Isaiah 47

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

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

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

⁴ Our Redeemer — the Father of heaven's armies is his name — the Holy One of Israel, our Father.

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

⁶ I was angry with my children; I defiled my inheritance and gave them into your hand. You showed them no mercy; you laid a very heavy yoke even on the elderly.

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

⁸ Now then, hear this, you lover of pleasures who sits securely, who says in her heart, "I am, and there is none besides me; I will never sit as a widow or know the loss of children." ⁹ But both these things will come upon you in a moment, in a single day: the loss of children and widowhood. They will come upon you in full measure, despite your many sorceries and the great power of your spells.

¹⁰ You felt secure 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 none besides me." ¹¹ So disaster will come upon you that you will not know how to charm away; calamity will fall on you that you cannot ward off; ruin will come upon you suddenly, before you know it.

¹² Keep on, then, with your spells and your many sorceries that you have worked at since your youth. Perhaps you will succeed; perhaps you will cause terror. ¹³ You are worn out by your many counsels. Let them stand up and save you — those who map the heavens, who gaze at the stars, who at each new moon predict what will come upon you. ¹⁴ See, they are like stubble; the fire burns them up. They cannot save themselves from the power of the flame. These are no coals for warming, no fire to sit beside. ¹⁵ This is what they are to you — those you have worked and traded with since your youth. Each wanders off in his own direction; there is no one to save you.