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sit on the ground without a throne,
O Daughter Chaldea!
For you will no longer be called
tender and delicate.
2 Take the millstones and grind flour;
remove your veil,
strip off your skirt, bare your legs,
and wade through the streams.
3 Your nakedness will be uncovered,
and your shame will be seen.
I will take vengeance;
I will spare no one.”
4 The Holy One of Israel is our Redeemer—
the Lord of Hosts is His name.
5 “Sit in silence, and go into darkness,
O Daughter Chaldea!
For you will no longer be called
mistress of kingdoms.
6 I was angry with My people,
and I profaned My inheritance.
I gave them into your hand,
and You showed them no mercy;
even on the aged
you made your yoke heavy.
7 You said: ‘I will be the mistress forever’,
so you did not take these things to heart,
or reflect on what their outcome might be.
8 “So hear this now, you lover of pleasures,
who sits securely,
who says in her heart,
‘I am, and there is no one else besides me;
I will not sit as a widow,
nor will I suffer the loss of children’.
9 Both of these will overtake you,
in a moment, in a single day:
the loss of children and widowhood.
They will fall upon you in full measure,
in spite of your many sorceries,
and the potency of your enchantments.
10 “For you were secure in your wickedness;
you said, ‘No one sees me’.
Your wisdom and your knowledge mislead you
when you say in your heart,
‘I am, and there is no one besides me’.
11 Therefore, disaster will come upon you;
and you will not be able to turn it away.
A calamity will fall upon you,
but you will not be able to ward it off.
Ruin will come upon you suddenly,
and you will not see it coming.
12 “Stand fast then, in your magic enchantments,
and with your many sorceries,
which you have laboured at since your youth;
perhaps you may be able to succeed,
perhaps you will cause terror!
13 You are wearied in your many consultations;
let now your astrologers
stand up and save you,
for they study the stars,
and gaze up at the heavens.
New moon to new moon
they predict what will befall you.
14 Behold, they will be as the stubble,
the fire will burn them up;
yet they cannot deliver themselves
from the power of the flame.
This is not a coal to be warmed by,
nor a fire to sit beside!
15 This is all they are to you—
these with whom you have laboured,
who have trafficked with you from your youth.
Each of them wanders on his own path;
there is no one that can save you.”