47“Come down, virgin daughter of Babylon, and sit in the dust. For your days of sitting on a throne have ended. O daughter of Babylonia, never again will you be the lovely princess, tender and delicate.H3381H3427H6083H1330H1323H894H3427H776H3678H1323H3778H3254H7121H7390H6028 2Take heavy millstones and grind flour. Remove your veil, and strip off your robe. Expose yourself to public view.H3947H7347H2912H7058H1540H6777H2834H7640H1540H7785H5674H5104 3You will be naked and burdened with shame. I will take vengeance against you without pity.”H6172H1540H2781H7200H3947H5359H6293H120 4Our Redeemer, whose name is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, is the Holy One of Israel.H1350H3068H6635H8034H6918H3478 5“O beautiful Babylon, sit now in darkness and silence. Never again will you be known as the queen of kingdoms.H3427H1748H935H2822H1323H3778H3254H7121H1404H4467 6For I was angry with my chosen people and punished them by letting them fall into your hands. But you, Babylon, showed them no mercy. You oppressed even the elderly.H7107H5971H2490H5159H5414H3027H7760H7356H2205H3966H3513H5923 7You said, ‘I will reign forever as queen of the world!’ You did not reflect on your actions or think about their consequences.H559H1404H5769H7760H3820H2142H319 8“Listen to this, you pleasure-loving kingdom, living at ease and feeling secure. You say, ‘I am the only one, and there is no other. I will never be a widow or lose my children.’H8085H5719H3427H983H559H3824H657H3427H490H3045H7908 9Well, both these things will come upon you in a moment. widowhood and the loss of your children. Yes, these calamities will come upon you, despite all your witchcraft and magic.H8147H935H7281H259H3117H7908H489H935H8537H7230H3785H3966H6109H2267 10“You felt secure in your wickedness. ‘No one sees me,’ you said. But your ‘wisdom’ and ‘knowledge’ have led you astray, and you said, ‘I am the only one, and there is no other.’H982H7451H559H7200H2451H1847H7725H559H3820H657 11So disaster will overtake you, and you won’t be able to charm it away. Calamity will fall upon you, and you won’t be able to buy your way out. A catastrophe will strike you suddenly, one for which you are not prepared.H7451H935H3045H7837H1943H5307H3201H3722H7722H935H6597H3045 12“Now use your magical charms! Use the spells you have worked at all these years! Maybe they will do you some good. Maybe they can make someone afraid of you.H5975H2267H7230H3785H834H3021H5271H3201H3276H6206 13All the advice you receive has made you tired. Where are all your astrologers, those stargazers who make predictions each month? Let them stand up and save you from what the future holds.H3811H7230H6098H1895H8064H2374H3556H2320H3045H5975H3467H935 14But they are like straw burning in a fire; they cannot save themselves from the flame. You will get no help from them at all; their hearth is no place to sit for warmth.H7179H784H8313H5337H5315H3027H3852H1513H2552H217H3427 15And all your friends, those with whom you’ve done business since childhood, will go their own ways, turning a deaf ear to your cries.H3021H5503H5271H8582H376H5676H3467
48“Listen to me, O family of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel and born into the family of Judah. Listen, you who take oaths in the name of the Lord and call on the God of Israel. You don’t keep your promises,H8085H1004H3290H7121H8034H3478H3318H4325H3063H7650H8034H3068H2142H430H3478H571H6666 2even though you call yourself the holy city and talk about depending on the God of Israel, whose name is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.H7121H6944H5892H5564H430H3478H3068H6635H8034 3Long ago I told you what was going to happen. Then suddenly I took action, and all my predictions came true.H5046H7223H227H3318H6310H8085H6213H6597H935 4For I know how stubborn and obstinate you are. Your necks are as unbending as iron. Your heads are as hard as bronze.H1847H7186H6203H1270H1517H4696H5154 5That is why I told you what would happen; I told you beforehand what I was going to do. Then you could never say, ‘My idols did it. My wooden image and metal god commanded it to happen!’H227H5046H935H8085H559H6090H6213H6459H5262H6680 6You have heard my predictions and seen them fulfilled, but you refuse to admit it. Now I will tell you new things, secrets you have not yet heard.H8085H2372H5046H8085H2319H6258H5341H3045 7They are brand new, not things from the past. So you cannot say, ‘We knew that all the time!’H1254H6440H3117H8085H559H3045 8“Yes, I will tell you of things that are entirely new, things you never heard of before. For I know so well what traitors you are. You have been rebels from birth.H8085H3045H241H6605H3045H898H898H7121H6586H990 9Yet for my own sake and for the honor of my name, I will hold back my anger and not wipe you out.H8034H748H639H8416H2413H3772 10I have refined you, but not as silver is refined. Rather, I have refined you in the furnace of suffering.H6884H3701H977H3564H6040 11I will rescue you for my sake—yes, for my own sake! I will not let my reputation be tarnished, and I will not share my glory with idols!H6213H2490H5414H3519H312 12“Listen to me, O family of Jacob, Israel my chosen one! I alone am God, the First and the Last.H8085H3290H3478H7121H7223H314 13It was my hand that laid the foundations of the earth, my right hand that spread out the heavens above. When I call out the stars, they all appear in order.”H3027H3245H776H3225H2946H8064H7121H5975H3162 14Have any of your idols ever told you this? Come, all of you, and listen. The Lord has chosen Cyrus as his ally. He will use him to put an end to the empire of Babylon and to destroy the Babylonian armies.H6908H8085H5046H3068H157H6213H2656H894H2220H3778 15“I have said it: I am calling Cyrus! I will send him on this errand and will help him succeed.H1696H7121H935H1870H6743 16Come closer, and listen to this. From the beginning I have told you plainly what would happen.” And now the Sovereign Lord and his Spirit have sent me with this message.H7126H7126H8085H1696H5643H7218H6256H136H3069H7307H7971 17This is what the Lord says—your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is good for you and leads you along the paths you should follow.H559H3068H1350H6918H3478H3068H430H3925H3276H1869H1870H3212 18Oh, that you had listened to my commands! Then you would have had peace flowing like a gentle river and righteousness rolling over you like waves in the sea.H3863H7181H4687H7965H5104H6666H1530H3220 19Your descendants would have been like the sands along the seashore—too many to count! There would have been no need for your destruction, or for cutting off your family name.”H2233H2344H6631H4578H4579H8034H3772H8045H6440 20Yet even now, be free from your captivity! Leave Babylon and the Babylonians. Sing out this message! Shout it to the ends of the earth! The Lord has redeemed his servants, the people of Israel.H3318H894H1272H3778H6963H7440H5046H8085H3318H7097H776H559H3068H1350H5650H3290 21They were not thirsty when he led them through the desert. He divided the rock, and water gushed out for them to drink.H6770H3212H2723H4325H5140H6697H1234H6697H4325H2100 22“But there is no peace for the wicked,” says the Lord.H7965H559H3068H7563
49Listen to me, all you in distant lands! Pay attention, you who are far away! The Lord called me before my birth; from within the womb he called me by name.H8085H339H7181H3816H7350H3068H7121H990H4578H517H2142H8034 2He made my words of judgment as sharp as a sword. He has hidden me in the shadow of his hand. I am like a sharp arrow in his quiver.H7760H6310H2299H2719H6738H3027H2244H7760H1305H2671H827H5641 3He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, and you will bring me glory.”H559H5650H3478H6286 4I replied, “But my work seems so useless! I have spent my strength for nothing and to no purpose. Yet I leave it all in the Lord’s hand; I will trust God for my reward.”H559H3021H7385H3615H3581H8414H1892H403H4941H3068H6468H430 5And now the Lord speaks—the one who formed me in my mother’s womb to be his servant, who commissioned me to bring Israel back to him. The Lord has honored me, and my God has given me strength.H559H3068H3335H990H5650H7725H3290H7725H3478H622H3513H5869H3068H430H5797 6He says, “You will do more than restore the people of Israel to me. I will make you a light to the Gentiles, and you will bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”H559H7043H5650H6965H7626H3290H7725H5341H5336H3478H5414H216H1471H3444H7097H776 7The Lord, the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel, says to the one who is despised and rejected by the nations, to the one who is the servant of rulers. “Kings will stand at attention when you pass by. Princes will also bow low because of the Lord, the faithful one, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”H559H3068H1350H3478H6918H5315H960H1471H8581H5650H4910H4428H7200H6965H8269H7812H3068H539H6918H3478H977 8This is what the Lord says. “At just the right time, I will respond to you. On the day of salvation I will help you. I will protect you and give you to the people as my covenant with them. Through you I will reestablish the land of Israel and assign it to its own people again.H559H3068H7522H6256H6030H3117H3444H5826H5341H5414H1285H5971H6965H776H5157H8074H5159 9I will say to the prisoners, ‘Come out in freedom,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Come into the light.’ They will be my sheep, grazing in green pastures and on hills that were previously bare.H559H631H3318H2822H1540H7462H1870H4830H8205 10They will neither hunger nor thirst. The searing sun will not reach them anymore. For the Lord in his mercy will lead them; he will lead them beside cool waters.H7456H6770H8273H8121H5221H7355H5090H4002H4325H5095 11And I will make my mountains into level paths for them. The highways will be raised above the valleys.H7760H2022H1870H4546H7311 12See, my people will return from far away, from lands to the north and west, and from as far south as Egypt.”H935H7350H6828H3220H776H5515 13Sing for joy, O heavens! Rejoice, O earth! Burst into song, O mountains! For the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on them in their suffering.H7442H8064H1523H776H6476H7440H2022H3068H5162H5971H7355H6041 14Yet Jerusalem says, “The Lord has deserted us; the Lord has forgotten us.”H6726H559H3068H5800H136H7911 15“Never! Can a mother forget her nursing child? Can she feel no love for the child she has borne? But even if that were possible, I would not forget you!H802H7911H5764H7355H1121H990H7911H7911 16See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands. Always in my mind is a picture of Jerusalem’s walls in ruins.H2710H3709H2346H8548 17Soon your descendants will come back, and all who are trying to destroy you will go away.H1121H4116H2040H2717H3318 18Look around you and see, for all your children will come back to you. As surely as I live,” says the Lord, “they will be like jewels or bridal ornaments for you to display.H5375H5869H5439H7200H6908H935H2416H5002H3068H3847H5716H7194H3618 19“Even the most desolate parts of your abandoned land will soon be crowded with your people. Your enemies who enslaved you will be far away.H2723H8074H776H2035H3334H3427H1104H7368 20The generations born in exile will return and say, ‘We need more room! It’s crowded here!’H1121H7923H559H241H4725H6862H5066H4725H3427 21Then you will think to yourself, ‘Who has given me all these descendants? For most of my children were killed, and the rest were carried away into exile. I was left here all alone. Where did all these people come from? Who bore these children? Who raised them for me?’”H559H3824H3205H7921H1565H1540H5493H1431H7604H375 22This is what the Sovereign Lord says. “See, I will give a signal to the godless nations. They will carry your little sons back to you in their arms; they will bring your daughters on their shoulders.H559H136H3069H5375H3027H1471H7311H5251H5971H935H1121H2684H1323H5375H3802 23Kings and queens will serve you and care for all your needs. They will bow to the earth before you and lick the dust from your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord. Those who trust in me will never be put to shame.”H4428H539H8282H3243H7812H639H776H3897H6083H7272H3045H3068H954H6960 24Who can snatch the plunder of war from the hands of a warrior? Who can demand that a tyrant let his captives go?H4455H3947H1368H6662H7628H4422 25But the Lord says, “The captives of warriors will be released, and the plunder of tyrants will be retrieved. For I will fight those who fight you, and I will save your children.H559H3068H7628H1368H3947H4455H6184H4422H7378H3401H3467H1121 26I will feed your enemies with their own flesh. They will be drunk with rivers of their own blood. All the world will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Israel.”H398H3238H1320H7937H1818H6071H1320H3045H3068H3467H1350H46H3290
Unknown
, never again will you be the lovely princess, tender and delicate.H3381
