 1 Come and sit on the dust O virgin daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground. There is no throne for you O daughter of the Chaldeans. For you will no longer be called tender and delicate. 2 Take the millstones and grind meal. Push back your veil. Draw up your skirt. Uncover your leg. Pass over the rivers. 3 Your nakedness will be uncovered. Your shame will be seen. I will take vengeance and I will not meet you as a man. 4 Our redeemer, the Lord of hosts is His name, the Holy One of Israel. 5 Sit silent and go into darkness O daughter of the Chaldeans. For you shall no longer be called the mistress of kingdoms. 6 I was angry with my people. I have polluted my inheritance and given them to you. You showed them no mercy. You have heavily laid your yoke on the aged. 7 You said, I will be a mistress forever. So you did not lay these things to your heart nor remember the latter end of it. 8 Now then hear this, O pleasure seeker who lives carelessly. Who says in her heart, I am and no one else is. I will not sit as a widow nor will I know the loss of children. 9 But these two things will come to you in a moment in one day: The loss of children and widowhood. They will come upon you in their fullness for the multitude of your sorceries and for the great power of your enchantments. 10 For you trusted in your wickedness. You have said, No one sees me. Your wisdom and your knowledge has perverted you. You have said in your heart, I am and there is no one else. 11 But evil will come on you. You will not know its origin. Mischief will fall on you. You will not be able to put it off. Desolation will come on you suddenly and you will not know it. 12 Stand now with your spells and with the multitude of your sorceries in which you have wearied yourself since your youth. Perhaps you will be able to profit. Perhaps you may bring terror. 13 You are exhausted by your many plans. Now let the astrologers, the stargazers, make known what is coming on you into the new moons. 14 Indeed+, they will be like stubble. Fire will burn them. They will not deliver themselves from the power of the flame. There will not be a coal to warm them nor fire to sit by. 15 Thus they will be to you with whom you labored, your merchants from your youth. They will each wanders their own way. No one will save you.
|