Isaiah 21:5–12

⁵They prepare a table, they lay out a carpet,

they eat, they drink!

Rise up, O princes, oil the shields!

⁶For this is what the Lord says to me:

“Go, post a lookout

and have him report what he sees.

⁷When he sees chariots with teams of horsemen,

riders on donkeys, riders on camels,

he must be alert, fully alert.”

⁸Then the lookout^a shouted:

“Day after day, my lord,

I stand on the watchtower;

night after night

I stay at my post.

⁹Look, here come the riders,

horsemen in pairs.”

And one answered, saying:

“Fallen, fallen is Babylon!^b

All the images of her gods

lie shattered on the ground!”

¹⁰O my people, crushed on the threshing floor,

I tell you what I have heard

from the LORD of Hosts,

the God of Israel.

¹¹This is the burden against Dumah:^c

One calls to me from Seir,^d

“Watchman, what is left of the night?

Watchman, what is left of the night?”

¹²The watchman replies,

“Morning has come, but also the night.

If you would inquire, then inquire.

Come back yet again.”