Isaiah

¹ As tempests drive through the Negev Desert, coming out of the desert, that terror-filled place,

² The betrayer betrayed, the plunderer plundered. Attack, Elam! Lay siege, Media! Persians, attack! Attack, Babylon! I'll put an end to all the moaning and groaning.

³ writhing in pain like a woman having a baby, Baffled by what I hear, undone by what I see.

⁴ horror-stricken, I had hoped for a relaxed evening, but it has turned into a nightmare.

⁵ the guests reclining in luxurious ease, Eating and drinking, having a good time, and then, "To arms, princes! The fight is on!"

⁶ Have him report whatever he spots.

⁷ lines of donkeys and columns of camels, Tell him to keep his ear to the ground, note every whisper, every rumor."

⁸ "I'm at my post, Master, Sticking to my post day after day and all through the night!

⁹ the horses and wagons in battle formation. I heard them call out the war news in headlines: 'Babylon fallen! Fallen! And all its precious god-idols smashed to pieces on the ground.' "

¹⁰ you've been put through the mill. The good news I get from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel, I now pass on to you.

¹¹ A voice calls to me from the Seir mountains in Edom, "Night watchman! How long till daybreak? How long will this night last?"

¹² "Morning's coming, But for now it's still night. If you ask me again, I'll give the same answer."

¹³ You'll have to camp out in the desert badlands, you caravans of Dedanites.

¹⁴ greet fugitives with bread. Show your desert hospitality, you who live in Tema.

¹⁵ escaping the horrors of war.

¹⁶ The Master told me, "Hang on. Within one year—I'll sign a contract on it!—the arrogant brutality of Kedar, those hooligans of the desert, will be over,

¹⁷ nothing much left of the Kedar toughs." The God of Israel says so.