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¹ COME 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.² Take the millstone and grind flour; remove your veil, cut off your white hair, uncover your legs, pass through the rivers.³ Your 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.⁴ As for our Saviour, the LORD of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel.⁵ Sit silent and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans; for you shall no more be called, The mightiest of kingdoms.⁶ I 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.

⁷ And 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.⁸ Now 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;⁹ But 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.¹⁰ For 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.¹¹ Therefore 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.¹² Stand 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.¹³ You 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.¹⁴ Behold, 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.¹⁵ Thus 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.