Study Desk

"Go down and sit in the dust,^(a) Virgin Daughter Babylon.^(b) Sit on the ground without a throne, Daughter Chaldea! For you will no longer be called pampered and spoiled.

Take millstones and grind meal;^(c) remove your veil, strip off your skirt, bare your thigh, wade through the streams.

Your nakedness will be uncovered, and your shame will be exposed.^(d) I will take vengeance; I will spare no one.^[a]

The Holy One of Israel is our Redeemer;^(e) Yahweh of Hosts is His name.

"Daughter Chaldea, sit in silence^(f) and go into darkness. For you will no longer be called mistress of kingdoms.

I was angry with My people; I profaned My possession, and I placed them under your control. You showed them no mercy; you made your yoke very heavy on the elderly.

You said, ‘I will be the mistress forever.' You did not take these things to heart or think about their outcome.

"So now hear this, lover of luxury, who sits securely,^(g) who says to herself, ‘I exist, and there is no one else. I will never be a widow or know the loss of children.'^(h)

These two things will happen to you suddenly, in one day: loss of children and widowhood. They will happen to you in their entirety, in spite of your many sorceries⁽ⁱ⁾ and the potency of your spells.

You were secure in your wickedness; you said, ‘No one sees me.'^(j) Your wisdom and knowledge led you astray. You said to yourself, ‘I exist, and there is no one else.'

But disaster will happen to you; you will not know how to avert it. And it will fall on you, but you will be unable to ward it off.^[b] Devastation will happen to you suddenly and unexpectedly.^(k)

So take your stand with your spells and your many sorceries, which you have wearied yourself with from your youth. Perhaps you will be able to succeed; perhaps you will inspire terror!

You are worn out with your many consultations. So let them stand and save you— the astrologers,^[c] who observe the stars,^(l) who predict monthly what will happen to you.

Look, they are like stubble;^(m) fire burns them up.⁽ⁿ⁾ They cannot deliver themselves from the power^[d] of the flame. This is not a coal for warming themselves, or a fire to sit beside!

This is what they are to you— those who have wearied you and have traded with you from your youth— each wanders on his own way; no one can save you.