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| 1 The burden of the wilderness of the sea. 'Like hurricanes in the south for passing through, From the wilderness it hath come, From a fearful land. |
Desert of the sea – This only makes sense when looked at symbolically. A desert is a place without water. The sea here is the symbolic sea class, the irreligious restless masses of mankind. R498 |
| 2 A hard vision hath been declared to me, The treacherous dealer is dealing treacherously, And the destroyer is destroying. Go up, O Elam, besiege, O Media, All its sighing I have caused to cease. |
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| 3 Therefore filled have been my loins [with] great pain, Pangs have seized me as pangs of a travailing woman, I have been bent down by hearing, I have been troubled by seeing. |
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| 4 Wandered hath my heart, trembling hath terrified me, The twilight of my desire He hath made a fear to me, |
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| 5 Arrange the table, watch in the watch-tower, Eat, drink, rise, ye heads, anoint the shield, |
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| 6 For thus said the Lord unto me: 'Go, station the watchman, That which he seeth let him declare.' |
A watchman – Pastor Russell. |
| 7 And he hath seen a chariot a couple of horsemen, The rider of an ass, the rider of a camel, And he hath given attention He hath increased attention! |
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| 8 And he crieth a lion, 'On a watch-tower my lord, I am standing continually by day, And on my ward I am stationed whole nights. |
He cried, A lion – Corrected translation: "He cried as a lion." Here the watchman (Pastor Russell) cries out a message from our returned Lord (thus he is said to have "cried as a lion" - as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, as our Lord.)
I stand continually upon the watchtower – As a faithful watchman should do. A watchman watches for the morning and watches for danger. Pastor Russell fulfilled both of these duties. |
| 9 And lo, this, the chariot of a man is coming, A couple of horsemen.' And he answereth and saith: 'Fallen, fallen hath Babylon, And all the graven images of her gods He hath broken to the earth. |
Babylon – Christendom, confusion, especially the confused condition of being mixed with the civil powers, the union of church and state. |
| 10 O my threshing, and the son of my floor, That which I heard from Jehovah of Hosts, God of Israel, I have declared to you!' |
My threshing – A reference to the Harvest Work of threshing out the grain.
Corn of my floor – Compare Matt. 3:12. |
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| 11 The burden of Dumah. Unto me is [one] calling from Seir 'Watchman, what of the night Watchman, what of the night ' |
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| 12 The watchman hath said, 'Come hath morning, and also night, If ye inquire, inquire ye, turn back, come.' |
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| 13 The burden on Arabia. In a forest in Arabia ye lodge, O travellers of Dedanim. |
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| 14 To meet the thirsty brought water have Inhabitants of the land of Tema, With his bread they came before a fugitive. |
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| 15 For from the face of destructions they fled, From the face of a stretched-out sword, And from the face of a trodden bow, And from the face of the grievousness of battle. |
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| 16 For thus said the Lord unto me: 'Within a year, as years of a hireling, Consumed hath been all the honour of Kedar. |
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| 17 And the remnant of the number of bow-men, The mighty of the sons of Kedar are few, For Jehovah, God of Israel, hath spoken!' |
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