Isaiah 47-48

Common English Bible

⁵ Sit silent and go into darkness, Daughter Chaldea,
    because they will no longer call you Queen of Kingdoms.
⁶ I was enraged with my people;
    I made my inheritance impure
    and put them under your power.
You took no pity on them.
    You made your yoke heavy even on the elderly.
⁷     You said, “I’m forever; I’m the eternal mistress.”
    You didn’t stop and think;
    you didn’t consider the outcome.
⁸ So listen to this,
luxuriant one who sits secure,
    who says in her heart, I’m utterly unique;
    I’ll never sit as a widow;
    I’ll never know childlessness:
⁹ Both of these will happen to you at once, on a single day:
    childlessness and widowhood
    will envelop you in full measure,
    despite your many sorceries,
    despite your very powerful spells.
¹⁰ You felt secure in your evil;
    you said, “No one sees me.”
Your wisdom and knowledge spun you around.
    You thought to yourself, I and no one else.
¹¹ Now evil will come against you,
    something you won’t anticipate.
A curse will fall upon you,
    something you won’t be able to dispel.
Destruction will come upon you suddenly,
    something you won’t foresee.

¹² Continue with your enchantments,
    and with your many spells,
    which you have practiced since childhood.
Maybe you will be able to succeed.
    Maybe you will inspire terror.
¹³ You are weary from all your consultations;
    let the astrologers stand up and save you,
    those who gaze at the stars,
    and predict what will happen to you at each new moon.
¹⁴ They are just like stubble;
    the fire burns them.
They won’t save themselves from the powerful flames.
    This is no warming ember or fire to sit beside.
¹⁵ Those with whom you have wearied yourself are like this,
    those with whom you were in business from your youth:
    each has wandered off on their own way;
    none will save you.

²     They are known as residents of the holy city,
        those who depend upon the God of Israel—
        the Lord of heavenly forces is his name.
³ Past things I announced long ago;
    from my mouth I proclaimed them.
    I acted suddenly, and they came about.
⁴ Because I know that you are stubborn,
    your neck is made of iron,
    and your forehead is bronze.
⁵ I informed you long ago;
    before they came about I proclaimed them to you
    so you wouldn’t say, “My idol did them;
    my wood statue and metal god commanded them.”
⁶ You’ve heard and seen all this—
    won’t you admit it?
From now on I’ll tell you new things,
    guarded secrets that you don’t know.
⁷ They are created now, not long ago;
    before today you hadn’t heard of them,
    so you won’t say, “I already knew them.”
⁸ You haven’t heard, nor have you known;
    as in ages past your ears are closed,
    because I knew what a traitor you were;
    you were known as a rebel from birth.
⁹ For the sake of my reputation I control my anger;
    for your sake I restrain my powerful radiance
    so as to not destroy you.
¹⁰ See, I have refined you, but not like silver;
    I have tested you^[c] in the furnace of misery.
¹¹ For the sake of my reputation, for my own sake, I will act,
    for why will my name be made impure?
    I won’t give my glory to another.

¹² Listen to me, Jacob;
    Israel, whom I called:
        I am the one;
        I am the first and I am the last.
¹³ My hand founded the earth;
    my strong hand spread out the heavens.
    When I call to them, they all stand up.
¹⁴ Gather yourselves, all of you, and listen.
    Who among you announced these things?
        “The Lord loves him.
        He will do what God wants with Babylon
        and with the descendants^[d] of Chaldea.”
¹⁵ I, I have spoken and told him
    the things that will happen to him;
    I will make him succeed.
¹⁶ Come close to me; listen to this:
    Since the very beginning I haven’t spoken in secret.
    Whenever anything happens, I am there.
    (And now the Lord God has sent me with his spirit.)

¹⁷ The Lord your redeemer,
    the holy one of Israel, proclaims:
    I am the Lord your God
        who teaches you for your own good,
        who leads you in the way you should go.
¹⁸ If you would pay attention to my commands,
    your well-being would be like a river,
    and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
¹⁹ Your offspring would be like the sand,
    and your descendants like its grains.
    Their name would never be eliminated,
        never wiped out from before me.

²⁰ Go out from Babylon;
    flee from the Chaldeans!
Report this with a loud shout, proclaim it;
    broadcast it out to the end of the earth.
    Say, “The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob!”
²¹ They weren’t thirsty when he led them through the deserts.
    God made water flow from the rock for them;
    split the rock, and water flowed out.
²² There is no well-being, says the Lord, for the wicked.