“Like whirlwinds in the Negev^[c] sweep on,
    it comes from the desert,
        from a distant^[d] land.
² A dire vision has been announced to me:
    the traitor betrays,
        and the plunderer takes loot.
Get up, Elam!
    Attack, Media!
I am putting a stop
    to all the groaning she has caused.
³ Therefore my body is^[e] racked with pain;
    pangs have seized me,
        like the pangs of a woman in labor;
I am so upset that I cannot hear;
    I am so frightened that I cannot see
    while I’m reeling around.^[f]
4 And as for my heart,^[g] horror has terrified me;
    the twilight I longed for
        has started to make me tremble.
⁵ They set the tables;
    they spread the carpets;^[h]
        they eat, they drink!

Get up, you officers!
    Oil the shields!”

“Go post a lookout.
        Have him report what he sees.
⁷ When he sees chariots, each man^[i] with a pair of horses,
    riders on donkeys or riders on^[j] camels,
let him pay attention,
    full attention.”

⁸ Then the lookout^[k] shouted:
    “Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,
        continually by day,
and I am stationed at my post
    throughout the night.

⁹ Look! Here come riders,^[l]
    each man with a pair of horses!”
        They’re shouting out the answer:
“Babylon has fallen, has fallen,
    and they have shattered
        all the images of her gods^[m] on the ground!
¹⁰ O my downtrodden people,^[n] my wall!^[o]
    I’ll tell you what I have heard
        from the Lord of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel.”