Isaiah 47

The Fall of Babylon

¹“Go down and sit in the dust, Virgin Daughter Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne, Daughter Chaldea! For you will no longer be called pampered and spoiled.²

³Take millstones and grind flour; remove your veil, strip off your skirt, bare your thigh, wade through the streams.⁴

⁵Your nakedness will be uncovered, and your disgrace will be exposed. I will take vengeance; I will spare no one.”⁶

⁷The Holy One of Israel is our Redeemer; The Lord of Armies is his name.⁸

⁹“Daughter Chaldea, sit in silence and go into darkness. For you will no longer be called mistress of kingdoms.¹⁰

¹¹I was angry with my people; I profaned my possession, and I handed them over to you. You showed them no mercy; you made your yoke very heavy on the elderly.¹²

¹³You said, ‘I will be the queen forever.’ You did not take these things to heart or think about their outcome.¹⁴

¹⁵“So now hear this, lover of luxury, who sits securely, who says to herself, ‘I am, and there is no one else. I will never be a widow or know the loss of children.’¹⁶

¹⁷These two things will happen to you suddenly, in one day: loss of children and widowhood. They will happen to you in their entirety, in spite of your many sorceries and the potency of your spells.¹⁸

¹⁹You were secure in your wickedness; you said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and knowledge led you astray. You said to yourself, ‘I am, and there is no one else.’²⁰

²¹But disaster will happen to you; you will not know how to avert it. And it will fall on you, but you will be unable to ward it off. Devastation will happen to you suddenly and unexpectedly.²²

²³So take your stand with your spells and your many sorceries, which you have wearied yourself with from your youth. Perhaps you will be able to succeed; perhaps you will inspire terror!²⁴

²⁵You are worn out with your many consultations. So let the astrologers stand and save you — those who observe the stars, those who predict monthly what will happen to you.²⁶

²⁷Look, they are like stubble; fire burns them. They cannot rescue themselves from the power of the flame. This is not a coal for warming themselves, or a fire to sit beside!²⁸

²⁹This is what they are to you — those who have wearied you and have traded with you from your youth — each wanders on his own way; no one can save you.³⁰