One runner will run to meet another, And one messenger to meet another, To show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on [all] sides;

Wail, for the day of the LORD [is] at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty.

And they will be afraid. Pangs and sorrows will take hold of [them;] They will be in pain as a woman in childbirth; They will be amazed at one another; Their faces [will be like] flames.

Therefore my loins are filled with pain; Pangs have taken hold of me, like the pangs of a woman in labor. I was distressed when [I] heard [it;] I was dismayed when [I] saw [it.]

My heart wavered, fearfulness frightened me; The night for which I longed He turned into fear for me.

In the same hour the fingers of a man's hand appeared and wrote opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace; and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.

Then the king's countenance changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his hips were loosened and his knees knocked against each other.

Behold, He shall come up and fly like the eagle, And spread His wings over Bozrah; The heart of the mighty men of Edom in that day shall be Like the heart of a woman in birth pangs.

Damascus has grown feeble; She turns to flee, And fear has seized [her.] Anguish and sorrows have taken her like a woman in labor.