1 Come down and sit in the dust,
O virgin daughter of Babylon!
No more throne! Sit on the ground,
O daughter of the Chaldeans.
No longer will you be called
dainty and delicate.
2 Take the millstone and grind meal;
uncover your hair, bare your legs;
strip to the thighs and pass over the rivers.
3 Your nakedness will be exposed,
your shame will be uncovered.
I will take revenge on you
and no one will save you,
4 says our Redeemer, Yahweh Saba oth.
His name is the Holy One of Israel.
5 Go creep into the shadows and sit in silence,
O daughter of the Chaldeans,
for no more will you be called
sovereign lady of the kingdoms.
6 Angry with my people, I had left my inheritance;
I gave them into your hands,
but you showed them no mercy.
You laid a heavy yoke on the aged.
7 You said, “I will reign forever;”
but you did not take this to heart
or ponder on what would ensue.
8 Listen, therefore, you wanton wo man, lounging in security and deluding yourself, “I am, and there is none besides me. I will never be a widow or suffer the loss of children.”
9 But these two things will come to you
in a moment, on a single day –
loss of children and widowhood.
They will come upon you in full measure,
in spite of all your witchcraft,
in spite of the power of your spells.
10 You have trusted in your wickedness,
saying, “Nobody sees me.”
Your intelligence and knowledge
have perverted you, for you have said:
“I am, and there is none besides me.”
11 Evil, suddenly, will come your way
though you do not know it.
Disaster will fall upon you,
and no ransom will ward it off;
a catastrophe you cannot foresee
will come upon you suddenly.
12 Keep on, then, with your magic spells and with the multitude of your sorceries, which you have labored at since your youth.
Do you think they will help you now? Do you think they will cause terror around you?
13 Yet you are wearied with so many advisers. Let your astrologers stand up, your stargazers who foretell what will happen each month; let them save you from what is to come upon you.
14 Look, they will be like stubble
and the fire will burn them.
They cannot even save themselves
from the power of consuming flames.
These are no embers to warm anyone,
no fireside to sit by.
15 This is your lot and of your wizards
with whom you have labored from your youth.
Now each will go his own way – powerless to save you.
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Comments Isaiah, Chapter 47
• 47.1 What we said in Is 13:1 applies here. This is a song of affliction over Babylon which will become the image of an impious city. This is why in the Apocalypse (chaps. 17-18) St. John calls the Roman empire which persecutes the Christians, Babylon.
Virgin daughter of Babylon is Babel (or Baby lon) according to the Hebrew way of designating capitals. Babylon says: I will never be a widow: this might mean: I will never be without my gods; or I will never be without my famous kings; or I will never know defeat. Baby lon thought it would have a sec ure future because of its magicians, famous in Eastern countries. They pretended to know the future through their horoscopes.
Throughout the centuries the same confidence has inspired those who feel they have mastered progress.
You laid a heavy yoke on the aged. Prophets are always using this type of criterion to judge the value of a civilization.