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Oracles concerning Babylon, Edom, and Arabia

The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.

As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,

it comes from the desert,

from a terrible land.

A stern vision is told to me;

the betrayer betrays,

and the destroyer destroys.

Go up, O Elam,

lay siege, O Media;

all the sighing she has caused

I bring to an end.

Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;

pangs have seized me,

like the pangs of a woman in labor;

I am bowed down so that I cannot hear,

I am dismayed so that I cannot see.

My mind reels, horror has appalled me;

the twilight I longed for

has been turned for me into trembling.

They prepare the table,

they spread the rugs,

they eat, they drink.

Rise up, commanders,

oil the shield!

For thus the Lord said to me:

“Go, post a lookout,

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 the watcher called out:

“Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,

continually by day,

and at my post I am stationed

throughout the night.

Look, there they come, riders,

horsemen in pairs!”

Then he responded,

“Fallen, fallen is Babylon;

and all the images of her gods

lie shattered on the ground.”

O my threshed and winnowed one,

what I have heard from the L ord of hosts,

the God of Israel, I announce to you.

¹¹ The oracle concerning Dumah.

One is calling to me from Seir,

“Sentinel, what of the night?

Sentinel, what of the night?”

The sentinel says:

“Morning comes, and also the night.

If you will inquire, inquire;

come back again.”

¹³ The oracle concerning the desert plain.

In the scrub of the desert plain you will lodge,

O caravans of Dedanites.

Bring water to the thirsty,

meet the fugitive with bread,

O inhabitants of the land of Tema.

For they have fled from the swords,

from the drawn sword,

from the bent bow,

and from the stress of battle.

¹⁶ For thus the Lord said to me: Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end; ¹⁷and the remaining bows of Kedar’s warriors will be few; for the L ord, the God of Israel, has spoken.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

17. And the residue of the archers. He threatens that this slaughter will not be the end of their evils, because if there be any residue in Arabia, they will gradually decrease; as if he had said, “The Lord will not merely impoverish the Arabians by a single battle, but will pursue to the very utmost, till all hope of relief is taken away, and they are utterly exterminated.” Such is the vengeance which he executes against the ungodly, while he moderates the punishment which he inflicts on the godly, that they may not be entirely destroyed.

Of the mighty men. He means warlike men and those who were fit to carry arms, and says, that although they escaped that slaughter, still they will be cut off at their own time. He formerly threatened similar chastisements against the Jews, but always accompanied by a promise which was fitted to alleviate their grief or at least to guard them against despair. It frequently happens that the children of God are afflicted as severely as the reprobate, or even with greater severity; but the hope of favor which is held out distinguishes them from the whole world. Again, when we learn that God visits on the wicked deadly vengeance, this is no reason why we should be immoderately grieved even at the heaviest punishments; but, on the contrary, we ought to draw from it this consolation, that he chastises them gently, and “does not give them over to death.” (Psalm 118:18.)

The God of Israel hath spoken it. The Prophet shews, as we have frequently remarked on former occasions, that we ought not only to acknowledge that these things happened by divine appointment, but that they were appointed by that God whom Israel adores. All men are sometimes constrained to rise to the acknowledgment of God, though they are disposed to believe in chance, because the thought that there is a God in heaven comes into their minds, whether they will or not, and that both in prosperity and in adversity; but then they imagine a Deity according to their own fancy, either in heaven or on earth. Since therefore irreligious men idly and foolishly imagine a God according to their own pleasure, the Prophet directs the Jews to that God whom they adore, that they may know the distinguished privilege which they enjoy in being placed under his guardianship and protection. Nor is it enough that we adore some God as governor of the world, but we must acknowledge the true God, who revealed himself to the fathers, and hath manifested himself to us in Christ. And this ought to be earnestly maintained, in opposition to the profane thoughts of many persons who contrive some strange and confused notion of a Deity, because they dare not openly deny God.