Isaiah, 47

¹ Come down and sit down in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon.^*1 Sit down on the earth where there is no throne, O daughter of the Chal·deʹans. For you will not experience again that people call you delicate and dainty.

² Take a hand mill and grind out flour. Uncover your veil. Strip off the flowing skirt. Uncover the leg. Cross over the rivers.

³ You ought to uncover your nakedness. Also, your reproach ought to be seen. Vengeance is what I shall take, and I shall not meet any man^*1 [kindly].

⁴ “There is One repurchasing us. Jehovah of armies is his name, the Holy One of Israel.”

⁵ Sit down silently and come into the darkness, O daughter of the Chal·deʹans; for you will not experience again that people call you Mistress of Kingdoms.

⁶ I grew indignant at my people. I profaned my inheritance, and I proceeded to give them into your hand. You showed them no mercies. Upon the old man you made your yoke very heavy.

⁷ And you kept saying: “To time indefinite I shall prove to be Mistress, forever.” You did not take these things to your heart; you did not remember the finale of the matter.

⁸ And now hear this, you pleasure-given [woman], the one sitting in security, the one saying in her heart: “I am, and there is nobody else. I shall not sit as a widow, and I shall not know the loss of children.”

⁹ But to you these two things will come suddenly, in one day: loss of children and widowhood. In their complete measure they must come upon you, for the abundance of your sorceries, for the full might of your spells—exceedingly.

¹⁰ And you kept trusting in your badness. You have said: “There is no one seeing me.” Your wisdom and your knowledge—this is what has led you away; and you keep saying in your heart: “I am, and there is nobody else.”

¹¹ And upon you calamity must come; you will know no charming against it. And upon you adversity will fall; you will not be able to avert it. And upon you there will suddenly come a ruin that you are not accustomed to know.

¹² Stand still, now, with your spells and with the abundance of your sorceries, in which you have toiled from your youth; that perhaps you might be able to benefit, that perhaps you might strike people with awe.

¹³ You have grown weary with the multitude of your counselors.^*1 Let them stand up, now, and save you, the worshipers^*2 of the heavens, the lookers at the stars,^*3 those giving out knowledge at the new moons concerning the things that will come upon you.^*4

¹⁴ Look! They have become like stubble. A fire itself will certainly burn them up. They will not deliver their soul from the power^*1 of the flame. There will be no glow of charcoals for people to warm themselves, no firelight in front of which to sit down.

¹⁵ Thus they will certainly become to you, with whom you have toiled as your charmers^*1 from your youth. They will actually wander, each one to his own region. There will be no one to save you.