Isaiah 47

1 “Come down and sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne, daughter of the Chaldeans. For you will no longer be called tender and delicate.

Come down, sit on the ground, O virgin daughter of Babylon: sit on the ground, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for you shall no more be called tender and luxurious.

2 Take the millstones and grind flour. Remove your veil, lift up your skirt, uncover your legs, and wade through the rivers.

Take a millstone, grind meal: remove your veil, uncover your white hairs, make bare the leg, pass through the rivers.

3 Your nakedness will be uncovered. Yes, your shame will be seen. I will take vengeance, and will spare no one.”

Your shame shall be uncovered, your reproaches shall be brought to light: I will exact of you due vengeance, I will no longer deliver you to men.

4 Our Redeemer, Yahweh of Armies is his name, is the Holy One of Israel.

Your deliverer is the Lord of hosts, the Holy One of Israel is his name.

5 “Sit in silence, and go into darkness, daughter of the Chaldeans. For you shall no longer be called the mistress of kingdoms.

Sit you down pierced with woe, go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: you shall no more be called the strength of a kingdom.

6 I was angry with my people. I profaned my inheritance and gave them into your hand. You showed them no mercy. You laid a very heavy yoke on the aged.

I have been provoked with my people; you have defiled mine inheritance: I gave them into your hand, but you did not extend mercy to them: you made the yoke of the aged man very heavy,

7 You said, ‘I will be a princess forever,’ so that you didn’t lay these things to your heart, nor did you remember the results.

and said, I shall be a princess for ever: you did not perceive these things in your heart, nor did you remember the latter end.

8 “Now therefore hear this, you who are given to pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me. I won’t sit as a widow, neither will I know the loss of children.’

But now hear these words, you luxurious one, [who are] the one that sits [at ease], that is secure, that says in her heart, I am, and there is not another; I shall not sit a widow, neither shall I know bereavement.

9 But these two things will come to you in a moment in one day: the loss of children and widowhood. They will come on you in their full measure, in the multitude of your sorceries, and the great abundance of your enchantments.

But now these two things shall come upon you suddenly in one day, the loss of children and widowhood shall come suddenly upon you, for your sorcery, for the strength of your enchantments,

10 For you have trusted in your wickedness. You have said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and your knowledge has perverted you. You have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me.’

for your trusting in wickedness: for you said, I am, and there is not another: know you, the understanding of these things and your harlotry shall be your shame; for you said in your heart, I am, and there is not another.

11 Therefore disaster will come on you. You won’t know when it dawns. Mischief will fall on you. You won’t be able to put it away. Desolation will come on you suddenly, which you don’t understand.

And destruction shall come upon you, and you shall not be aware; [there shall be a] pit, and you shall fall into it: and grief shall come upon you, and you shall not be able to be clear; and destruction shall come suddenly upon you, and you shall not know.

12 “Stand now with your enchantments and with the multitude of your sorceries, in which you have labored from your youth, as if you might profit, as if you might prevail.

Stand now with your enchantments, and with the abundance of your sorcery, which you have learned from your youth; if you can be profited.

13 You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels. Now let the astrologers, the stargazers, and the monthly prognosticators stand up and save you from the things that will happen to you.

You are wearied in your counsels. Let now the astrologers of the heaven stand and deliver you, let them that see the stars tell you what is about to come upon you.

14 Behold, they are like stubble. The fire will burn them. They won’t deliver themselves from the power of the flame. It won’t be a coal to warm at or a fire to sit by.

Behold, they all shall be burnt up as sticks in the fire; neither shall they at all deliver their life from the flame. Because you have coals of fire, sit you upon them;

15 The things that you labored in will be like this: those who have trafficked with you from your youth will each wander in his own way. There will be no one to save you.

these shall be your help. You have wearied yourself with traffic from your youth: every man has wandered to his own home, but you shall have no deliverance.