Chapter 21

  The burden of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the South sweep through, it comes from the wilderness, from an awesome land.  

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  A grievous vision is declared to me; the treacherous man deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam; besiege, Media; all the sighing of it have I made to cease.  

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  Therefore are my loins filled with anguish; pangs have taken hold on me, as the pangs of a woman in travail: I am pained so that I can't hear; I am dismayed so that I can't see.  

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  My heart flutters, horror has frightened me; the twilight that I desired has been turned into trembling to me.  

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  They prepare the table, they set the watch, they eat, they drink: rise up, you princes, anoint the shield.  

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  For thus has the Lord said to me, Go, set a watchman: let him declare what he sees:  

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  and when he sees a troop, horsemen in pairs, a troop of donkeys, a troop of camels, he shall listen diligently with much heed.  

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  He cried as a lion: Lord, I stand continually on the watch-tower in the day-time, and am set in my ward whole nights;  

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  and, behold, here comes a troop of men, horsemen in pairs. He answered, Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the engraved images of her gods are broken to the ground.  

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  You my threshing, and the grain of my floor! that which I have heard from Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared to you.  

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  The burden of Dumah. One calls to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?  

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  The watchman said, The morning comes, and also the night: if you will inquire, inquire you: turn you, come.  

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  The burden on Arabia. In the forest in Arabia shall you lodge, you caravans of Dedanites.  

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  To him who was thirsty they brought water; the inhabitants of the land of Tema did meet the fugitives with their bread.  

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  For they fled away from the swords, from the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, and from the heat of battle.  

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  For thus has the Lord said to me, Within a year, according to the years of a hireling, all the glory of Kedar shall fail;  

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  and the residue of the number of the archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, shall be few; for Yahweh, the God of Israel, has spoken it.  

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