1Come down, and sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground; there is no throne, daughter of the Chaldeans. You will no longer be called tender and delicate.
2Take the millstones and grind flour. Uncover your hair, bare your leg, uncover your thigh, cross the rivers.
3Your nakedness will be uncovered; yes, your shame will be seen. I will take vengeance, and I will not meet you as a man.
4As for our redeemer, the LORD of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel.
5Sit in silence, and go into the darkness, daughter of the Chaldeans. You will no longer be called the lady of kingdoms.
6I was angry with my people. I made my inheritance unclean, and gave them into your hand. You showed them no mercy. On the old you laid your yoke very heavily.
7You said, "I shall be a lady for ever." So you did not take these things to heart, and you did not remember how it would end.
8So hear this now, you who are given to pleasures, who live without a care, who say in your heart, "I am, and there is no one else besides me. I shall not sit as a widow, and I shall never know the loss of children."
9But these two things will come to you in a moment, in one day: the loss of children, and widowhood. They will come upon you in full measure, because of all your sorceries, and because of the great number of your spells.
10For you have trusted in your wickedness. You have said, "No one sees me." Your wisdom and your knowledge have turned you aside, and you have said in your heart, "I am, and there is no one else besides me."
11So evil will come upon you, and you will not know where it comes from. Trouble will fall on you, and you will not be able to put it away. Ruin will come upon you suddenly, before you know it.
12Stand now with your spells and with all your sorceries, which you have worked at from your youth. Perhaps you will be able to gain something; perhaps you will succeed.
13You are worn out by all your plans. Let the astrologers, the stargazers, and those who tell what each month will bring stand up now and save you from the things that are coming upon you.
14Look, they will be like straw; the fire will burn them. They will not save themselves from the power of the flame. There will be no coal to warm at, and no fire to sit in front of.
15This is what they will be to you, those you have worked with, your traders, from your youth. Each one will wander off his own way, and no one will save you.