2
A distressing vision is declared to me; The treacherous dealer deals treacherously, And the plunderer plunders. Go up, O Elam! Besiege, O Media! All its sighing I have made to cease.
3
Therefore my loins are filled with pain; Pangs have taken hold of me, like the pangs of a woman in labor. I was distressed when I heard it; I was dismayed when I saw it.
4
My heart wavered, fearfulness frightened me; The night for which I longed He turned into fear for me.
5
Prepare the table, Set a watchman in the tower, Eat and drink. Arise, you princes, Anoint the shield!
6
For thus has the Lord said to me: "Go, set a watchman, Let him declare what he sees."
7
And he saw a chariot with a pair of horsemen, A chariot of donkeys, and a chariot of camels, And he listened earnestly with great care.
8
Then he cried, "A lion, my Lord! I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime; I have sat at my post every night.
9
And look, here comes a chariot of men with a pair of horsemen!" Then he answered and said, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen! And all the carved images of her gods He has broken to the ground."
10
Oh, my threshing and the grain of my floor! That which I have heard from the Lord of hosts, The God of Israel, I have declared to you.
11
The burden against Dumah. He calls to me out of Seir, "Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?"
12
The watchman said, "The morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire; Return! Come back!"