Babylon Will Fall
The Lord said:
1 City of Babylon,
You are delicate
and untouched,
but that will change.
Surrender your royal power
and sit in the dirt.
2 Start grinding grain!
Take off your veil.
Strip off your fancy clothes
and wade across rivers.
3 You will suffer the shame
of going naked,
because I will take revenge,
and no one can escape.
4 I am the Lord All-Powerful,
the holy God of Israel.
I am their Savior.
5 Babylon, be silent!
Sit in the dark.
No longer will nations
accept you as their queen.
6 I was angry with my people.
So I let you take their land
and bring disgrace on them.
You showed them no mercy,
but were especially cruel
to those who were old.
7 You thought that you
would be queen forever.
You didn't care what you did;
it never entered your mind
that you might get caught.
8 You think that you alone
are all-powerful,
that you won't be a widow
or lose your children.
All you care about is pleasure,
but listen to what I say.
9 Your magic powers and charms
will suddenly fail,
then you will be a widow
and lose your children.
10 You hid behind evil
like a shield and said,
“No one can see me!”
You were fooled by your wisdom
and your knowledge;
you felt sure that you alone
were in full control.
11 But without warning,
disaster will strike—
and your magic charms
won't help at all.
12 Keep using your magic powers
and your charms
as you have always done.
Maybe—just maybe—
you will frighten somebody!
13 You have worn yourself out,
asking for advice
from those who study the stars
and tell the future
month after month.
Go ask them how to be saved
from what will happen.
14 People who trust the stars
are as helpless as straw
in a flaming fire.
No one can even keep warm,
sitting by a fire
that feeds only on straw.
15 These are the fortunetellers
you have done business with
all of your life.
But they don't know
where they are going,
and they can't save you.
1 Come downe and sit in the dust: O virgine, daughter Babel, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called, Tender and delicate. 2 Take the mill stones, and grinde meale: loose thy lockes: make bare the feete: vncouer the legge, and passe through the floods. 3 Thy filthinesse shall be discouered, and thy shame shall be seene: I will take vengeance, and I will not meete thee as a man. 4 Our redeemer, the Lord of hostes is his Name, the holy one of Israel. 5 Sit still, and get thee into darkenesse, O daughter of the Chaldeas: for thou shalt no more be called, The ladie of kingdomes. 6 I was wroth with my people: I haue polluted mine inheritance, and giuen them into thine had: thou diddest shew them no mercy, but thou didest lay thy very heauy yoke vpon the ancient. 7 And thou saidest, I shall be a ladie for euer, so that thou diddest not set thy mind to these things, neither diddest thou remember ye latter end therof. 8 Therefore nowe heare, thou that art giuen to pleasures, and dwellest carelesse, Shee sayeth in her heart, I am and none els: I shall not sit as a widowe, neither shall knowe the losse of children. 9 But these two thinges shall come to thee suddenly on one day, the losse of children and widowhoode: they shall come vpon thee in their perfection, for the multitude of thy diuinations, and for the great abundance of thine inchanters. 10 For thou hast trusted in thy wickednesse: thou hast sayd, None seeth me. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, they haue caused thee to rebel, and thou hast saide in thine heart, I am, and none els. 11 Therefore shall euill come vpon thee, and thou shalt not knowe the morning thereof: destruction shall fal vpon thee, which thou shalt not be able to put away: destruction shall come vpon thee suddenly, or thou beware. 12 Stand now among thine inchanters, and in the multitude of thy southsaiers (with whome thou hast wearied thy selfe from thy youth) if so be thou maist haue profit, or if so be thou maist haue strength. 13 Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels: let now the astrologers, the starre gasers, and prognosticatours stand vp, and saue thee from these things, that shall come vpon thee. 14 Beholde, they shall be as stubble: the fire shall burne them: they shall not deliuer their owne liues from the power of the flame: there shalbe no coles to warme at, nor light to sit by. 15 Thus shall they serue thee, with whom thou hast wearied thee, euen thy marchants from thy youth: euery one shall wander to his owne quarter: none shall saue thee.