Isaiah 47:1-15 - Babylon's Fall
1 "Come down and sit in the dust, Virgin Daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a chair, Daughter of the Chaldeans! For no longer will they call you tender and attractive. 2 Take millstones and grind flour. Remove your veil, strip off your robes, bare your legs, and wade through the rivers. 3 Your nakedness will be exposed, and your disgrace will also be seen. I'll take vengeance, and I will spare no mortal. 4 "Our Redeemer the LORD of the Heavenly Armies is his name is the Holy One of Israel.
5 "Sit silent, and enter into the darkness, you daughter of the Chaldeans; for no more will they call you Queen of Kingdoms. 6 I was angry with my people, and I desecrated my heritage, and gave them into your control. You showed them no mercy; even on the aged you laid your yoke most heavily. 7 You said, "I will always continue Queen forever!' You didn't take these things into your thinking, nor did you think about their consequences.
8 "Now hear this, you wanton creature, lounging with no cares, and saying to herself: "I am the one, and there will be none besides me; I won't live as a widow, nor will I see the loss of children.' 9 Both of these things will overtake you suddenly on a single day: loss of children and widowhood. They will come upon you in full measure, despite the multitude of your incantations and the great power of your spells." 10 "You trusted in your own knowledge. You said, "No one sees me.' Your wisdom and knowledge have misled you. You said in your heart, "I am the one, and there will be none besides me.' 11 "But disaster will come upon you, and you will not know how to charm it away. A calamity will befall you that you will not be able to ward off; and devastation will come upon you suddenly, and you won't anticipate it. 12 "But stand up now with your spells and your many incantations, at which you have labored from your childhood until today, 13 according to your multiple schemes. Let them stand up now those who conjure the heavens and gaze at the stars, predicting at the new moons and save you from what is about to happen to them. 14 "See, they are just like stubble; fire burns them up. They could not even save themselves from the power of the flame. There will be no coals for warming oneself, no fire to sit by. 15 So will they be to you those with whom you toiled and did business since your childhood they wander about, each in his own direction; there is not one who can save you.
11 "Though you rejoice, though you exult, you plunderers of my inheritance, though you skip around like a heifer in the grass and neigh like stallions, 12 your mother will be greatly devastated, she who gave birth to you will be ashamed. She will become the least of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert. 13 Because of the anger of the LORD she won't be inhabited, but will be utterly devastated. Everyone who passes by Babylon will be horrified and will scoff because of all her wounds. 14 Deploy the troops all around Babylon. All who bend the bow, shoot at her and spare no arrows, for she has sinned against the LORD. 15 Raise a battle cry against her on every side. She has surrendered, her pillars have fallen, her walls are thrown down. For this is the vengeance of the LORD. Take vengeance on her; as she has done, do to her. 16 Eliminate from Babylon the one who plants seeds and the one who uses the sickle at harvest time. Because of the oppressor's sword, let each one turn toward his own people and flee to his own land."