21 The pronouncement against the wilderness of the sea: Like storm winds in the south in moving onward, from the wilderness it is coming, from a fear-inspiring land. 2 There is a hard vision that has been told to me: The treacherous dealer is dealing treacherously, and the despoiler is despoiling. Go up, O Elam! Lay siege, O Media! All sighing due to her I have caused to cease. 3 That is why my hips have become full of severe pains. Convulsions themselves have grabbed hold of me, like the convulsions of a woman that is giving birth. I have become disconcerted so that I do not hear; I have become disturbed so that I do not see. 4 My heart has wandered about; a shuddering itself has terrified me. The twilight for which I had an attachment has been made for me a trembling.

5 Let there be a setting of the table in order, an arranging of the location of seats, an eating, a drinking! Get up, YOU princes, anoint the shield. 6 For this is what Jehovah has said to me:

“Go, post a lookout that he may tell just what he sees.”

7 And he saw a war chariot [with] a span of steeds, a war chariot of asses, a war chariot of camels. And he paid strict attention, with much attentiveness. 8 And he proceeded to call out like a lion: “Upon the watchtower, O Jehovah, I am standing constantly by day, and at my guardpost I am stationed all the nights. 9 And here, now, there is coming a war chariot of men, [with] a span of steeds!”

And he began to speak up and say: “She has fallen! Babylon has fallen, and all the graven images of her gods he has broken to the earth!”

10 O my threshed ones and the son of my threshing floor, what I have heard from Jehovah of armies, the God of Israel, I have reported to YOU people.

11 The pronouncement against Dumah: To me there is one calling out from Seir: “Watchman, what about the night? Watchman, what about the night?” 12 The watchman said: “The morning has to come, and also the night. If YOU people would inquire, inquire. Come again!”

13 The pronouncement against the desert plain: In the forest in the desert plain YOU will spend the night, O caravans of men of Dedan. 14 To meet the thirsty one BRING water. O YOU inhabitants of the land of Tema, confront the one fleeing away with bread for him. 15 For because of the swords they have fled away, because of the drawn sword, and because of the bent bow and because of the heaviness of the war.

16 For this is what Jehovah has said to me: “Within yet a year, according to the years of a hired laborer, all the glory of Kedar must even come to its end. 17 And the ones remaining over of the number of bow[men], the mighty men of the sons of Kedar, will become few, for Jehovah himself, the God of Israel, has spoken [it].”

22 The pronouncement of the valley of the vision: What is the matter with you, then, that you have gone up in your entirety to the roofs? 2 With turmoil you were full, a boisterous city, an exultant town. Your slain ones are not those slain with the sword, nor those dead in battle. 3 All your dictators themselves have fled at one time. Without [need of] a bow they have been taken prisoner. All those of you who have been found have been taken prisoner together. Far off they had run away.

4 That is why I have said: “Turn YOUR gaze away from me. I will show bitterness in weeping. Do not YOU people insist on comforting me over the despoiling of the daughter of my people. 5 For it is the day of confusion and of downtreading and of confounding that the Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies, has in the valley of the vision. There is the demolisher of the wall, and the cry to the mountain. 6 And Elam itself has taken up the quiver, in the war chariot of earthling man, [with] steeds; and Kir itself has uncovered the shield. 7 And it will occur that the choicest of your low plains must become full of war chariots, and the very steeds must without fail set themselves in position at the gate, 8 and one will remove the screen of Judah. And you will look in that day toward the armory of the house of the forest, 9 and YOU people will certainly see the very breaches of the City of David, for they will actually be many. And YOU will collect the waters of the lower pool. 10 And the houses of Jerusalem YOU will actually count. YOU will also pull down the houses to make the wall unattainable. 11 And there will be a collecting basin that YOU must make between the two walls for the waters of the old pool. And YOU will certainly not look at the grand maker of it, and the one forming it long ago YOU will certainly not see.

12 “And the Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies, will call in that day for weeping and for mourning and for baldness and for girding on sackcloth. 13 But, look! exultation and rejoicing, the killing of cattle and the slaughtering of sheep, the eating of flesh and the drinking of wine, ‘Let there be eating and drinking, for tomorrow we shall die.’”

14 And in my ears Jehovah of armies has revealed himself: “‘This error will not be atoned for in YOUR behalf until YOU people die,’ the Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies, has said.”

15 This is what the Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies, has said: “Go, enter in to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the house, 16 ‘What is there of interest to you here, and who is there of interest to you here, that you have hewed out for yourself here a burial place?’ On a height he is hewing out his burial place; in a crag he is cutting out a residence for himself. 17 ‘Look! Jehovah is hurling you down with violent hurling, O able-bodied man, and grasping you forcibly. 18 Without fail he will wrap you up tightly, like a ball for a wide land. There you will die, and there the chariots of your glory will be the dishonor of the house of your master. 19 And I will push you away from your position; and from your official standing one will tear you down.

20 “‘And it must occur in that day that I will call my servant, namely, Eliakim the son of Hilkiah. 21 And I will clothe him with your robe, and your sash I shall firmly bind about him, and your dominion I shall give into his hand; and he must become a father to the inhabitant of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22 And I will put the key of the house of David upon his shoulder, and he must open without anyone’s shutting, and he must shut without anyone’s opening. 23 And I will drive him in as a peg in a lasting place, and he must become as a throne of glory to the house of his father. 24 And they must hang upon him all the glory of the house of his father, the descendants and the offshoots, all the vessels of the small sort, the vessels of the bowl sort as well as all the vessels of the large jars.

25 “‘In that day,’ is the utterance of Jehovah of armies, ‘the peg that is driven in a lasting place will be removed, and it must be hewn down and fall, and the load that is upon it must be cut off, for Jehovah himself has spoken [it].’”


23 The pronouncement of Tyre: Howl, YOU ships of Tarshish! for it has been despoiled from [being] a port, from [being a place] to enter in. From the land of Kittim it has been revealed to them. 2 Be silent, YOU inhabitants of the coastland. The merchants from Sidon, the ones crossing over the sea—they have filled you. 3 And on many waters has been the seed of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, her revenue; and it came to be the profit of the nations.

4 Be ashamed, O Sidon; because the sea, O you stronghold of the sea, has said: “I have not had birth pains, and I have not given birth, nor have I brought up young men, raised up virgins.” 5 Just as at the report pertaining to Egypt, people will likewise be in severe pains at the report on Tyre. 6 Cross over to Tarshish; howl, YOU inhabitants of the coastland. 7 Is this YOUR [city] that was exultant from days of long ago, [from] her early times? Her feet used to bring her far away to reside as an alien.

8 Who is it that has given this counsel against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants were princes, whose tradesmen were the honorable ones of the earth?

9 Jehovah of armies himself has given this counsel, to profane the pride of all beauty, to treat with contempt all the honorable ones of the earth.

10 Cross over your land like the Nile River, O daughter of Tarshish. There is no shipyard any longer. 11 His hand he has stretched out over the sea; he has caused kingdoms to be agitated. Jehovah himself has given a command against Phoenicia, to annihilate her strongholds. 12 And he says: “You must never again exult, O oppressed one, the virgin daughter of Sidon. Get up, cross over to Kittim itself. Even there it will not be restful for you.”

13 Look! The land of the Chaldeans. This is the people—Assyria did not prove to be [the one]—they founded her for the desert haunters. They have erected their siege towers; they have stripped bare her dwelling towers; one has set her as a crumbling ruin.

14 Howl, YOU ships of Tarshish, for YOUR stronghold has been despoiled.

15 And it must occur in that day that Tyre must be forgotten seventy years, the same as the days of one king. At the end of seventy years it will happen to Tyre as in the song of a prostitute: 16 “Take a harp, go around the city, O forgotten prostitute. Do your best at playing on the strings; make your songs many, in order that you may be remembered.”

17 And it must occur at the end of seventy years that Jehovah will turn his attention to Tyre, and she must return to her hire and commit prostitution with all the kingdoms of the earth upon the surface of the ground. 18 And her profit and her hire must become something holy to Jehovah. It will not be stored up, nor be laid up, because her hire will come to be for those dwelling before Jehovah, for eating to satisfaction and for elegant covering.

24 Look! Jehovah is emptying the land and laying it waste, and he has twisted the face of it and scattered its inhabitants. 2 And it must come to be the same for the people as for the priest; the same for the servant as for his master; the same for the maidservant as for her mistress; the same for the buyer as for the seller; the same for the lender as for the borrower; the same for the interest taker as for the one paying the interest. 3 Without fail the land will be emptied, and without fail it will be plundered, for Jehovah himself has spoken this word. 4 The land has gone to mourning, has faded away. The productive land has withered, has faded away. The high ones of the people of the land have withered. 5 And the very land has been polluted under its inhabitants, for they have bypassed the laws, changed the regulation, broken the indefinitely lasting covenant. 6 That is why the curse itself has eaten up the land, and those inhabiting it are held guilty. That is why the inhabitants of the land have decreased in number, and very few mortal men have remained over.

7 The new wine has gone to mourning, the vine has withered, all those glad at heart have gone to sighing. 8 The exultation of the tambourines has ceased, the noise of the highly elated ones has discontinued, the exultation of the harp has ceased. 9 It is with no song that they drink wine; the intoxicating liquor becomes bitter to those drinking it. 10 The deserted town has been broken down; every house has been shut up from entering. 11 There is an outcry in the streets for [want of] wine. All rejoicing has passed away; the exultation of the land has departed. 12 In the city an astonishing condition has been left behind; the gate has been crushed to a mere rubble heap.

13 For thus it will become in the midst of the land, in among the peoples, like the beating off of the olive tree, like the gleaning when the grape gathering has come to an end. 14 They themselves will raise their voice, they will cry out joyfully. In the superiority of Jehovah they will certainly cry out shrilly from the sea. 15 That is why in the region of light they must glorify Jehovah, in the islands of the sea the name of Jehovah, the God of Israel. 16 From the extremity of the land there are melodies that we have heard: “Decoration to the Righteous One!”

But I say: “For me there is leanness, for me there is leanness! Woe to me! The treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously. Even with treachery the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously.”

17 Dread and the hollow and the trap are upon you, you inhabitant of the land. 18 And it must occur that anyone fleeing from the sound of the dreaded thing will fall into the hollow, and anyone coming up from inside the hollow will be caught in the trap. For the very floodgates on high will actually be opened, and the foundations of the land will rock. 19 The land has absolutely burst apart, the land has absolutely been shaken up, the land has absolutely been sent staggering. 20 The land absolutely moves unsteadily like a drunken man, and it has swayed to and fro like a lookout hut. And its transgression has become heavy upon it, and it must fall, so that it will not rise up again.

21 And it must occur in that day that Jehovah will turn his attention upon the army of the height in the height, and upon the kings of the ground upon the ground. 22 And they will certainly be gathered with a gathering as of prisoners into the pit, and be shut up in the dungeon; and after an abundance of days they will be given attention. 23 And the full moon has become abashed, and the glowing [sun] has become ashamed, for Jehovah of armies has become king in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem and in front of his elderly men with glory.