The Fall of Babylon Predicted
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, lift up your skirt, uncover your legs,
and wade through the rivers.
3 Your nakedness will be uncovered.
Yes, your shame will be seen.
I will take vengeance,
and will spare no one.”
4 Our Redeemer, the Lord of Hosts is his name,
is the Holy One of Israel.
5 “Sit in silence. Retreat to darkness,
daughter of the Chaldeans.
For you shall no longer be called
queen of kingdoms.
6 I was angry with my people.
I profaned my own possession
and put them in your hands.
You showed them no mercy.
Even the elderly, you treated harshly.
7 You said, ‘I will be queen forever!’,
not taking these things to heart,
nor thinking about the consequences.
8 Now therefore hear this,
you who are given to pleasures,
who sit securely,
who say in your heart,
‘I am, and there is no one else besides me.
I will never be a widow,
nor will I know the loss of children.’
9 But these two things will come to you in a moment in one day,
the loss of children and widowhood.
They will come on you in their full measure,
in the midst of all your sorcery,
and the enormity of your enchantments.
10 For you have trusted in your wickedness.
You have said, ‘No one sees me.’
Your wisdom and your knowledge has perverted you.
You have said in your heart,
‘I am, and there is no one else besides me.’
11 Therefore disaster will come upon you.
You will not know when it dawns.
Calamity will come upon you.
You will not be able to charm it away.
Devastation will suddenly come upon you,
that you did not expect and do not understand.
12 Stand now with your spells
and with all your sorcery,
in which you have labored from your youth,
as if you might profit,
as if you might prevail.
13 You are worn and weary from all the counsel.
Now let the astrologers, the stargazers, and the monthly prognosticators,
stand up and save you from the things that will happen to you.
14 They are like stubble.
The fire will burn them.
They will not deliver themselves from the power of the flame.
There will not be a coal to warm at
or a fire to sit by.
15 The things that you labored in will be like this:
those you have labored with from your youth
will each wander in his own way.
There will be no one to save you.