1: A Message concerning the desert at the sea: As tempests drive through the Negev Desert, coming out of the desert, that terror-filled place,
2: A hard vision is given me: 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: Because of this news I'm doubled up in pain, writhing in pain like a woman having a baby, Baffled by what I hear, undone by what I see.
4: Absolutely stunned, horror-stricken, I had hoped for a relaxed evening, but it has turned into a nightmare.
5: The banquet is spread, the guests reclining in luxurious ease, Eating and drinking, having a good time, and then, "To arms, princes! The fight is on!"
6: The Master told me, "Go, post a lookout. Have him report whatever he spots.
7: When he sees horses and wagons in battle formation, lines of donkeys and columns of camels, Tell him to keep his ear to the ground, note every whisper, every rumor."
8: Just then, the lookout shouted, "I'm at my post, Master, Sticking to my post day after day and all through the night!
9: I watched them come, 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: Dear Israel, you've been through a lot, 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. [JC]
11: A Message concerning Edom: A voice calls to me from the Seir mountains in Edom, "Night watchman! How long till daybreak? How long will this night last?"
12: The night watchman calls back, "Morning's coming, But for now it's still night. If you ask me again, I'll give the same answer." [JC]
13: A Message concerning Arabia: You'll have to camp out in the desert badlands, you caravans of Dedanites.
14: Haul water to the thirsty, greet fugitives with bread. Show your desert hospitality, you who live in Tema.
15: The desert's swarming with refugees 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.