Isaiah 47
47
Babylon will fall
The LORD said:
1City of Babylon,#Is 13.1—14.23; Jr 50.1—51.64.
you are delicate
and untouched,
but that will change.
Surrender your royal power
and sit in the dust.
2Start grinding grain!
Take off your veil.
Strip off your fine clothes
and cross over rivers.#47.2 Strip…rivers: This may be a command to get ready for work that requires wading in the river, or it may be a warning that they are going to be taken away as slaves.
3You will suffer the shame
of going naked,
because I will take revenge,
and no one can escape.#47.3 escape: Or “oppose me”.
4I am the LORD All-Powerful,
the holy God of Israel.
I am their Saviour.
5Babylon, be silent!
Sit in the dark.
No longer will nations
accept you as their queen.
6I was angry with my people.
So I let you take their land
and bring disgrace on them.
You showed them no mercy,
but were especially cruel
to those who were old.
7You thought that you
would be queen for ever.
You didn't care what you did;
it never entered your mind
that you might get caught.
8You think that you alone#Rev 18.7,8.
are all-powerful,
that you won't be a widow
or lose your children.
All you care about is pleasure,
but listen to what I say.
9Your magic powers and charms
will suddenly fail,
then you will be a widow
and lose your children.
10You hid behind evil
like a shield and said,
“No one can see me!”
You were fooled by your wisdom
and your knowledge;
you felt sure that you alone
were in full control.
11But without warning,
disaster will strike—
and your magic charms
won't help at all.
12Keep using your magic powers
and your charms
as you have always done.
Perhaps—just perhaps—
you will frighten somebody!
13You have worn yourself out,
asking for advice
from those who study the stars
and tell the future
month after month.
Go and ask them how to be saved
from what will happen.
14People who trust the stars
are as helpless as straw
in a flaming fire.
No one can even keep warm,#47.14 keep warm: Or “cook food”.
sitting by a fire
that feeds only on straw.
15These are the fortune-tellers
you have done business with
all your life.
But they don't know
where they are going,
and they can't save you.
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Isaiah 47: CEVUK
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© British and Foreign Bible Society 2012
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.
2Take the millstones and grind flour.
Remove your veil, lift up your skirt, uncover your legs,
and wade through the rivers.
3Your nakedness will be uncovered.
Yes, your shame will be seen.
I will take vengeance,
and will spare no one.”
4Our Redeemer, Yahweh of Armies is his name,
is the Holy One of Israel.
5“Sit in silence, and go into darkness,
daughter of the Chaldeans.
For you shall no longer be called
the mistress of kingdoms.
6I was angry with my people.
I profaned my inheritance
and gave them into your hand.
You showed them no mercy.
You laid a very heavy yoke on the aged.
7You said, ‘I will be a princess forever,’
so that you didn’t lay these things to your heart,
nor did you remember the results.
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 won’t sit as a widow,
neither will I know the loss of children.’
9But 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 multitude of your sorceries,
and the great abundance of your enchantments.
10For 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.’
11Therefore disaster will come on you.
You won’t know when it dawns.
Mischief will fall on you.
You won’t be able to put it away.
Desolation will come on you suddenly,
which you don’t understand.
12“Stand now with your enchantments
and with the multitude of your sorceries,
in which you have labored from your youth,
as if you might profit,
as if you might prevail.
13You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels.
Now let the astrologers, the stargazers, and the monthly prognosticators stand up and save you from the things that will happen to you.
14Behold, they are like stubble.
The fire will burn them.
They won’t deliver themselves from the power of the flame.
It won’t be a coal to warm at
or a fire to sit by.
15The things that you labored in will be like this:
those who have trafficked with you from your youth will each wander in his own way.
There will be no one to save you.
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