XLVII. 1 Come down, and sit in the dust, O Virgin daughter of Babylon: sit on the earth, there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldaeans; for thou shaltno more be (one) they call tender and delicate.
2 Take the millstones, and grind meal; take off thy veil, lift up thy train, uncover the leg, pass through rivers.
3 Let thy nakedness be uncovered, yea, let thy shame be seen; I will take vengeance, and I will not meet man.
4 Our redeemer, the LORD of Hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel.
5 Sit in silence, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldaeans; for thou shalt no more be (one) they call lady of kingdoms.
6 I was wroth with my people, I profaned mine inheritance, and gave them into thy hand; thou didst shew them no mercy; upon the aged thou didst make thy yoke exceeding heavy.
7 And thou saidst, I shall be a lady for ever: until thou didst not lay these things to thine heart, thou didst not remember the latter end of it.
8 And now hear this, thou given to pleasure, that sittest securely, that sayest in thine heart, I and none else beside: I shall not sit a widow. neither shall I know bereavement.
9 And these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, bereavement, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in full measure, for the multitude of thy ’orceries, for the exceeding number of thy spells.
10 And thou hast been secure in thine evil: thou hast said, There is none that seeth me; thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath turned thee aside; and thou hast said in thine heart, I, and none else beside.
11 And evil shall come upon thee; thou shalt not know the dawning thereof; and ruin shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to avert it: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, (which) thou shalt not know.
12 Stand forth, I pray, with thy spells, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth: peradventure thou wilt be able to profit, peradventure thou wilt strike terror.
13 Thou art wearied with the multitude of thy counsels: let them, I pray thee, stand forth and save thee—they who the heavens, who gaze on the stars, who make known at the new moons—from what shall come upon
14 Behold, they are become as stubble, fire hath burned them; they shall not deliver their soul from the hand of the flame; it is no coal to be warm, fire to sit before.
15 Thus are the things to thee wherein thou hast laboured: thy traffickers from thy youth go astray everyone his own way: there is none that saveth thee.
Isaias. . ed. Richard Rusden Ottley. Germany. 2016.
Sponsored by University of Leipzig.
Funding provided by European Social Fund Saxony.