1The massa (burden) concerning the Midbar Yam (desert by the sea):
As sufot (whirlwinds) in the Negev sweep through;
so it cometh from the midbar, from eretz nora'ah.

2A chazut kashah (harsh vision) is declared unto me;
the boged (traitor) dealeth treacherously, and the shoded (destroyer) destroyeth.
Go up, O Eilam; besiege, O Media;
all the groaning she ³⁵caused have I made to cease.

3Therefore are my loins filled with pain;
tzirim (pangs) have taken hold upon me,
as the tzirim (pangs) of a woman in labor;
I was bowed down at the hearing of it;
I was dismayed at the seeing of it.

4My lev panted,
fearfulness seized upon me;
the neshef (twilight) of my longing
hath become unto me as kharadah (shuddering horror).

5[They are] setting the shulchan, spreading the tzafit (dining carpet),
to eat, to drink;
arise, ye sarim (princes), and anoint the mogen.

6For thus hath Adonoi said unto me,
Go, post the metzapeh (watchman),
let him report what he seeth.

7When he sees riders with a pair of parashim,
donkey riders and camel riders,
then he pays heed diligently with great care;

8And the one seeing cried out,
Adonoi, I stand continually on the mitzpeh (watchtower) in the daytime,
and I am set in my mishmeret (guard duty) kol halailot (every night),

9And, hinei, here cometh a merkavah with a man,
a pair of parashim. And he answered and said,
Bavel (Babylon) is fallen, is fallen;
and all the pesilim (images) of her elohim (g-ds)
hath been shattered on the ground.

10O my threshed, ³⁶and the grain of my goren (threshing floor);
that which I have heard of Hashem Tzva'os Elohei Yisroel,
have I declared unto you.

11The massa (burden) of Dumah: ³⁷
One calleth to me out of Se'ir, ³⁸
Shomer (watchman), what of the lailah?
Shomer, what of the lailah?

12The shomer said, The boker cometh, and also the lailah;
if ye will inquire, inquire ye;
shuvu (return), come.

13The massa (burden) concerning Arabia:
In the ya'ar (forest) of Arabia shall ye encamp
O ye caravans of Dedanim.

14The inhabitants of Eretz Tema brought mayim
to him that was tzameh (thirsty),
they met with their lechem him that fled.

15For they fled from the charavot (swords),
from the drawn cherev,
and from the bent keshet (bow),
and from the grievousness of milchamah (war).

16For thus hath Adonoi said unto me, Within a shanah (year), according to the way a year is counted by a sakhir (hireling, hired servant), all the kavod of Kedar shall end;

17And the remainder of the mispar (number) of archers, the gibborim (mighty men) of the Bnei Kedar, shall be few; for Hashem Elohei Yisroel hath spoken.