< Isaiah 47 >

1 “Come down, and sit on the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, Sit on the earth, there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans, For they no longer cry to you, O tender and delicate one. 2 Take millstones, and grind flour, Remove your veil, draw up the skirt, Uncover the leg, pass over the floods. 3 Your nakedness is revealed, indeed, your reproach is seen, I take vengeance, and I do not meet a man.” 4 Our redeemer [is] YHWH of Hosts, His Name [is] the Holy One of Israel. 5 “Sit silent, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans, For they no longer cry to you, Mistress of kingdoms. 6 I have been angry against My people, I have defiled My inheritance And I give them into your hand, You have not appointed mercies for them, You have made your yoke very heavy on the aged, 7 And you say, I am mistress for all time, While you have not laid these things to your heart, You have not remembered the latter end of it. 8 And now, hear this, O luxurious one, Who is sitting confidently—Who is saying in her heart, I [am], and none else, I do not sit [as] a widow, nor know bereavement. 9 And these two things come to you, In a moment, in one day: childlessness and widowhood, They have come on you according to their perfection, In the multitude of your sorceries, In the exceeding might of your charms. 10 And you are confident in your wickedness, You have said, There is none seeing me, Your wisdom and your knowledge, It is turning you back, And you say in your heart, I [am], and none else. 11 And evil has come in on you, You do not know its rising, And disaster falls on you, You are not able to pacify it, And desolation comes on you suddenly, You do not know. 12 Now stand in your charms, And in the multitude of your sorceries, In which you have labored from your youth, It may be you are able to profit, It may be you terrify! 13 You have been wearied in the multitude of your counsels, Now stand up and let them save you—The charmers of the heavens, Those looking on the stars, Those teaching concerning the months—From those things that come on you! 14 Behold, they have been as stubble! Fire has burned them, They do not deliver themselves from the power of the flame, There is not a coal to warm them, a light to sit before it. 15 So they have been to you with whom you have labored, Your merchants from your youth, They have each wandered to his passage, None is saving you!”

< Isaiah 47 >