Isaiah 47
47
Prediction of Babylon’s Fall
1“Come down, virgin daughter of Babylon, and sit in the dust.
For your days of sitting on a throne have ended.
O daughter of Babylonia,#47:1 Or Chaldea; also in 47:5. never again will you be
the lovely princess, tender and delicate.
2Take heavy millstones and grind flour.
Remove your veil, and strip off your robe.
Expose yourself to public view.#47:2 Hebrew Bare your legs; pass through the rivers.
3You will be naked and burdened with shame.
I will take vengeance against you without pity.”
4Our Redeemer, whose name is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,
is the Holy One of Israel.
5“O beautiful Babylon, sit now in darkness and silence.
Never again will you be known as the queen of kingdoms.
6For I was angry with my chosen people
and punished them by letting them fall into your hands.
But you, Babylon, showed them no mercy.
You oppressed even the elderly.
7You said, ‘I will reign forever as queen of the world!’
You did not reflect on your actions
or think about their consequences.
8“Listen to this, you pleasure-loving kingdom,
living at ease and feeling secure.
You say, ‘I am the only one, and there is no other.
I will never be a widow or lose my children.’
9Well, both these things will come upon you in a moment:
widowhood and the loss of your children.
Yes, these calamities will come upon you,
despite all your witchcraft and magic.
10“You felt secure in your wickedness.
‘No one sees me,’ you said.
But your ‘wisdom’ and ‘knowledge’ have led you astray,
and you said, ‘I am the only one, and there is no other.’
11So disaster will overtake you,
and you won’t be able to charm it away.
Calamity will fall upon you,
and you won’t be able to buy your way out.
A catastrophe will strike you suddenly,
one for which you are not prepared.
12“Now use your magical charms!
Use the spells you have worked at all these years!
Maybe they will do you some good.
Maybe they can make someone afraid of you.
13All the advice you receive has made you tired.
Where are all your astrologers,
those stargazers who make predictions each month?
Let them stand up and save you from what the future holds.
14But they are like straw burning in a fire;
they cannot save themselves from the flame.
You will get no help from them at all;
their hearth is no place to sit for warmth.
15And all your friends,
those with whom you’ve done business since childhood,
will go their own ways,
turning a deaf ear to your cries.
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Isaiah 47: NLT
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Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright 1996, 2004, 2007, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
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Isaiah 47
47
XLVII
1Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon I
Sit on the ground, without a throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans:
For thou shalt no longer be called the tender, and the delicate.
2Take the mill, and grind meal:
Take off thy veil, take up the train of thy garment;
Make bare thy leg; wade through the rivers.
3Thy nakedness shall be disclosed; yea, thy shame shall be seen:
I will take vengeance, and will not spare a man.
4 Thus saith our Redeemer, Jehovah of hosts is his name,
The Holy One of Israel:
5Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans;
For thou shalt no longer be called. The lady of Kingdoms.
6I was angry with my people, I polluted mine inheritance,
And gave them up into thine hand:
Thou didst shew them no mercy;
Upon the aged didst thou very heavily lay thy yoke.
7And thou saidst: I shall be a lady for ever:
So that thou didst not lay these things to thy heart,
Neither didst thou think upon the latter end thereof.
8Now, therefore, hear this, O thou voluptuous, that sittest in security:
Thou that sayest in thine heart: I am, and there is none besides;
I shall not sit a widow; neither shall I know the loss of children.
9Yet these two things shall come to thee in a moment,
In one day, loss of children and widowhood:
They shall come upon thee in their perfection,
Notwithstanding the multitude of thy sorceries;
Notwithstanding the great strength of thine enchantments.
10But thou didst trust in thy wickedness, and saidst: None seeth me.
Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, they perverted thee;
So that thou saidst in thine heart: I am, and there is none besides.
11Therefore shall evil come upon thee,
The dawn whereof thou shalt not perceive;
And mischief shall fall upon thee,
Which thou shalt not be able to expiate;
And destruction shall come upon thee suddenly, of which thou shalt have no apprehension.
12Persist now in thine enchantments,
And in the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth;
Perhaps thou mayest be able to profit,
Perhaps thou mayest prevail.
13Thou art wearied in the multiplicity of thy counsels:
Let them stand up now, and save thee,
The astrologers, the gazers on the stars;
They that prognosticate at every new moon
What are the events that shall happen unto thee.
14Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them up;
They shall not deliver their own souls from the power of the flame:
There shall not be a coal to warm at,
Nor a fire to sit before it.
15Thus will they prove to be unto thee, amongst whom thou hast laboured,
Those with whom thou hast had dealing from thy youth:
They shall become bewildered, every one in his quarter;
Not one will there be to save thee.
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Translated by Rev John Jones (Ioan Tegid).Published at Oxford in 1830, second edition 1842.