^5 (I)Sit in silence, and go into darkness,
    O daughter of ^(J)the Chaldeans;
for you shall no more be called
    ^(K)the mistress of kingdoms.
^6 (L)I was angry with my people;
    I profaned my heritage;
I gave them into your hand;
    ^(M)you showed them no mercy;
on the aged you made your yoke exceedingly heavy.
⁷ You said, “I shall be ^(N)mistress forever,”
    so that you did not lay these things to heart
    or remember their end.

⁸ Now therefore hear this, ^(O)you lover of pleasures,
    ^(P)who sit securely,
who say in your heart,
    ^(Q)“I am, and there is no one besides me;
^(R)I shall not sit as a widow
    or know the loss of children”:
^9 (S)These two things shall come to you
    in a moment, ^(T)in one day;
the loss of children and widowhood
    shall come upon you in full measure,
^(U)in spite of your many sorceries
    and the great power of your enchantments.

¹⁰ You felt secure in your wickedness;
    you said, “No one sees me”;
your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray,
and you said in your heart,
    ^(V)“I am, and there is no one besides me.”
¹¹ But evil shall come upon you,
    which you will not know how to charm away;
disaster shall fall upon you,
    for which you will not be able to atone;
^(W)and ruin shall come upon you suddenly,
    of which you know nothing.

^12 (X)Stand fast in your enchantments
    and your many sorceries,
    with which you have labored from your youth;
perhaps you may be able to succeed;
    perhaps you may inspire terror.
¹³ You are wearied with your many counsels;
    let them stand forth and save you,
^(Y)those who divide the heavens,
    who gaze at the stars,
who at the new moons make known
    what shall come upon you.

¹⁴ Behold, ^(Z)they are like stubble;
    ^(AA)the fire consumes them;
they cannot deliver themselves
    from the power of the flame.
No coal for warming oneself is this,
    no fire to sit before!
¹⁵ Such to you are those with whom you have labored,
    who have done business with you from your youth;
they wander about, each in his own direction;
    there is no one to save you.

³ “The former things ^(AF)I declared of old;
    they went out from my mouth, and I announced them;
    then suddenly I did them, and they came to pass.
⁴ Because I know that ^(AG)you are obstinate,
    and your neck is an iron sinew
    and your forehead brass,
^5 (AH)I declared them to you from of old,
    before they came to pass I announced them to you,
lest you should say, ^(AI)‘My idol did them,
    my carved image and my metal image commanded them.’

⁶ “You have heard; now see all this;
    and will you not declare it?
From this time forth ^(AJ)I announce to you new things,
    hidden things that you have not known.
⁷ They are created now, not long ago;
    before today you have never heard of them,
    lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’
⁸ You have never heard, you have never known,
    from of old your ear has not been opened.
For I knew that you would surely deal treacherously,
    and that ^(AK)from before birth you were called a rebel.

^9 (AL)“For my name's sake I defer my anger;
    for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you,
    that I may not cut you off.
¹⁰ Behold, I have refined you, ^(AM)but not as silver;
    ^(AN)I have tried^[a] you in the furnace of affliction.
^11 (AO)For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,
    for how should my name^[b] be profaned?
    ^(AP)My glory I will not give to another.

¹⁴ “Assemble, all of you, and listen!
    ^(AU)Who among them has declared these things?
The Lord loves him;
    ^(AV)he shall perform his purpose on Babylon,
    and his arm shall be against ^(AW)the Chaldeans.
^15 (AX)I, even I, have spoken and called him;
    I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way.
^16 (AY)Draw near to me, hear this:
    from the beginning I have not spoken in secret,
    from the time it came to be I have been there.”
And now ^(AZ)the Lord God has sent me, and his Spirit.

¹⁷ Thus says the Lord,
    your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
“I am the Lord your God,
    who teaches you to profit,
    who leads you in the way you should go.
^18 (BA)Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments!
    ^(BB)Then your peace would have been like a river,
    and your righteousness like the waves of the sea;
^19 (BC)your offspring would have been like the sand,
    and your descendants like its grains;
their name would never be cut off
    or destroyed from before me.”

^20 (BD)Go out from Babylon, flee from ^(BE)Chaldea,
    declare this ^(BF)with a shout of joy, proclaim it,
send it out to the end of the earth;
    say, ^(BG)“The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob!”
^21 (BH)They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts;
    ^(BI)he made water flow for them from the rock;
    he split the rock and the water gushed out.

^22 (BJ)“There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”

^5 (BR)And now the Lord says,
    he ^(BS)who formed me from the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him;
    and that Israel might be gathered to him—
for ^(BT)I am honored in the eyes of the Lord,
    and my God has become my strength—
⁶ he says:
“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
    to raise up the tribes of Jacob
    and to bring back the preserved of Israel;
^(BU)I will make you ^(BV)as a light for the nations,
    that ^(BW)my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

⁷ Thus says the Lord,
    ^(BX)the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One,
^(BY)to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation,
    the servant of rulers:
^(BZ)“Kings shall see and arise;
    princes, and they shall prostrate themselves;
because of the Lord, who is faithful,
    the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”

^13 (CL)Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth;
    break forth, O mountains, into singing!
For the Lord ^(CM)has comforted his people
    and will have compassion on his afflicted.

¹⁴ But Zion said, ^(CN)“The Lord has forsaken me;
    my Lord has forgotten me.”

^15 (CO)“Can a woman forget her nursing child,
    that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget,
    yet I will not forget you.
¹⁶ Behold, ^(CP)I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
    your walls are continually before me.
¹⁷ Your builders make haste;^{[f]
    (CQ)}your destroyers and those who laid you waste go out from you.
^18 (CR)Lift up your eyes around and see;
    they all gather, they come to you.
^(CS)As I live, declares the Lord,
    ^(CT)you shall put them all on as an ornament;
    you shall bind them on as a bride does.

¹⁹ “Surely your waste and your desolate places
    and your devastated land—
^(CU)surely now you will be too narrow for your inhabitants,
    and those who swallowed you up will be far away.
^20 (CV)The children of your bereavement
    will yet say in your ears:
^(CW)‘The place is too narrow for me;
    make room for me to dwell in.’
²¹ Then you will say in your heart:
    ‘Who has borne me these?
^(CX)I was bereaved and barren,
    exiled and put away,
    but who has brought up these?
Behold, I was left alone;
    from where have these come?’”

²² Thus says the Lord God:
“Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations,
    ^(CY)and raise my signal to the peoples;
^(CZ)and they shall bring your sons in their arms,^[g]
    and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.
^23 (DA)Kings shall be your foster fathers,
    and their queens your nursing mothers.
^(DB)With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you,
    and ^(DC)lick the dust of your feet.
Then you will know that I am the Lord;
    ^(DD)those who wait for me ^(DE)shall not be put to shame.”

²⁴ Can the prey be taken from the mighty,
    or the captives of a tyrant^[h] be rescued?
²⁵ For thus says the Lord:
^(DF)“Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken,
    and the prey of the tyrant be rescued,
for I will contend with those who contend with you,
    and I will save your children.
^26 (DG)I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh,
    and they shall be drunk ^(DH)with their own blood as with wine.
Then all flesh shall know
    that ^(DI)I am the Lord your Savior,
    and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”