Isaiah 47
1 Descend, sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon! Sit on the ground. There is no throne for the daughter of the Chaldeans. For you shall no longer be called delicate and tender.
Come down and sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne, daughter of the Chaldeans. You will no longer be called dainty and delicate.
2 Take a millstone and grind meal. Uncover your shame, bare your shoulder, reveal your legs, cross the streams.
Take the millstone and grind flour; remove your veil, strip off your flowing robe, uncover your legs, cross the streams.
3 Your disgrace will be revealed, and your shame will be seen. I will seize vengeance, and no man will withstand me.
Your nakedness will be uncovered, yes, your shame will be seen: I will take vengeance and will not spare a man.
4 Our Redeemer, the Lord of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel.
Our Redeemer, Yahweh of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel.
5 Sit in silence, and enter into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans! For you shall no longer be called the noblewoman of kingdoms.
Sit in silence and go into darkness, daughter of the Chaldeans; for you will no longer be called queen of kingdoms.
6 I was angry with my people. I have polluted my inheritance, and I have given them into your hand. You have not shown mercy to them. You have greatly increased the burden of your yoke upon the elders.
I was angry with my people; I defiled my heritage and gave them over into your hand, but you showed them no mercy; you placed a very heavy yoke on the old people.
7 And you have said: “I will be a noblewoman forever.” You have not set these things upon your heart, and you have not remembered your end.
You said, “I will rule forever as sovereign queen.” You did not take these things to heart, nor did you consider how they would turn out.
8 And now, hear these things, you who are delicate and have confidence, who say in your heart: “I am, and there is no one greater than me. I will not sit as a widow, and I will not know barrenness.”
So now hear this, you who love pleasure and sit securely; you who say in your heart, “I exist, and there is no one else like me; I will never sit as a widow, nor will I ever experience loss of children.”
9 These two things will suddenly overwhelm you in one day: barrenness and widowhood. All things shall overwhelm you, because of the multitude of your sorceries and because of the great cruelty of your enchantments.
But these two things will come to you in a moment in one day: the loss of children and widowhood; in full force they will come on you, despite your sorceries and your many incantations and amulets.
10 And you have trusted in your malice, and you have said: “There is no one who sees me.” Your wisdom and your knowledge, these have deceived you. And you have said in your heart: “I am, and beside me there is no other.”
You have trusted in your wickedness; you have said, “No one sees me”; your wisdom and your knowledge lead you astray, but you say in your heart, “I exist, and there is no one else like me.”
11 Evil will overwhelm you, and you will not notice its rising. And calamity will fall violently over you, and you will not be able to avert it. You will suddenly be overwhelmed by a misery such as you have never known.
Disaster will overcome you; you will not be able to drive it away with your incantations. Destruction will fall on you; you will not be able to ward it off. Calamity will strike you suddenly, before you know it.
12 Stand with your incantations, and with the multitude of your sorceries, in which you have labored from your youth, as if somehow it might benefit you, or as if it were able to make you stronger.
Persist in casting your spells and your many sorceries which you have faithfully recited since your childhood; perhaps you will be successful, perhaps you will scare away disaster.
13 You have failed in the multitude of your plans! Let the seers stand and save you, those who were contemplating the stars, and figuring the months, so that from these they might announce to you the things to come.
You are tired out with your many consultations; let those men stand up and save you—those who chart the heavens and look at the stars, those who declare the new moons—let them save you from what will happen to you.
14 Behold, they have become like stubble. Fire has consumed them. They will not free themselves from the power of the flames. These are not coals by which they may be warmed, nor is this a fire which they may sit beside.
See, they will become like stubble. The fire will burn them up. They will not save themselves from the hand of the flame. There are no coals to warm them and no fire for them to sit by!
15 So have all these things, in which you have labored, become to you. Your merchants from your youth, each one has erred in his own way. There is no one who can save you.
This is what they have become to you— those with whom you have worked, and you have bought and sold with them since your youth— they wandered about each one in his own direction; there is no one who can rescue you.”
