Babylon Is Fallen

(Revelation 18:1–8)

21 [This is] the burden against the Desert by the Sea: Like whirlwinds sweeping through the Negev, [an invader] comes from the desert, from a land of terror.

2 A dire vision is declared to me: “The traitor still betrays, and the destroyer still destroys. Go up, O Elam! Lay siege, O Media! I will put an end to all her groaning.”

3 Therefore my body is filled with anguish. Pain grips me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am bewildered to hear, I am dismayed to see.

4 My heart falters; fear makes me tremble. The twilight I desired has turned to horror.

5 They prepare a table, they lay out a carpet, they eat, they drink! Rise up, O princes, oil the shields!

6 For this [is what] the Lord says to me: “Go, post a lookout [and] have him report what he sees.

7 When he sees chariots with teams of horsemen, riders on donkeys, riders on camels, he must be alert fully alert.”

8 Then the lookout[fn] shouted: “Day after day, my lord, I stand on the watchtower; night after night I stay at my post.

9 Look, here come the riders horsemen in pairs.” And one answered, saying: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon![fn] All the images of her gods lie shattered on the ground!”

10 O my people, crushed on the threshing floor, I tell you what I have heard from the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel.