Isaiah Chapter 21

The prophet Isaiah brought the message of God's judgment to the nations, announced a future king, like David, and promised an era of peace and tranquility.

A Conservative Version

21 : 1 The burden of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the South sweep through, it comes from the wilderness, from a terrible land.

21 : 2 A grievous vision is declared to me. The treacherous man deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, O Elam. Besiege, O Media, all the sighing of it I have made to cease.

21 : 3 Therefore my loins are filled with anguish. Pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman in travail. I am pained so that I cannot hear. I am dismayed so that I cannot see.

21 : 4 My heart flutters. Horror has frightened me. The twilight that I desired has been turned into trembling to me.

21 : 5 They prepare the table, they set the watch, they eat, they drink. Rise up, ye rulers, anoint the shield.

21 : 6 For thus has the Lord said to me, Go, set a watchman. Let him declare what he sees.

21 : 7 and when he sees a troop, horsemen in pairs, a troop of donkeys, a troop of camels, he shall hearken diligently with much heed.

21 : 8 And he cried out as a lion, O Lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and am set in my ward whole nights,

21 : 9 and, behold, here comes a troop of men, horsemen in pairs. And he answered and said, Fallen, fallen is Babylon. And all the graven images of her gods are broken to the ground.

21 : 10 O my threshing, and the grain of my floor! That which I have heard from Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared to you.

21 : 11 The burden of Dumah. He calls to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?

21 : 12 The watchman said, The morning comes, and also the night. If ye will inquire, inquire ye; turn ye back, come.

21 : 13 The burden upon Arabia. In the forest in Arabia ye shall lodge, O ye caravans of Dedanites.

21 : 14 To him who was thirsty they brought water. The inhabitants of the land of Tema met the fugitives with their bread.

21 : 15 For they fled away from the swords, from the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war.

21 : 16 For thus the Lord has said to me, Within a year, according to the years of a hireling, all the glory of Kedar shall fail.

21 : 17 And the residue of the number of the archers, the mighty men of the sons of Kedar, shall be few. For Jehovah, the God of Israel, has spoken it.