The Fall of Babylon

       "Go down, sit in the dust,
          Virgin Daughter of Babylon;
       sit on the ground without a throne,
          Daughter of the Babylonians.
       No more will you be called
          tender or delicate.
       Take millstones and grind flour;
          take off your veil.
       Lift up your skirts, bare your legs,
          and wade through the streams.
       Your nakedness will be exposed
          and your shame uncovered.
       I will take vengeance;
          I will spare no one."

       Our Redeemer--THE LORD ALMIGHTY is HIS name--
          is THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL.

       "Sit in silence, go into darkness,
          Daughter of the Babylonians;
       no more will you be called
          queen of kingdoms.
       I was angry with MY people
          and desecrated MY inheritance;
       I gave them into your hand,
          and you showed them no mercy.
       Even on the aged
          you laid a very heavy yoke.
       You said, 'I will continue forever--
          the eternal queen!'
       But you did not consider these things
          or reflect on what might happen.

       "Now then, listen, you wanton creature,
          lounging in your security
       and saying to yourself,
          'I am, and there is none besides me.
       I will never be a widow
          or suffer the loss of children.'
       Both of these will overtake you
          in a moment, on a single day:
          loss of children and widowhood.
       They will come upon you in full measure,
          in spite of your many sorceries
          and all your potent spells.
       You have trusted in your wickedness
          and have said, 'No one sees me.'
       Your wisdom and knowledge mislead you
          when you say to yourself,
          'I am, and there is none besides me.'
       Disaster will come upon you,
          and you will not know how to conjure it away.
       A calamity will fall upon you
          that you cannot ward off with a ransom;
      a catastrophe you cannot foresee
          will suddenly come upon you.

       "Keep on, then, with your magic spells
          and with your many sorceries,
          which you have labored at since childhood.
       Perhaps you will succeed,
          perhaps you will cause terror.
       All the counsel you have received has only worn you out!
          Let your astrologers come forward,
       those stargazers who make predictions month by month,
          let them save you from what is coming upon you.
       Surely they are like stubble;
          the fire will burn them up.
       They cannot even save themselves
          from the power of the flame.
       Here are no coals to warm anyone;
          here is no fire to sit by.
       That is all they can do for you--
          these you have labored with
          and trafficked with since childhood.
       Each of them goes on in his error;
          there is not one that can save you.


The Book of Isaiah: chapter 47