Isaiah 21:1-9

1A pronouncement concerning the desert by the sea: Like storms that pass over the Negev, it comes from the desert, from the land of terror.

2A troubling vision is declared to me: “The treacherous one acts treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Advance, Elam! Lay siege, you Medes! I will put an end to all the groaning.”

3Therefore I am filled with anguish. Pain grips me, like the pain of a woman in labor. I am too perplexed to hear, too dismayed to see.

4My heart staggers; horror terrifies me. He has turned my last glimmer of hope into sheer terror.

5Prepare a table, and spread out a carpet! Eat and drink! Rise up, you princes, and oil the shields!

6For the Lord has said to me, “Go, post a lookout; let him report what he sees.

7When he sees riders — pairs of horsemen, riders on donkeys, riders on camels — he must pay close attention.”

8Then the lookout reported, “Lord, I stand on the watchtower all day, and I stay at my post all night.

9Look, riders come — horsemen in pairs.” And he answered, saying, “Babylon has fallen, has fallen. All the images of her gods have been shattered on the ground.”