Isaiah 47:10–15

You were so confident and comfortable in your evil life,

saying, ‘No one sees me.’

You thought you knew so much, had everything figured out.

What delusion!

Smugly telling yourself, ‘I’m Number One. There’s nobody but me.’

Ruin descends—

you can’t charm it away.

Disaster strikes—

you can’t cast it off with spells.

Catastrophe, sudden and total—

and you’re totally at sea, totally bewildered!

But don’t give up. From your great repertoire

of enchantments there must be one you haven’t yet tried.

You’ve been at this a long time.

Surely something will work.

I know you’re exhausted trying out remedies,

but don’t give up.

Call in the astrologers and stargazers.

They’re good at this. Surely they can work up something!

^14–15“Fat chance. You’d be grasping at straws

that are already in the fire,

A fire that is even now raging.

Your ‘experts’ are in it and won’t get out.

It’s not a fire for cooking venison stew,

not a fire to warm you on a winter night!

That’s the fate of your friends in sorcery, your magician buddies

you’ve been in cahoots with all your life.

They reel, confused, bumping into one another.

None of them bother to help you.”