The Fall of Babylon

47 “Go down, sit in the dust,u

Virgin Daughterv Babylon;

sit on the ground without a throne,

queen city of the Babylonians.a w

No more will you be called

tender or delicate.x

2 Take millstonesy and grindz flour;

take off your veil.a

Lift up your skirts,b bare your legs,

and wade through the streams.

3 Your nakednessc will be exposed

and your shamed uncovered.

I will take vengeance;e

I will spare no one.f”

4 Our Redeemerg—the Lord Almightyh is his namei—

is the Holy Onej of Israel.

5 “Sit in silence,k go into darkness,l

queen city of the Babylonians;m

no more will you be called

queenn of kingdoms.o

6 I was angryp with my people

and desecrated my inheritance;q

I gave them into your hand,r

and you showed them no mercy.s

Even on the aged

you laid a very heavy yoke.

7 You said, ‘I am forevert—

the eternal queen!’u

But you did not consider these things

or reflectv on what might happen.w

8 “Now then, listen, you lover of pleasure,

lounging in your securityx

and saying to yourself,

‘I am, and there is none besides me.y

I will never be a widowz

or suffer the loss of children.’

9 Both of these will overtake you

in a moment,a on a single day:

loss of childrenb and widowhood.c

They will come upon you in full measure,

in spite of your many sorceriesd

and all your potent spells.e

10 You have trustedf in your wickedness

and have said, ‘No one sees me.’g

Your wisdomh and knowledge misleadi you

when you say to yourself,

‘I am, and there is none besides me.’

11 Disasterj 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 suddenlyk come upon you.

12 “Keep on, then, with your magic spells

and with your many sorceries,l

which you have labored at since childhood.

Perhaps you will succeed,

perhaps you will cause terror.

13 All the counsel you have received has only worn you out!m

Let your astrologersn come forward,

those stargazers who make predictions month by month,

let them saveo you from what is coming upon you.

14 Surely they are like stubble;p

the fireq will burn them up.

They cannot even save themselves

from the power of the flame.r

These are not coals for warmth;

this is not a fire to sit by.

15 That is all they are to you—

these you have dealt with

and laboreds with since childhood.

All of them go on in their error;

there is not one that can savet you.

Stubborn Israel

48 “Listen to this, you descendants of Jacob,

you who are called by the name of Israelu

and come from the line of Judah,v

you who take oathsw in the name of the Lordx

and invokey the God of Israel—

but not in truthz or righteousness—

2 you who call yourselves citizens of the holy citya

and claim to relyb on the God of Israel—

the Lord Almighty is his name:c

3 I foretold the former thingsd long ago,

my mouth announcede them and I made them known;

then suddenlyf I acted, and they came to pass.

4 For I knew how stubborng you were;

your neck musclesh were iron,

your foreheadi was bronze.

5 Therefore I told you these things long ago;

before they happened I announcedj them to you

so that you could not say,

‘My images brought them about;k

my wooden image and metal god ordained them.’

6 You have heard these things; look at them all.

Will you not admit them?

“From now on I will tell you of new things,l

of hidden things unknown to you.

7 They are createdm now, and not long ago;n

you have not heard of them before today.

So you cannot say,

‘Yes, I knewo of them.’

8 You have neither heard nor understood;p

from of old your earsq have not been open.

Well do I know how treacherousr you are;

you were called a rebels from birth.

9 For my own name’s saket I delay my wrath;u

for the sake of my praise I hold it back from you,

so as not to destroy you completely.v

10 See, I have refinedw you, though not as silver;

I have testedx you in the furnacey of affliction.

11 For my own sake,z for my own sake, I do this.

How can I let myself be defamed?a

I will not yield my glory to another.b

Israel Freed

12 “Listenc to me, Jacob,

Israel, whom I have called:d

I am he;e

I am the first and I am the last.f

13 My own hand laid the foundations of the earth,g

and my right hand spread out the heavens;h

when I summon them,

they all stand up together.i

14 “Come together,j all of you, and listen:

Which of the idols has foretoldk these things?

The Lord’s chosen allyl

will carry out his purposem against Babylon;n

his arm will be against the Babylonians.a

15 I, even I, have spoken;

yes, I have calledo him.

I will bring him,

and he will succeedp in his mission.

16 “Come nearq me and listenr to this:

“From the first announcement I have not spoken in secret;s

at the time it happens, I am there.”

And now the Sovereign Lordt has sentu me,

endowed with his Spirit.v

17 This is what the Lord says—

your Redeemer,w the Holy Onex of Israel:

“I am the Lord your God,

who teachesy you what is best for you,

who directsz you in the waya you should go.

18 If only you had paid attentionb to my commands,

your peacec would have been like a river,d

your well-beinge like the waves of the sea.

19 Your descendantsf would have been like the sand,g

your children like its numberless grains;h

their name would never be blotted outi

nor destroyed from before me.”

20 Leave Babylon,

fleej from the Babylonians!

Announce this with shouts of joyk

and proclaim it.

Send it out to the ends of the earth;l

say, “The Lord has redeemedm his servant Jacob.”

21 They did not thirstn when he led them through the deserts;

he made water flowo for them from the rock;

he split the rock

and water gushed out.p

22 “There is no peace,”q says the Lord, “for the wicked.”r

The Servant of the Lord

49 Listens to me, you islands;t

hear this, you distant nations:

Before I was bornu the Lord calledv me;

from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name.w

2 He made my mouthx like a sharpened sword,y

in the shadow of his handz he hid me;

he made me into a polished arrowa

and concealed me in his quiver.

3 He said to me, “You are my servant,b

Israel, in whom I will display my splendor.c”

4 But I said, “I have labored in vain;d

I have spent my strength for nothing at all.

Yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand,e

and my rewardf is with my God.”g

5 And now the Lord says—

he who formed me in the wombh to be his servant

to bring Jacob back to him

and gather Israeli to himself,

for I ama honoredj in the eyes of the Lord

and my God has been my strengthk—

6 he says:

“It is too small a thing for you to be my servantl

to restore the tribes of Jacob

and bring back those of Israel I have kept.m

I will also make you a lightn for the Gentiles,o

that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”p

7 This is what the Lord says—

the Redeemer and Holy One of Israelq—

to him who was despisedr and abhorred by the nation,

to the servant of rulers:

“Kingss will see you and stand up,

princes will see and bow down,t

because of the Lord, who is faithful,u

the Holy One of Israel, who has chosenv you.”

Restoration of Israel

8 This is what the Lord says:

“In the time of my favorw I will answer you,

and in the day of salvation I will help you;x

I will keepy you and will make you

to be a covenant for the people,z

to restore the landa

and to reassign its desolate inheritances,b

9 to say to the captives,c ‘Come out,’

and to those in darkness,d ‘Be free!’

“They will feed beside the roads

and find pasture on every barren hill.e

10 They will neither hunger nor thirst,f

nor will the desert heat or the sun beat down on them.g

He who has compassionh on them will guidei them

and lead them beside springsj of water.

11 I will turn all my mountains into roads,

and my highwaysk will be raised up.l

12 See, they will come from afarm—

some from the north, some from the west,n

some from the region of Aswan.b”

13 Shout for joy,o you heavens;

rejoice, you earth;p

burst into song, you mountains!q

For the Lord comfortsr his people

and will have compassions on his afflicted ones.t

14 But Zionu said, “The Lord has forsakenv me,

the Lord has forgotten me.”

15 “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast

and have no compassion on the childw she has borne?

Though she may forget,

I will not forget you!x

16 See, I have engravedy you on the palms of my hands;

your wallsz are ever before me.

17 Your children hasten back,

and those who laid you wastea depart from you.

18 Lift up your eyes and look around;

all your children gatherb and come to you.

As surely as I live,c” declares the Lord,

“you will weard them all as ornaments;

you will put them on, like a bride.

19 “Though you were ruined and made desolatee

and your land laid waste,f

now you will be too small for your people,g

and those who devouredh you will be far away.

20 The children born during your bereavement

will yet say in your hearing,

‘This place is too small for us;

give us more space to live in.’i

21 Then you will say in your heart,

‘Who bore me these?j

I was bereavedk and barren;

I was exiled and rejected.l

Who brought thesem up?

I was leftn all alone,o

but these—where have they come from?’ ”

22 This is what the Sovereign Lordp says:

“See, I will beckon to the nations,

I will lift up my bannerq to the peoples;

they will bringr your sons in their arms

and carry your daughters on their hips.s

23 Kingst will be your foster fathers,

and their queens your nursing mothers.u

They will bow downv before you with their faces to the ground;

they will lick the dustw at your feet.

Then you will know that I am the Lord;x

those who hopey in me will not be disappointed.z”

24 Can plunder be taken from warriors,a

or captives be rescued from the fiercec?

25 But this is what the Lord says:

“Yes, captivesb will be taken from warriors,c

and plunder retrieved from the fierce;d

I will contend with those who contend with you,e

and your children I will save.f

26 I will make your oppressorsg eath their own flesh;

they will be drunk on their own blood,i as with wine.

Then all mankind will knowj

that I, the Lord, am your Savior,k

your Redeemer,l the Mighty …