Isaiah 47:1-15 - Babylon's Fall
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Virgin Daughter Babylon.
Sit on the ground without a throne,
Daughter Chaldea!
For you will no longer be called pampered and spoiled.
remove your veil,
strip off your skirt, bare your thigh,
wade through the streams.
and your shame will be exposed.
I will take vengeance;
I will spare no one.
Yahweh of Hosts is His name.
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sit in silence
For you will no longer be called mistress of kingdoms.
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.
You did not take these things to heart
or think about their outcome.
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who sits securely,
who says to herself,
‘I exist, and there is no one else.
I will never be a widow
or know the loss of children.’
suddenly, in one day:
loss of children and widowhood.
They will happen to you in their entirety,
in spite of your many sorceries
and the potency of your spells.
you said, ‘No one sees me.’
Your wisdom and knowledge
led you astray.
You said to yourself,
‘I exist, and there is no one else.’
you will not know how to avert it.
And it will fall on you,
but you will be unable to ward it off.
Devastation will happen to you suddenly
and unexpectedly.
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!
So let them stand and save you—
the astrologers,
who predict monthly
what will happen to you.
fire burns them up.
They cannot deliver themselves
from the power
This is not a coal for warming themselves,
or a fire to sit beside!
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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because you sing in triumph—
you who plundered My inheritance—
because you frolic like a young cow treading grain
and neigh like stallions,
she who bore you will be put to shame.
Look! She will lag behind all
a dry land, a wilderness,
she will not be inhabited;
she will become a desolation, every bit of her.
Everyone who passes through Babylon
will be horrified
and scoff because of all her wounds.
all you archers!
Shoot at her! Do not spare an arrow,
for she has sinned against the Lord.
She has thrown up her hands in surrender;
her defense towers have fallen;
her walls are demolished.
Since this is the Lord’s vengeance,
take out your vengeance on her;
as she has done, do the same to her.
as well as him who wields the sickle at harvest time.
Because of the oppressor’s sword,
each will turn to his own people,
each will flee to his own land.