Isaiah 47

1Come down and sit in the dust, virgin daughter Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne, daughter of the Chaldeans! For you will no longer be called tender and delicate.

2Take millstones and grind flour; remove your veil, strip off your skirt, bare your legs, and wade through the rivers.

3Your nakedness will be uncovered, and your shame will be seen. I will take vengeance, and I will spare no one.

4Our Redeemer—Yahweh of Armies is his name—is the Holy One of Israel.

5Sit in silence and go into darkness, daughter of the Chaldeans, for you will no longer be called the queen of kingdoms.

6I was angry with my people; I profaned my inheritance and gave them into your hand. You showed them no mercy; even on the aged you made your yoke very heavy.

7You said, “I will be queen forever,” so you did not take these things to heart or consider how it would end.

8So now hear this, you lover of pleasure, who sits in security, who says in her heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me; I will not sit as a widow or know the loss of children.”

9Yet both of these will come upon you in a moment, in a single day: loss of children and widowhood. They will come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and the great power of your spells.

10You trusted in your wickedness; you said, “No one sees me.” Your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray, and you said in your heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me.”

11But disaster will come upon you, and you will not know how to charm it away; calamity will fall on you, and you will not be able to ward it off; ruin will come upon you suddenly, before you know it.

12Stand firm, then, with your spells and your many sorceries, which you have labored at since your youth. Perhaps you will succeed; perhaps you will strike terror.

13You are worn out by all your counsel. Let them stand up and save you, those who divide up the heavens, who gaze at the stars, who at each new moon make known what will come upon you.

14Look, they are like stubble; fire burns them up. They cannot save themselves from the power of the flame. This is no coal for warming oneself, no fire to sit beside.

15That is what they will be to you, those you have labored with, who have traded with you since your youth. Each one wanders off his own way; there is no one to save you.