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 never again be called delicate and pampered.
2 Take the millstones and grind flour; remove your veil, lift your skirt, uncover your legs, and cross the rivers.
3 Your nakedness will be exposed, and your shame will be seen. I will take vengeance and spare no one.
4 Our Redeemer—the LORD of Hosts is his name—is the Holy One of Israel.
5 Sit in silence and enter the darkness, daughter of the Chaldeans, for you will never again be called the mistress of kingdoms.
6 I was angry with my people, profaned my inheritance, and handed them over to you. You showed them no compassion; you laid a very heavy yoke on the elderly.
7 You said, “I will be mistress forever.” You did not take these things to heart; you did not remember how they would end.
8 Now listen to this, you pleasure-loving woman who lives secure and says in your heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me; I will not sit as a widow or know the loss of children.”
9 These two things will come upon you suddenly, in a single day: loss of children and widowhood. They will come upon you in full, despite your many sorceries and the great power of your spells.
10 You trusted in your wickedness and said, “No one sees me.” Your wisdom and knowledge led you astray, and you said in your heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me.”
11 Evil will come upon you that you will not know how to conjure away; disaster will fall upon you that you cannot ward off, and ruin you did not know will suddenly come upon you.
12 Stand firm, then, with your spells and your many sorceries, which have wearied you since your youth. Perhaps you can gain some advantage; perhaps you can spread terror.
13 You have wearied yourself with your many counsels. Let those who divide the heavens, who observe the stars and announce at each new moon what will come upon you, rise up and save you.
14 Look, they have become straw, and fire has burned them. They could not save their own lives from the power of the flame. No coal remained to warm them, no fire to sit beside.
15 That is what became of those you labored over, your merchants since your youth: each has wandered off in his own direction, and there is no one to save you.
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