Isaiah 47
1 “Go down and sit in the dust, O Virgin Daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne, O Daughter of Chaldea! For you will no longer be called tender or delicate.
Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin, daughter of Babylon! Sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the Chaldaeans! For thou shalt no longer be called the tender and delicate!
2 Take millstones and grind flour; remove your veil; strip off your skirt, bare your thigh, and wade through the streams.
Take the mill-stones and grind meal; Raise thy veil, lift up thy train; Make bare the leg, wade through the streams!
3 Your nakedness will be uncovered and your shame will be exposed. I will take vengeance; I will spare no one.”
Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, And thy shame shall be seen. I will take vengeance; I will make peace with none.
4 Our Redeemer—the LORD of Hosts is His name— is the Holy One of Israel.
Our Redeemer, Jehovah of hosts is his name, The Holy One of Israel.
5 “Sit in silence and go into darkness, O Daughter of Chaldea. For you will no longer be called the queen of kingdoms.
Sit thou in silence; go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldaeans! For thou shalt no more be called the mistress of kingdoms.
6 I was angry with My people; I profaned My heritage, and I placed them under your control. You showed them no mercy; even on the elderly you laid a most heavy yoke.
I was angry with my people; I profaned my inheritance, And gave them into thy hand; Thou didst show them no mercy; Even upon the aged didst thou lay a very grievous yoke.
7 You said, ‘I will be queen forever.’ You did not take these things to heart or consider their outcome.
Thou saidst, “I shall be mistress forever”; So that thou didst not lay these things to thy heart, Nor consider what would be the end of them.
8 So now hear this, O lover of luxury who sits securely, who says to herself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me. I will never be a widow or know the loss of children.’
But hear thou this, thou that art given to pleasure! That sittest in security, And sayest in thy heart, “I am, and there is none besides me; I shall not be a widow, Nor see myself childless!”
9 These two things will overtake you in a moment, in a single day: loss of children, and widowhood. They will come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and the potency of your spells.
Behold, both these things shall come upon thee suddenly, in one day, Loss of children, and widowhood; In full measure shall they come upon thee, In spite of thy many sorceries, And the great abundance of thy enchantments.
10 You were secure in your wickedness; you said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and knowledge led you astray; you told yourself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me.’
Thou didst trust in thy wickedness, and saidst, “No one seeth me”; Thy wisdom and thy knowledge have led thee astray; Thou saidst in thy heart, “I am, and there is none besides me”;
11 But disaster will come upon you; you will not know how to charm it away. A calamity will befall you that you will be unable to ward off. Devastation will happen to you suddenly and unexpectedly.
Therefore shall evil come upon thee, of which thou shalt not know the dawn; And mischief shall fall upon thee, which thou shalt not be able to expiate; Suddenly shall desolation come upon thee, when thou thinkest not of it.
12 So take your stand with your spells and with your many sorceries, with which you have wearied yourself from your youth. Perhaps you will succeed; perhaps you will inspire terror!
Persevere now in thy enchantments; In the multitude of thy sorceries, in which thou hast labored from thy youth; Perhaps thou mayst be profited by them! Perhaps thou mayst make thyself feared!
13 You are wearied by your many counselors; let them come forward now and save you— your astrologers who observe the stars, who monthly predict your fate.
Art thou wearied with thy many devices? Let them stand up, then, and save thee, The observers of the heavens, the star-gazers, They that prognosticate at every new moon The things that shall come upon thee!
14 Surely they are like stubble; the fire will burn them up. They cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame. There will be no coals to warm them or fire to sit beside.
Behold, they shall be like stubble; the fire shall burn them up; They shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame; Not a coal shall be left of them to warm one, Nor a spark of fire to sit by.
15 This is what they are to you— those with whom you have labored and traded from youth— each one strays in his own direction; not one of them can save you.
Thus shall it be with them with whom thou hast labored; Thus with them with whom thou hast trafficked from thy youth; They shall go every one his own way; None shall help thee.
