Isaiah 47
World English Bible
47 “Come down and sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon.
Sit on the ground without a throne, daughter of the Chaldeans.
For you will no longer be called tender and delicate.
2 Take the millstones and grind flour.
Remove your veil, lift up your skirt, uncover your legs,
and wade through the rivers.
3 Your nakedness will be uncovered.
Yes, your shame will be seen.
I will take vengeance,
and will spare no one.”
4 Our Redeemer, Yahweh of Armies is his name,
is the Holy One of Israel.
5 “Sit in silence, and go into darkness,
daughter of the Chaldeans.
For you shall no longer be called
the mistress of kingdoms.
6 I was angry with my people.
I profaned my inheritance
and gave them into your hand.
You showed them no mercy.
You laid a very heavy yoke on the aged.
7 You said, ‘I will be a princess forever,’
so that you didn’t lay these things to your heart,
nor did you remember the results.
8 “Now therefore hear this, you who are given to pleasures,
who sit securely,
who say in your heart,
‘I am, and there is no one else besides me.
I won’t sit as a widow,
neither will I know the loss of children.’
9 But these two things will come to you in a moment in one day:
the loss of children and widowhood.
They will come on you in their full measure,
in the multitude of your sorceries,
and the great abundance of your enchantments.
10 For you have trusted in your wickedness.
You have said, ‘No one sees me.’
Your wisdom and your knowledge has perverted you.
You have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me.’
11 Therefore disaster will come on you.
You won’t know when it dawns.
Mischief will fall on you.
You won’t be able to put it away.
Desolation will come on you suddenly,
which you don’t understand.
12 “Stand now with your enchantments
and with the multitude of your sorceries,
in which you have labored from your youth,
as if you might profit,
as if you might prevail.
13 You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels.
Now let the astrologers, the stargazers, and the monthly prognosticators stand up and save you from the things that will happen to you.
14 Behold, they are like stubble.
The fire will burn them.
They won’t deliver themselves from the power of the flame.
It won’t be a coal to warm at
or a fire to sit by.
15 The things that you labored in will be like this:
those who have trafficked with you from your youth will each wander in his own way.
There will be no one to save you.
Isaiah 47
The Voice
47 Eternal One: Ah, pretty virgin daughter, Miss Babylon,
come down and sit in the dust.
Sit on the ground where you belong: your throne is no more,
daughter of the Chaldeans, no longer all dainty, delicate.
2 And with those delicate fingers grab the heavy millstones and grind the grain.
Take off your lacy veil, lift your skirt, bare your legs, and
Cross the mud and muck of the river on foot like any other slave.
3 Everyone will see you naked; your humiliation will be most public.
I intend to make you pay, and no one will interfere.[a]
4 Israel: Our Savior, our hero—the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies,
by name—is the Holy One of Israel!
5 So you’d best go quietly, Babylon, daughter of the Chaldeans.
Slink off into the dark. No one will ever again call you Queen of All Lands.
6 Eternal One: Some time ago, I got fed up with My people.
I left My heritage to you, let you defeat them and take them away.
But you showed no mercy, abused and denigrated them;
you even made the elderly suffer beneath your heavy burden.
7 But You were carried away with your power,
thinking you would always be in charge.
You didn’t consider your limits or think about how all this would end.
8 You, pursuer of pleasure, resting in the thought,
“No one exists in the world of any consequence except me.
I’ll never feel as a widow or suffer the loss of my children.”
9 Despite all your magic and charms, all of a sudden, in a single day,
terror and death to the highest degree.
In the midst of it all, your children and husband, too, will be gone.
10 In your wickedness you thought you were immune,
so hidden away that no one could find your faults.
But your version of wisdom and knowledge were your undoing; you thought,
“No one exists in the world of any consequence except me.”
11 Evil will break upon you full force.
You won’t be able to hold it off or charm it away.
Disaster will fall and, even with all your wealth, you won’t stand a chance.
There’s no way to know what is coming; all of a sudden,
It will ruin all that you have and all that you are.
12 But keep trying your spells;
your magic and charms have brought you this far.
Maybe they’ll help in some way. Maybe they’ll incite fear.
13 All of your scheming has only exhausted you.
Let the astrologers step up and save you,
After all they chart the heavens, read the stars,
and predict the future month after month.
14 Look, they’re like dry straw that ignites in a flash and is burned away.
They cannot help you—they cannot help themselves
From the power of the flame.
And this is not some warm and cozy fire shared among friends!
15 So that’s what they’re worth to you—absolutely nothing,
even after all these years of working together.
They’re gone. No one’s left to rescue you.
Footnotes
- 47:3 Meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
by Public Domain. The name "World English Bible" is trademarked.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.