Isaiah 21

Translated from the Hebrew of the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Tap a verse to see why it reads as it does. Tap a small letter to read its footnote.

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Babylon has fallen

¹An oracle about the wilderness of the sea. As storms tear across the Negev, so it comes out of the desert, from a land that strikes fear. ²A grim vision has been made known to me: the betrayer still betrays, and the destroyer still destroys. Advance, Elam! Besiege, Media! I am ending all its groaning. ³That is why my body is racked with anguish; pains have gripped me like the pains of a woman in labor. What I hear bends me double; what I see fills me with dread. ⁴My mind reels; horror has overcome me. The dusk I yearned for has been turned into dread for me. ⁵The table is laid, the carpets spread out; there is eating and drinking. Get up, you officers! Rub oil on your shields!

⁶For the Lord said this to me: Go and set up a lookout; whatever he sees, he must make known. ⁷When he sees a troop of riders, horsemen two by two, men mounted on donkeys, men mounted on camels, he must listen hard, with all his attention. ⁸Then he cried out like a lion, “My lord, on the watchtower I stand without a break all day long, and at my post I keep my place night after night.” ⁹And look, here it comes: a troop of men, horsemen two by two. Then he spoke up, “She has fallen, Babylon has fallen! Every carved image of her gods is smashed and thrown to the ground.” ¹⁰O my people, threshed like grain, crushed on my threshing floor! What I heard from the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, I have announced to you.

Watchman, how far gone is the night?

¹¹An oracle about Dumah. Someone calls out to me from Seir, “Watchman, how far gone is the night? Watchman, how far gone is the night?” ¹²The watchman answers, “Morning is on its way, and night as well. If you want to ask, then ask. Turn and come once more.”

An oracle about Arabia

¹³An oracle about Arabia. You will spend the night in the scrubland of Arabia, you caravans of Dedan. ¹⁴You who live in the land of Tema, carry water out to the thirsty; greet the fugitive with food for him. ¹⁵For they have fled before swords, before the unsheathed sword, before the bow drawn taut, before the heavy press of war.

¹⁶For the Lord said this to me: In one more year, counted as exactly as a hired worker counts his years, Kedar’s glory will all be gone. ¹⁷Of Kedar’s warriors, only a handful of bowmen will remain, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.