and the spoiler spoileth.Go up, O Elam! besiege, O Media!All the sighing thereof have I made to cease.'3Therefore are my loins filled with convulsion;Pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman in travail;I am bent so that I cannot hear;I am affrighted so that I cannot see.4My heart is bewildered, terror hath overwhelmed me;The twilight that I longed for hath been turned for me into trembling.5They prepare the table, they light the lamps, they eat, they drink—'Rise up, ye princes, anoint the shield.' 6For thus hath the Lord said unto me:Go, set a watchman; let him declare what he seeth!7And when he seeth a troop, horsemen by pairs,A troop of asses, a troop of camels,He shall hearken diligently with much heed.8And he cried as a lion: 'Upon the watch-tower, O Lord,I stand continually in the day-time,And I am set in my ward all the nights.'9And, behold, there came a troop of men, horsemen by pairs.And he spoke and said:'Fallen, fallen is Babylon;And all the graven images of her gods are broken unto the ground.'10O thou my threshing, and the winnowing of my floor,That which I have heard from the Lord of hosts,The God of Israel, have I declared unto you.
11The burden of Dumah.
One calleth unto me out of Seir:'Watchman, what of the night?Watchman, what of the night?'12The watchman said:'The morning cometh, and also the night—If ye will inquire, inquire ye; return, come.'
13The burden upon Arabia.
In the thickets in Arabia shall ye lodge, O ye caravans of Dedanites.14Unto him that is thirsty bring ye water!The inhabitants of the land of Tema did meet the fugitive with his bread.15For they fled away from the swords, from the drawn sword,And from the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war.
16For thus hath the Lord said unto me: 'Within a year, according to the years of a hireling, and all the glory of Kedar shall fail; 17and the residue of the number of the archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, shall be diminished; for the Lord, the God of Israel, hath spoken it.'
22The burden concerning the Valley of Vision.
What aileth thee now, that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops,2Thou that art full of uproar, a tumultuous city, a joyous town?Thy slain are not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle.3All thy rulers are fled together,Without the bow they are bound;All that are found of thee are bound together, they are fled afar off.4Therefore said I: 'Look away from me, I will weep bitterly;Strain not to comfort me, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.'5For it is a day of trouble, and of trampling, and of perplexity,From the Lord, the God of hosts, in the Valley of Vision;Kir shouting, and Shoa at the mount.6And Elam bore the quiver, with troops of men, even horsemen;And Kir uncovered the shield.7And it came to pass, when thy choicest valleys were full of chariots,And the horsemen set themselves in array at the gate,8And the covering of Judah was laid bare,
that thou didst look in that day to the armour in the house of the forest. 9And ye saw the breaches of the city of David, that they were many; and ye gathered together the waters of the lower pool. 10And ye numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and ye broke down the houses to fortify the wall; 11ye made also a basin between the two walls for the water of the old pool—
But ye looked not unto Him that had done this,Neither had ye respect unto Him that fashioned it long ago.12And in that day did the Lord, the God of hosts, callTo weeping, and to lamentation, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth;13And behold joy and gladness,Slaying oxen and killing sheep,Eating flesh and drinking wine—'Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die!'14And the Lord of hosts revealed Himself in mine ears:Surely this iniquity shall not be expiated by you till ye die,Saith the Lord, the God of hosts. 15Thus saith the Lord, the God of hosts:Go, get thee unto this steward,Even unto Shebna, who is over the house:16What hast thou here, and whom hast thou here,That thou hast hewed thee out here a sepulchre,Thou that hewest thee out a sepulchre on high,And gravest a habitation for thyself in the rock?17Behold, the Lord will hurl thee up and down with a man's throw;Yea, He will wind thee round and round;18He will violently roll and toss thee like a ball into a large country;There shalt thou die, and there shall be the chariots of thy glory,Thou shame of the lord's house.19And I will thrust thee from thy post,And from thy station shalt thou be pulled down.20And it shall come to pass in that day,That I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah;21And I will clothe him with thy robe,And bind him with thy girdle,And I will commit thy government into his hand;And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.22And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder;And he shall open, and none shall shut;And he shall shut, and none shall open.23And I will fasten him as a peg in a sure place;And he shall be for a throne of honour to his father's house.
24And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups even to all the vessels of flagons. 25In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, shall the peg that was fastened in a sure place give way; and it shall be hewn down, and fall, and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off; for the Lord hath spoken it.
23The burden of Tyre.
Howl, ye ships of Tarshish,For it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in;From the land of Kittim it is revealed to them.2Be still, ye inhabitants of the coast-land;Thou whom the merchants of Zidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished.3And on great waters the seed of Shihor,The harvest of the Nile, was her revenue;And she was the mart of nations.4Be thou ashamed, O Zidon; for the sea hath spoken,The stronghold of the sea, saying:'I have not travailed, nor brought forth,Neither have I reared young men, nor brought up virgins.'5When the report cometh to Egypt,They shall be sorely pained at the report of Tyre. 6Pass ye over to Tarshish; howl, ye inhabitants of the coast-land.7Is this your joyous city,Whose feet in antiquity,In ancient days,Carried her afar off to sojourn?8Who hath devised this against Tyre, the crowning city,Whose merchants are princes,Whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth?9The Lord of hosts hath devised it,To pollute the pride of all glory,To bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth.10Overflow thy land as the Nile,O daughter of Tarshish! there is no girdle any more.11He hath stretched out His hand over the sea,He hath shaken the kingdoms;The Lord hath given commandment concerning Canaan,To destroy the strongholds thereof;12And He said: 'Thou shalt no more rejoice.'O thou oppressed virgin daughter of Zidon,Arise, pass over to Kittim;Even there shalt thou have no rest.
13Behold, the land of the Chaldeans—this is the people that was not, when Asshur founded it for shipmen—they set up their towers, they overthrew the palaces thereof; it is made a ruin.
14Howl, ye ships of Tarshish,For your stronghold is laid waste.
15And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king; after the end of seventy years it shall fare with Tyre as in the song of the harlot:
16Take a harp,Go about the city,Thou harlot long forgotten;Make sweet melody,Sing many songs,That thou mayest be remembered.
17And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the Lord will remember Tyre, and she shall return to her hire, and shall have commerce with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth. 18And her gain and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord; it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her gain shall be for them that dwell before the Lord, to eat their fill, and for stately clothing.
24Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty and maketh it waste,And turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.2And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest;As with the servant, so with his master;As with the maid, so with her mistress;As with the buyer, so with the seller;As with the lender, so with the borrower;As with the creditor, so with the debtor.3The earth shall be utterly emptied, and clean despoiled;For the Lord hath spoken this word.4The earth fainteth and fadeth