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. You will no longer be called dainty and delicate.
Come and take your seat in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; come down from your seat of power, and take your place on the earth, O daughter of the Chaldaeans: for you will never again seem soft and delicate.
2 Take the millstone and grind flour; remove your veil, strip off your flowing robe, uncover your legs, cross the streams.
Take the crushing-stones and get the meal crushed: take off your veil, put away your robe, let your legs be uncovered, go through the rivers.
3 Your nakedness will be uncovered, yes, your shame will be seen: I will take vengeance and will not spare a man.
The shame of your unclothed condition will be seen by all: I will give punishment without mercy,
4 Our Redeemer, Yahweh of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel.
Says the Lord who takes up our cause; the Lord of armies is his name, the Holy One of Israel.
5 Sit in silence and go into darkness, daughter of the Chaldeans; for you will no longer be called queen of kingdoms.
Be seated in the dark without a word, O daughter of the Chaldaeans: for you will no longer be named, The Queen of Kingdoms.
6 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.
I was angry with my people, I put shame on my heritage, and gave them into your hands: you had no mercy on them; you put a cruel yoke on those who were old;
7 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.
And you said, I will be a queen for ever: you did not give attention to these things, and did not keep in mind what would come after.
8 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.”
So now take note of this, you who are given up to pleasure, living without fear of evil, saying in your heart, I am, and there is no one like me; I will never be a widow, or have my children taken from me.
9 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.
But these two things will come on you suddenly in one day, the loss of children and of husband: in full measure they will come on you, for all your secret arts, and all your wonders.
10 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.”
For you had faith in your evil-doing; you said, No one sees me; by your wisdom and knowledge you have been turned out of the way: and you have said in your heart, I am, and there is no other.
11 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.
Because of this evil will come on you, which may not be turned away for any price: and trouble will overtake you, from which no money will give salvation: destruction will come on you suddenly, without your knowledge.
12 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.
Go on now with your secret arts, and all your wonder-working, to which you have given yourself up from your earliest days; it may be that they will be of profit to you, or by them you may put fear into your attackers.
13 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.
But your mind is troubled by the number of your guides: let them now come forward for your salvation: the measurers of the heavens, the watchers of the stars, and those who are able to say from month to month what things are coming on you.
14 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!
Truly, they have become like dry stems, they have been burned in the fire; they are not able to keep themselves safe from the power of the flame: it is not a coal for warming them, or a fire by which a man may be seated.
15 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.”
Small profit have you had from those who, from your earliest days, got great profit out of you; they have gone in flight, every one straight before him, and you have no saviour.
