Isaiah 47:1-15 - Babylon's Fall

¹ Come down, and sit on the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, Sit on the earth, there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans, For no more do they cry to thee, 'O tender and delicate one.' ² Take millstones, and grind flour, Remove thy veil, draw up the skirt, Uncover the leg, pass over the floods. ³ Revealed is thy nakedness, yea, seen is thy reproach, Vengeance I take, and I meet not a man. ⁴ Our redeemer is Jehovah of Hosts, His name is the Holy One of Israel.

⁵ Sit silent, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans, For no more do they cry to thee, 'Mistress of kingdoms.' ⁶ I have been wroth against My people, I have polluted Mine inheritance And I give them into thy hand, Thou hast not appointed for them mercies, On the aged thou hast made thy yoke very heavy, ⁷ And thou sayest, 'To the age I am mistress,' While thou hast not laid these things to thy heart, Thou hast not remembered the latter end of it.

⁸ And now, hear this, O luxurious one, Who is sitting confidently -- Who is saying in her heart, 'I am, and none else, I sit not a widow, nor know bereavement.' ⁹ And come in to thee do these two things, In a moment, in one day, childlessness and widowhood, According to their perfection they have come upon thee, In the multitude of thy sorceries, In the exceeding might of thy charms. ¹⁰ And thou art confident in thy wickedness, Thou hast said, 'There is none seeing me,' Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, It is turning thee back, And thou sayest in thy heart, 'I am, and none else.' ¹¹ And come in on thee hath evil, Thou knowest not its rising, And fall on thee doth mischief, Thou art not able to pacify it, And come on thee suddenly doth desolation, Thou knowest not. ¹² Stand, I pray thee, in thy charms, And in the multitude of thy sorceries, In which thou hast laboured from thy youth, It may be thou art able to profit, It may be thou dost terrify! ¹³ Thou hast been wearied in the multitude of thy counsels, Stand up, I pray thee, and save thee, Let the charmers of the heavens, Those looking on the stars, Those teaching concerning the months, From those things that come on thee! ¹⁴ Lo, they have been as stubble! Fire hath burned them, They deliver not themselves from the power of the flame, There is not a coal to warm them, a light to sit before it. ¹⁵ So have they been to thee with whom thou hast laboured, Thy merchants from thy youth, Each to his passage they have wandered, Thy saviour is not!

¹¹ Because thou rejoicest, because thou exultest, O spoilers of Mine inheritance, Because thou increasest as a heifer at the tender grass, And dost cry aloud as bulls, ¹² Ashamed hath been your mother greatly, Confounded hath she been that bare you, Lo, the hindermost of nations is a wilderness, A dry land, and a desert. ¹³ Because of the wrath of Jehovah it is not inhabited, And it hath been a desolation -- all of it. Every passer by at Babylon is astonished, And doth hiss because of all her plagues. ¹⁴ Set yourselves in array against Babylon round about, All ye treading a bow, Shoot at her, have no pity on the arrow, For against Jehovah she hath sinned. ¹⁵ Shout against her round about, She hath given forth her hand, Fallen have her foundations, Thrown down have been her walls, For it is the vengeance of Jehovah, Be avenged of her, as she did -- do ye to her. ¹⁶ Cut off the sower from Babylon, And him handling the sickle in the time of harvest, Because of the oppressing sword, Each unto his people -- they turn, And each to his land -- they flee.