Book of Isaiah, ch. 47

1 Step down! Sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground, no throne, daughter of the Chaldaeans, for never again will you be called tender and delicate.

2 Take the grinding mill, crush up the meal. Remove your veil, tie up your skirt, bare your legs, cross the rivers.

3 Let your nakedness be displayed and your shame exposed. I am going to take vengeance and no one will stand in my way.

4 Our redeemer, Yahweh Sabaoth is his name, the Holy One of Israel, says:

5 Sit in silence, bury yourself in darkness, daughter of the Chaldaeans, for never again will you be called the mistress of kingdoms.

6 Being angry with my people, I rejected my heritage, surrendering them into your clutches. You showed them no mercy, you made your yoke very heavy on the aged.

7 You thought, 'I shall be a queen for ever.' You did not reflect on these matters or think about the future.

8 Now listen to this, voluptuous woman, lolling at ease and thinking to yourself, 'I am the only one who matters. I shall never be widowed, never know bereavement.'

9 Yet both these things will befall you, suddenly, in one day. Bereavement and widowhood will suddenly befall you in spite of all your witchcraft and the potency of your spells.

10 Confident in your wickedness, you thought, 'No one can see me.' Your wishes and your knowledge were what deluded you, as you thought to yourself, 'I am the only one who matters.'

11 Hence, disaster will befall you which you will not know how to charm away, calamity overtake you which you will not be able to avert, ruination will suddenly befall you, such as you have never known.

12 Keep to your spells then, and all your sorceries, at which you have worked so hard since you were young. Perhaps you will succeed, perhaps you will strike terror!

13 You have had many tiring consultations: let the astrologers come forward now and save you, the star-gazers who announce month by month what will happen to you next.

14 Look, they are like wisps of straw, the fire will burn them up. They will not save their lives from the power of the flame. No embers these, for keeping warm, no fire to sit beside!

15 Such will your wizards prove to be for you, for whom you have worked so hard since you were young; each wandering his own way, none of them can save you.