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.

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.

My heart wavered, fearfulness frightened me; The night for which I longed He turned into fear for me.

Prepare the table, Set a watchman in the tower, Eat and drink. Arise, you princes, Anoint the shield!

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

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.

Then he cried, «A lion, my Lord! I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime; I have sat at my post every night.

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.»

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.

The burden against Dumah. He calls to me out of Seir, «Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?»

The watchman said, «The morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire; Return! Come back!»

The burden against Arabia. In the forest in Arabia you will lodge, O you traveling companies of Dedanites.

O inhabitants of the land of Tema, Bring water to him who is thirsty; With their bread they met him who fled.

For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, From the bent bow, and from the distress of war.

For thus the LORD has said to me: «Within a year, according to the year of a hired man, all the glory of Kedar will fail;

and the remainder of the number of archers, the mighty men of the people of Kedar, will be diminished; for the LORD God of Israel has spoken it.»

Come near, you nations, to hear; And heed, you people! Let the earth hear, and all that is in it, The world and all things that come forth from it.

For the indignation of the LORD is against all nations, And His fury against all their armies; He has utterly destroyed them, He has given them over to the slaughter.

Also their slain shall be thrown out; Their stench shall rise from their corpses, And the mountains shall be melted with their blood.

All the host of heaven shall be dissolved, And the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll; All their host shall fall down As the leaf falls from the vine, And as fruit falling from a fig tree.

«For My sword shall be bathed in heaven; Indeed it shall come down on Edom, And on the people of My curse, for judgment.

The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, It is made overflowing with fatness, With the blood of lambs and goats, With the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

The wild oxen shall come down with them, And the young bulls with the mighty bulls; Their land shall be soaked with blood, And their dust saturated with fatness.»

For it is the day of the LORD́s vengeance, The year of recompense for the cause of Zion.

Its streams shall be turned into pitch, And its dust into brimstone; Its land shall become burning pitch.

It shall not be quenched night or day; Its smoke shall ascend forever. From generation to generation it shall lie waste; No one shall pass through it forever and ever.

But the pelican and the porcupine shall possess it, Also the owl and the raven shall dwell in it. And He shall stretch out over it The line of confusion and the stones of emptiness.

They shall call its nobles to the kingdom, But none shall be there, and all its princes shall be nothing.

And thorns shall come up in its palaces, Nettles and brambles in its fortresses; It shall be a habitation of jackals, A courtyard for ostriches.

The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the jackals, And the wild goat shall bleat to its companion; Also the night creature shall rest there, And find for herself a place of rest.

There the arrow snake shall make her nest and lay eggs And hatch, and gather them under her shadow; There also shall the hawks be gathered, Every one with her mate.

«Search from the book of the LORD, and read: Not one of these shall fail; Not one shall lack her mate. For My mouth has commanded it, and His Spirit has gathered them.

He has cast the lot for them, And His hand has divided it among them with a measuring line. They shall possess it forever; From generation to generation they shall dwell in it.»

Who is this who comes from Edom, With dyed garments from Bozrah, This One who is glorious in His apparel, Traveling in the greatness of His strength?-- «I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.»

Why is Your apparel red, And Your garments like one who treads in the winepress?

«I have trodden the winepress alone, And from the peoples no one was with Me. For I have trodden them in My anger, And trampled them in My fury; Their blood is sprinkled upon My garments, And I have stained all My robes.

For the day of vengeance is in My heart, And the year of My redeemed has come.

I looked, but there was no one to help, And I wondered That there was no one to uphold; Therefore My own arm brought salvation for Me; And My own fury, it sustained Me.

I have trodden down the peoples in My anger, Made them drunk in My fury, And brought down their strength to the earth.»

I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the LORD And the praises of the LORD, According to all that the LORD has bestowed on us, And the great goodness toward the house of Israel, Which He has bestowed on them according to His mercies, According to the multitude of His lovingkindnesses.

For He said, «Surely they are My people, Children who will not lie.» So He became their Savior.

In all their affliction He was afflicted, And the Angel of His Presence saved them; In His love and in His pity He redeemed them; And He bore them and carried them All the days of old.

But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit; So He turned Himself against them as an enemy, And He fought against them.

Then he remembered the days of old, Moses and his people, saying: «Where is He who brought them up out of the sea With the shepherd of His flock? Where is He who put His Holy Spirit within them,

Who led them by the right hand of Moses, With His glorious arm, Dividing the water before them To make for Himself an everlasting name,

Who led them through the deep, As a horse in the wilderness, That they might not stumble?»

As a beast goes down into the valley, And the Spirit of the LORD causes him to rest, So You lead Your people, To make Yourself a glorious name.

Look down from heaven, And see from Your habitation, holy and glorious. Where are Your zeal and Your strength, The yearning of Your heart and Your mercies toward me? Are they restrained?

Doubtless You are our Father, Though Abraham was ignorant of us, And Israel does not acknowledge us. You, O LORD, are our Father; Our Redeemer from Everlasting is Your name.

O LORD, why have You made us stray from Your ways, And hardened our heart from Your fear? Return for Your servantś sake, The tribes of Your inheritance.

Your holy people have possessed it but a little while; Our adversaries have trodden down Your sanctuary.

We have become like those of old, over whom You never ruled, Those who were never called by Your name.