Isaiah 47:1-15 - Babylon's Fall

¹ Come down and sit upon the dust, thou virgin daughter of Babel, sit upon the earth: no throne, thou daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt not be added for them to call thee tender and delicate. ² Take the two mill-stones and grind flour, and uncover thy veil; strip off the train, uncover the leg, pass through the rivers. ³ Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, also thy reproach shall be seen: I will take vengeance, I will not make peace with man. ⁴ Jehovah of armies redeemed us, his name the Holy One of Israel

⁵ Sit thou silently and go into darkness, thou daughter of the Chaldeans for thou shalt no more be added for them to call thee The mistress of kingdoms ⁶ I was angry against my people; I defiled my inheritances, and I will give them into thine hand, and thou didst not set mercy to them; upon the old thou didst make heavy thy yoke greatly. ⁷ And thou wilt say, I shall be mistress forever: till thou didst not set these upon thy heart, thou didst not remember its last part

⁸ And now hear this, thou living delicately, dwelling securely, saying in her heart, I, and none besides me; I shall not sit a widow, and I shall not know bereavement ⁹ And these two shall come to thee suddenly, in one day, bereavement and widowhood: as finished they came upon thee, in the multitude of thy sorceries, and in the great numbers of thy enchantments. ¹⁰ And thou wilt trust in thy wickedness: thou saidst, None saw me. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge it caused thee to turn away; and thou wilt say in thy heart, I, and none yet besides me. ¹¹ And evil came upon thee; thou shalt not know its dawn, and ruin shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to expiate it, and desolation shall suddenly come upon thee; thou shalt not know. ¹² Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries in which thou didst labor from thy youth; perhaps thou wilt be able to be of use, perhaps thou wilt cause fear. ¹³ Thou wert wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Shall those searching out the heavens, those looking upon the stars, causing to know concerning the months, now stand and save thee from what shall come upon thee? ¹⁴ Behold, they were as straw; the fire burnt them; they shall not deliver their soul from the hand of the flame:. not a coal for warming, light to sit before it ¹⁵ Thus shall they be to thee for whom thou didst labor, thy merchants, from thy youth; they wandered a man to his other side; none saving thee.

¹¹ Because thou wilt be glad, because thou wilt exult, ye plundering mine inheritance, because thou wilt show off proudly as a heifer at grass, and thou wilt neigh as the strong ones; ¹² Your mother was greatly ashamed; she bearing you was put to shame: behold the last of the nations a desert, dryness and a sterile region. ¹³ From the wrath of Jehovah she shall not be inhabited, and it was wholly a desolation: every one passing over Babel shall be astonished and shall hiss at all her blows. ¹⁴ Arrange yourselves against Babel round about: all ye bending the bow, cast at her, ye shall not spare to the arrow, for she sinned against Jehovah. ¹⁵ Shout against her round about: she gave her hand: her supports fell, her walls were pulled down: for it is the vengeance of Jehovah: avenge ye upon her; as she did, do ye to her. ¹⁶ Cut off him sowing from Babel, and him holding the sickle in time of harvest: from the face of the Grecian sword they shall turn a man to his people, and they shall flee a man to his land.