Isaiah 47:1-15 - Babylon's Fall

¹ Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for you shall no more be called tender and delicate. ² Take the millstones, and grind meal: uncover your locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers. ³ Your nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, your shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not arbitrate with a man. ⁴ As for our redeemer, the LORD of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel.

⁵ Sit in silence, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for you shall no more be called, The lady of kingdoms. ⁶ I was angry with my people, I have profaned my inheritance, and given them into your hand: you did show them no mercy; upon the aged have you very heavily laid your yoke. ⁷ And you said, I shall be a lady forever: so that you did not lay these things to your heart, neither did remember the latter end of them.

⁸ Therefore hear now this, you that are given to pleasures, that dwell securely, that say in your heart, I am, and there is none else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children: ⁹ But these two things shall come to you in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon you in their fullness for the multitude of your sorceries, and for the great abundance of your enchantments. ¹⁰ For you have trusted in your wickedness: you have said, None sees me. Your wisdom and your knowledge, it has perverted you; and you have said in your heart, I am, and there is none else besides me. ¹¹ Therefore shall evil come upon you; you shall not know from where it rises: and mischief shall fall upon you; you shall not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon you suddenly, which you shall not know. ¹² Stand now with your enchantments, and with the multitude of your sorceries, in which you have labored from your youth; perhaps you shall be able to profit, perhaps you may prevail. ¹³ You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save you from these things that shall come upon you. ¹⁴ Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor a fire to sit before. ¹⁵ Thus shall they be unto you with whom you have labored, even your merchants, from your youth: they shall wander everyone to his quarter; none shall save you.

¹¹ Because you were glad, because you rejoiced, O you destroyers of my heritage, because you have grown fat like a heifer threshing grain, and bellow like bulls; ¹² Your mother shall be utterly confounded; she that bore you shall be ashamed: behold, the least of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert. ¹³ Because of the wrath of the LORD it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate: everyone that goes by Babylon shall be appalled, and hiss at all her plagues. ¹⁴ Put yourselves in array against Babylon round about: all you that bend the bow, shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she has sinned against the LORD. ¹⁵ Shout against her round about: she has given her hand: her foundations have fallen, her walls are thrown down: for it is the vengeance of the LORD: take vengeance upon her; as she has done, do unto her. ¹⁶ Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him that handles the sickle in the time of harvest: for fear of the oppressing sword they shall turn everyone to his people, and they shall flee everyone to his own land.