⁵ They set the tables,
    they spread the rugs,
    they eat, they drink!^(A)
Get up, you officers,
    oil the shields!^(B)

“Go, post a lookout^(C)
    and have him report what he sees.
⁷ When he sees chariots^(D)
    with teams of horses,
riders on donkeys
    or riders on camels,^(E)
let him be alert,
    fully alert.”

“Day after day, my lord, I stand on the watchtower;
    every night I stay at my post.
⁹ Look, here comes a man in a chariot^(G)
    with a team of horses.
And he gives back the answer:
    ‘Babylon^(H) has fallen,^(I) has fallen!
All the images of its gods^(J)
    lie shattered^(K) on the ground!’”

¹⁰ My people who are crushed on the threshing floor,^(L)
    I tell you what I have heard
from the Lord Almighty,
    from the God of Israel.

Someone calls to me from Seir,^(N)
    “Watchman, what is left of the night?
    Watchman, what is left of the night?”
¹² The watchman replies,
    “Morning is coming, but also the night.
If you would ask, then ask;
    and come back yet again.”

⁶ There will be a day when watchmen^(A) cry out
    on the hills of Ephraim,
‘Come, let us go up to Zion,
    to the Lord our God.’”^(B)