(A)They prepare the table,
    they spread the rugs,[a]
    they eat, they drink.
Arise, O princes;
    (B)oil the shield!
For thus the Lord said to me:
“Go, set a watchman;
    let him announce what he sees.
When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,
    riders on donkeys, riders on camels,
let him listen diligently,
    very diligently.”
Then he who saw cried out:[b]
(C)“Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,
    continually by day,
and at my post I am stationed
    whole nights.
And behold, here come riders,
    horsemen in pairs!”
(D)And he answered,
    (E)“Fallen, fallen is Babylon;
(F)and all the carved images of her gods
    he has shattered to the ground.”

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 21:5 Or they set the watchman
  2. Isaiah 21:8 Dead Sea Scroll, Syriac; Masoretic Text Then a lion cried out, or Then he cried out like a lion

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