55 lines
2.4 KiB
Markdown
55 lines
2.4 KiB
Markdown
# Chapter 47
|
||
1 “Come down, virgin daughter of Babylon, and sit in the dust.
|
||
For your days of sitting on a throne have ended.
|
||
O daughter of Babylonia, never again will you be
|
||
the lovely princess, tender and delicate.
|
||
2 Take heavy millstones and grind flour.
|
||
Remove your veil, and strip off your robe.
|
||
Expose yourself to public view.
|
||
3 You will be naked and burdened with shame.
|
||
I will take vengeance against you without pity.”
|
||
4 Our Redeemer, whose name is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,
|
||
is the Holy One of Israel.
|
||
5 “O beautiful Babylon, sit now in darkness and silence.
|
||
Never again will you be known as the queen of kingdoms.
|
||
6 For I was angry with my chosen people
|
||
and punished them by letting them fall into your hands.
|
||
But you, Babylon, showed them no mercy.
|
||
You oppressed even the elderly.
|
||
7 You said, ‘I will reign forever as queen of the world!’
|
||
You did not reflect on your actions
|
||
or think about their consequences.
|
||
8 “Listen to this, you pleasure-loving kingdom,
|
||
living at ease and feeling secure.
|
||
You say, ‘I am the only one, and there is no other.
|
||
I will never be a widow or lose my children.’
|
||
9 Well, both these things will come upon you in a moment:
|
||
widowhood and the loss of your children.
|
||
Yes, these calamities will come upon you,
|
||
despite all your witchcraft and magic.
|
||
10 “You felt secure in your wickedness.
|
||
‘No one sees me,’ you said.
|
||
But your ‘wisdom’ and ‘knowledge’ have led you astray,
|
||
and you said, ‘I am the only one, and there is no other.’
|
||
11 So disaster will overtake you,
|
||
and you won’t be able to charm it away.
|
||
Calamity will fall upon you,
|
||
and you won’t be able to buy your way out.
|
||
A catastrophe will strike you suddenly,
|
||
one for which you are not prepared.
|
||
12 “Now use your magical charms!
|
||
Use the spells you have worked at all these years!
|
||
Maybe they will do you some good.
|
||
Maybe they can make someone afraid of you.
|
||
13 All the advice you receive has made you tired.
|
||
Where are all your astrologers,
|
||
those stargazers who make predictions each month?
|
||
Let them stand up and save you from what the future holds.
|
||
14 But they are like straw burning in a fire;
|
||
they cannot save themselves from the flame.
|
||
You will get no help from them at all;
|
||
their hearth is no place to sit for warmth.
|
||
15 And all your friends,
|
||
those with whom you’ve done business since childhood,
|
||
will go their own ways,
|
||
turning a deaf ear to your cries. |