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.