1COME down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground; there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans; for you shall no more be called tender and delicate.

2Take the millstone and grind flour; remove your veil, cut off your white hair, uncover your legs, pass through the rivers.

3Your nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, your shame shall be seen; I will execute vengeance upon you, and I will not meet you as a man.

4As for our Saviour, the LORD of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel.

5Sit silent and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans; for you shall no more be called, The mightiest of kingdoms.

6I was angry with my people, for they have polluted my inheritance, so I delivered them into your hands; you showed them no mercy; upon the elders have you very heavily laid your yoke.

7And you said, I shall be a mighty one for ever; so that you did not lay these things to your heart, neither did remember the end thereof.

8Now therefore let her hear these things, she who is given to pleasures, who dwells in tranquillity, who says in her heart, I am, and there is none else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children;

9But these two plagues shall come upon you in a moment, in one day: the loss of children and widowhood; they shall come upon you suddenly, for the multitude of your sorceries, and for the multitude of your magicians.

10For you have trusted in your wickedness; you have said, None sees me. Your wisdom and your knowledge have misled you; and you have said in your heart, I am, and there is none else besides me.

11Therefore evil shall come upon you in the early morning, and you shall not know from whence it rises; and mischief shall fall upon you and you shall not be able to put it off; and desolation shall come upon you suddenly, which you shall not know.

12Stand now with your magicians and with the multitude of your sorceries in which you have labored from your youth; perhaps you may be able to profit, perhaps you may strengthen yourself.

13You are wearied in the multitude of your thoughts. Let now the Chaldeans stand up and save you, those who gaze into the heavens and at the stars; let them foretell by the moon the things that shall come upon you.

14Behold, they have become as stubble which is consumed by the fire; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame; there are no coals to warm them, nor fire to sit before.

15Thus have become to you your merchants with whom you have labored from your youth: they have wandered every one to his quarter, and there is none to save you.