Isa 47 | HCSB | STEP | “Go down and sit in the dust , Virgin Daughter Babylon . Sit on the ground without a throne , Daughter Chaldea ! For you will no longer be called pampered and spoiled .

Isaiah 47

The Fall of Babylon

1 “Go down and sit in the dust, ^a
Virgin Daughter Babylon. ^b
Sit on the ground without a throne,
Daughter Chaldea!
For you will no longer be called pampered and spoiled.
2 Take millstones and grind meal; ^c
remove your veil,
strip off your skirt, bare your thigh,
wade through the streams.
3 Your nakedness will be uncovered,
and your shame will be exposed. ^d
I will take vengeance;
I will spare no one. ^{▼▼Hb obscure}
4 The Holy One of Israel is our Redeemer; ^f
^{▼▼Yahweh/Yah: Or The Lord; the personal name of God in Hebrew; "Yah" is the shortened form of the name.}Yahweh of ^{▼▼Hosts/hosts: Military forces consisting of God's angels, sometimes including the sun, moon, and stars, and occasionally, Israel}Hosts is His name.

5 “Daughter Chaldea,
sit in silence ⁱ and go into darkness.
For you will no longer be called mistress of kingdoms.
6 I was angry with My people;
I profaned My possession,
and I placed them under your control.
You showed them no mercy;
you made your yoke very heavy on the elderly.
7 You said, ‘I will be the mistress 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, ^j
who says to herself,
‘I exist, and there is no one else.
I will never be a widow
or know the loss of children.’ ^k
9 These 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 ^l
and the potency of your spells.
10 You were secure in your wickedness;
you said, ‘No one sees me.’ ^m
Your wisdom and knowledge
led you astray.
You said to yourself,
‘I exist, and there is no one else.’
11 But 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. ^{▼▼Or to atone for it}
Devastation will happen to you suddenly
and unexpectedly. ^o
12 So 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!
13 You are worn out with your many consultations.
So let them stand and save you –
the astrologers, ^{▼▼Lit dividers of the heavens} who observe the stars, ^q
who predict monthly
what will happen to you.
14 Look, they are like stubble; ^r
fire burns them up. ^s
They cannot deliver themselves
from the power ^{▼▼Lit hand} of the flame.
This is not a coal for warming themselves,
or a fire to sit beside!
15 This 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.