Isaiah 47

¹ Down! And sit on the soil, virgin daughter of Babylon! Sit on the earth, not on a throne, daughter of the Chaldeans! For no more shall they call you, "tender and delicate." ² Take a millstone and grind meal. Expose your draped form! Bare your skirt! Expose the leg! Pass over the streams! ³ Exposed shall be your nakedness! Moreover, apparent shall be your reproach! I will take vengeance on you, ⁴ and I will not interpose a human! says our Redeemer. Yahweh of hosts is His name, the Holy One of Israel. ⁵ Sit still, and come into darkness, daughter of the Chaldeans, for no more shall they call you, "Mistress of the kingdoms." ⁶ I was wroth over My people, and I violated My allotment, and was giving them into your hand, yet you show them no compassion. On the old you make your yoke exceedingly heavy. ⁷ Yet you are saying, "For an eon will I be mistress still!" You do not lay these things to heart; you are not mindful of your hereafter. ⁸ And now, hear this, luxuriant one, dwelling trustingly, who is saying in her heart, "I, and only I, further! I shall not sit, a widow, nor see bereavement." ⁹ Yet now these two shall come to you in a moment; in one day, bereavement and widowhood, suddenly they shall come on you in your many enchantments, in the staunchness of your magic charms, exceedingly. ¹⁰ And you are trusting in your knowledge. You are saying, "No one is seeing me." Your wisdom and your knowledge, it turns you back. And you are saying in your heart, "I, and only I, further!" ¹¹ And evil comes on you. And you are not knowing of the pitfall. And woe shall fall on you. You cannot shelter yourself from it. And coming on you is devastation, and you cannot become clear. And coming on you suddenly is futility, when you shall not know it. ¹² Then stand, pray, by your magic charms, and by your many enchantments, with which you were acquainted from your youth until today. Perhaps you can benefit! Perhaps you will be staunch! ¹³ You are tired with your many counsels. Standing, pray, are they, and saving you are the astrologers, the seers of visions in the stars, the informers for new moons, from the things which are coming on you? ¹⁴ Behold! They all become as straw. Fire shall burn them up. They shall not rescue their soul from the hand of the blaze. It is no ember to warm them, or light to sit in front of. ¹⁵ So they become to you, those with whom you labored, your merchants from your youth. Each man strays to his passage. No saviour is yours.