Isaiah 47

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 Come down, sit in the dust, O virgin daughter Babylon; Sit on the ground, dethroned, O daughter of the Chaldeans. No longer shall you be called dainty and delicate.	1 Descend, sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon! Sit on the ground. There is no throne for the daughter of the Chaldeans. For you shall no longer be called delicate and tender.
2 Take the millstone and grind flour, remove your veil; Strip off your train, bare your legs, pass through the streams.	2 Take a millstone and grind meal. Uncover your shame, bare your shoulder, reveal your legs, cross the streams.
3 Your nakedness shall be uncovered and your shame be seen; I will take vengeance, I will yield to no entreaty, says our redeemer,	3 Your disgrace will be revealed, and your shame will be seen. I will seize vengeance, and no man will withstand me.
4 Whose name is the LORD of hosts, the Holy One of Israel.	4 Our Redeemer, the Lord of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel.
5 Go into darkness and sit in silence, O daughter of the Chaldeans, No longer shall you be called sovereign mistress of kingdoms.	5 Sit in silence, and enter into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans! For you shall no longer be called the noblewoman of kingdoms.
6 Angry at my people, I profaned my inheritance, And I gave them into your hand; but you showed them no mercy, And upon old men you laid a very heavy yoke.	6 I was angry with my people. I have polluted my inheritance, and I have given them into your hand. You have not shown mercy to them. You have greatly increased the burden of your yoke upon the elders.
7 You said, "I shall remain always, a sovereign mistress forever!" But you did not lay these things to heart, you disregarded their outcome.	7 And you have said: “I will be a noblewoman forever.” You have not set these things upon your heart, and you have not remembered your end.
8 Now hear this, voluptuous one, enthroned securely, Saying to yourself, "I, and no one else! I shall never be a widow, or suffer the loss of my children"--	8 And now, hear these things, you who are delicate and have confidence, who say in your heart: “I am, and there is no one greater than me. I will not sit as a widow, and I will not know barrenness.”
9 Both these things shall come to you suddenly, in a single day: Complete bereavement and widowhood shall come upon you For your many sorceries and the great number of your spells;	9 These two things will suddenly overwhelm you in one day: barrenness and widowhood. All things shall overwhelm you, because of the multitude of your sorceries and because of the great cruelty of your enchantments.
10 Because you felt secure in your wickedness, and said, "No one sees me." Your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray, And you said to yourself, "I, and no one else!"	10 And you have trusted in your malice, and you have said: “There is no one who sees me.” Your wisdom and your knowledge, these have deceived you. And you have said in your heart: “I am, and beside me there is no other.”
11 But upon you shall come evil you will not know how to predict; Disaster shall befall you which you cannot allay. Suddenly there shall come upon you ruin which you will not expect.	11 Evil will overwhelm you, and you will not notice its rising. And calamity will fall violently over you, and you will not be able to avert it. You will suddenly be overwhelmed by a misery such as you have never known.
12 Keep up, now, your spells and your many sorceries. Perhaps you can make them avail, perhaps you can strike terror!	12 Stand with your incantations, and with the multitude of your sorceries, in which you have labored from your youth, as if somehow it might benefit you, or as if it were able to make you stronger.
13 You wearied yourself with many consultations, at which you toiled from your youth; Let the astrologers stand forth to save you, the stargazers who forecast at each new moon what would happen to you.	13 You have failed in the multitude of your plans! Let the seers stand and save you, those who were contemplating the stars, and figuring the months, so that from these they might announce to you the things to come.
14 Lo, they are like stubble, fire consumes them; They cannot save themselves from the spreading flames. This is no warming ember, no fire to sit before.	14 Behold, they have become like stubble. Fire has consumed them. They will not free themselves from the power of the flames. These are not coals by which they may be warmed, nor is this a fire which they may sit beside.
15 Thus do your wizards serve you with whom you have toiled from your youth; Each wanders his own way, with none to save you.	15 So have all these things, in which you have labored, become to you. Your merchants from your youth, each one has erred in his own way. There is no one who can save you.