⁴ My mind reels; horror has appalled me;
    the twilight I longed for
    has been turned for me into trembling.^(A)
5 They prepare the table;
    they spread the rugs;
    they eat; they drink.
Rise up, commanders;
    oil the shield!^(B)
6 For thus the Lord said to me:
“Go, post a lookout;
    let him announce what he sees.
⁷ When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,
    riders on donkeys, riders on camels,
let him watch closely,
    very closely.”^(C)
8 Then the watcher^[a] called out:
“Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,
    continually by day,
and at my post I am stationed
    throughout the night.^(D)
9 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.”^(E)

³¹ One runner runs to meet another,
    and one messenger to meet another,
to tell the king of Babylon
    that his city is taken from end to end:^(A)

³⁹ When they are inflamed, I will set out their drink
    and make them drunk, until they become merry
and then sleep a perpetual sleep
    and never wake, says the Lord.^(A)

⁵⁷ I will make her officials and her sages drunk,
    also her governors, her deputies, and her warriors;
they shall sleep a perpetual sleep and never wake,
    says the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.^(A)