Isaiah 47
47
The Fall of Babylon
1“Go down and sit in the dust,#Is 3:26; Jr 48:18
Virgin Daughter Babylon.#Ps 137:8; Jr 50:42; 51:33; Zch 2:7
Sit on the ground without a throne,
Daughter Chaldea!
For you will no longer be called pampered and spoiled.
2Take millstones and grind flour;#Ex 11:5; Jb 31:10; Mt 24:41
remove your veil,
strip off your skirt, bare your thigh,
wade through the streams.
3Your nakedness will be uncovered,
and your disgrace will be exposed.#Jr 13:26; Lm 1:8; Ezk 16:37; Nah 3:5
I will take vengeance;
I will spare no one.”#47:3 Hb obscure
4The Holy One of Israel is our Redeemer;#Is 41:14; 43:14
The Lord of Armies is his name.
5“Daughter Chaldea,
sit in silence#Is 23:2; Jr 8:14; Lm 2:10; 3:2,28 and go into darkness.
For you will no longer be called mistress of kingdoms.
6I was angry with my people;
I profaned my possession,
and I handed them over to you.
You showed them no mercy;
you made your yoke very heavy on the elderly.
7You said, ‘I will be the queen forever.’
You did not take these things to heart
or think about their outcome.
8“So now hear this, lover of luxury,
who sits securely,#Zph 2:15
who says to herself,
‘I am, and there is no one else.
I will never be a widow
or know the loss of children.’#Rv 18:7
9These two things will happen to you
suddenly, in one day:
loss of children and widowhood.
They will happen to you in their entirety,
in spite of your many sorceries#Is 47:13; Nah 3:4; Rv 18:23
and the potency of your spells.
10You were secure in your wickedness;
you said, ‘No one sees me.’#Ps 139:3,11
Your wisdom and knowledge
led you astray.
You said to yourself,
‘I am, and there is no one else.’
11But disaster will happen to you;
you will not know how to avert it.
And it will fall on you,
but you will be unable to ward it off.#47:11 Or to atone for it
Devastation will happen to you suddenly
and unexpectedly.#Is 13:6; Jr 51:8,43; Lk 17:27; 1Th 5:3
12So take your stand with your spells
and your many sorceries,
which you have wearied yourself with from your youth.
Perhaps you will be able to succeed;
perhaps you will inspire terror!
13You are worn out with your many consultations.
So let the astrologers stand and save you —
those who observe the stars,#Is 8:19; 44:25; 47:9; Dn 2:2,10
those who predict monthly
what will happen to you.
14Look, they are like stubble;#Is 5:24; Nah 1:10; Mal 4:1
fire burns them.#Is 10:17; Jr 51:30–32,58
They cannot rescue themselves
from the power of the flame.
This is not a coal for warming themselves,
or a fire to sit beside!
15This is what they are to you —
those who have wearied you
and have traded with you from your youth —
each wanders on his own way;
no one can save you.
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© 2017 Holman Bible Publishers
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.