Add parallel Print Page Options

15 Is this the exultant city
    that lived secure,
that said to itself,
    “I am, and there is no one else”?
What a desolation it has become,
    a lair for wild animals!
Everyone who passes by it
    hisses and shakes the fist.(A)

Read full chapter

Mortal, say to the prince of Tyre: Thus says the Lord God:

Because your heart is proud
    and you have said, “I am a god;
I sit in the seat of the gods,
    in the heart of the seas,”
yet you are but a mortal and no god,
    though you compare your mind
    with the mind of a god.(A)

Read full chapter

19 There is no assuaging your hurt;
    your wound is mortal.
All who hear the news about you
    clap their hands over you.
For who has ever escaped
    your endless cruelty?(A)

Read full chapter

You said, “I shall be mistress forever,”
    so that you did not lay these things to heart
    or remember their end.(A)

Now therefore hear this, you lover of pleasures,
    who sit securely,
who say in your heart,
    “I am, and there is no one besides me;
I shall not sit as a widow
    or know the loss of children”—(B)

Read full chapter

city full of shouting,
    tumultuous city, panic-stricken town?
Your slain are not slain by the sword,
    nor are they dead in battle.(A)

Read full chapter

Will you still say, “I am a god,”
    in the presence of those who kill you,
though you are but a mortal and no god,
    in the hands of those who pierce you?

Read full chapter

15 All who pass along the way
    clap their hands at you;
they hiss and wag their heads
    at daughter Jerusalem:
“Is this the city that was called
    the perfection of beauty,
    the joy of all the earth?”(A)

Read full chapter

The Deserted City

How lonely sits the city
    that once was full of people!
How like a widow she has become,
    she that was great among the nations!
She that was a princess among the provinces
    has become subject to forced labor.(A)

Read full chapter

And I will make this city a horror, a thing to be hissed at; everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its disasters.(A)

Read full chapter

As she glorified herself and lived luxuriously,
    so give her a like measure of torment and grief.
Since in her heart she says,
    ‘I rule as a queen;
I am no widow,
    and I will never see grief,’(A)
therefore her plagues will come in a single day—
    pestilence and mourning and famine—
and she will be burned with fire,
    for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.”(B)

And the kings of the earth, who engaged in sexual immorality[a] and lived in luxury with her, will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning;(C) 10 they will stand far off, in fear of her torment, and say,

“Alas, alas, the great city,
    Babylon, the mighty city!
For in one hour your judgment has come.”(D)

11 And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo any more, 12 cargo of gold, silver, jewels and pearls, fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet, all kinds of scented wood, all articles of ivory, all articles of costly wood, bronze, iron, and marble,(E) 13 cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, olive oil, choice flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, slaves—and human lives.[b](F)

14 “The fruit for which your soul longed
    has gone from you,
and all your delicacies and your splendor
    are lost to you,
    never to be found again!”

15 The merchants of these wares, who grew wealthy from her, will stand far off, in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning aloud,(G)

16 “Alas, alas, the great city,
    clothed in fine linen,
        in purple and scarlet,
    adorned with gold,
        with jewels, and with pearls!(H)
17 For in one hour all this wealth has been laid waste!”

And all shipmasters and seafarers, sailors and all whose trade is on the sea, stood far off(I) 18 and cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning,

“What city was like the great city?”(J)

19 And they threw dust on their heads as they wept and mourned, crying out,

“Alas, alas, the great city,
    where all who had ships at sea
    grew rich by her wealth!
For in one hour she has been laid waste.”(K)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 18.9 Or prostitution
  2. 18.13 Or chariots, and human bodies and souls

39 Those who passed by derided[a] him, shaking their heads(A)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 27.39 Or blasphemed

speak and say: Thus says the Lord God:

I am against you,
    Pharaoh king of Egypt,
the great dragon sprawling
    in the midst of its channels,
saying, “My Nile is my own;
    I made it for myself.”(A)

Read full chapter

36 The merchants among the peoples hiss at you;
    you have come to a dreadful end
    and shall be no more forever.”(A)

Read full chapter

God’s Warnings Fulfilled

How the Lord in his anger
    has humiliated[a] daughter Zion!
He has thrown down from heaven to earth
    the splendor of Israel;
he has not remembered his footstool
    in the day of his anger.(A)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 2.1 Meaning of Heb uncertain

Complacent Women Warned of Disaster

Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice;
    you complacent daughters, listen to my speech.(A)

Read full chapter

you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:

How the oppressor has ceased!
    How his insolence[a] has ceased!(A)
The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,
    the scepter of rulers,

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 14.4 Q ms Compare Gk Syr Vg: Meaning of MT uncertain

12 When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he[a] will punish the arrogant boasting of the king of Assyria and his haughty pride.(A) 13 For he says:

“By the strength of my hand I have done it,
    and by my wisdom, for I have understanding;
I have removed the boundaries of peoples
    and have plundered their treasures;
    like a bull I have brought down those who sat on thrones.(B)
14 My hand has found, like a nest,
    the wealth of the peoples,
and as one gathers eggs that have been forsaken,
    so I have gathered all the earth,
and there was none that moved a wing
    or opened its mouth or chirped.”(C)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 10.12 Gk: Heb I

The righteous will see and fear
    and will laugh at the evildoer,[a] saying,(A)
“See the one who would not take
    refuge in God
but trusted in abundant riches
    and sought refuge in wealth!”[b](B)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 52.6 Heb him
  2. 52.7 Syr Tg: Heb in his destruction

23 It[a] claps its[b] hands at them
    and hisses at them from its[c] place.(A)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 27.23 Or He (that is, God)
  2. 27.23 Or his
  3. 27.23 Or his

then I will cut Israel off from the land that I have given them, and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, and Israel will become a proverb and a taunt among all peoples.(A) This house will become a heap of ruins;[a] everyone passing by it will be astonished and will hiss, and they will say, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this house?’(B)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 9.8 Syr OL: Heb will become high