Read the Bible

¹ "Come down, and sit on the dust, || O virgin daughter of Babylon, || Sit on the earth, there is no throne, || O daughter of the Chaldeans, || For they no longer cry to you, || O tender and delicate one.² Take millstones, and grind flour, || Remove your veil, draw up the skirt, || Uncover the leg, pass over the floods.³ Your nakedness is revealed, indeed, your reproach is seen, || I take vengeance, and I do not meet a man."⁴ Our redeemer [is] YHWH of Hosts, || His Name [is] the Holy One of Israel.⁵ "Sit silent, and go into darkness, || O daughter of the Chaldeans, || For they no longer cry to you, Mistress of kingdoms.⁶ I have been angry against My people, I have defiled My inheritance || And I give them into your hand, || You have not appointed mercies for them, || You have made your yoke very heavy on the aged,

⁷ And you say, I am mistress for all time, || While you have not laid these things to your heart, || You have not remembered the latter end of it.⁸ And now, hear this, O luxurious one, || Who is sitting confidently—Who is saying in her heart, I [am], and none else, || I do not sit [as] a widow, nor know bereavement.⁹ And these two things come to you, || In a moment, in one day: childlessness and widowhood, || They have come on you according to their perfection, || In the multitude of your sorceries, || In the exceeding might of your charms.¹⁰ And you are confident in your wickedness, || You have said, There is none seeing me, || Your wisdom and your knowledge, || It is turning you back, || And you say in your heart, I [am], and none else.¹¹ And evil has come in on you, || You do not know its rising, || And disaster falls on you, || You are not able to pacify it, || And desolation comes on you suddenly, || You do not know.¹² Now stand in your charms, || And in the multitude of your sorceries, || In which you have labored from your youth, || It may be you are able to profit, || It may be you terrify!¹³ You have been wearied in the multitude of your counsels, || Now stand up and let them save you—The charmers of the heavens, || Those looking on the stars, || Those teaching concerning the months—From those things that come on you!¹⁴ Behold, they have been as stubble! Fire has burned them, || They do not deliver themselves from the power of the flame, || There is not a coal to warm them, a light to sit before it.¹⁵ So they have been to you with whom you have labored, || Your merchants from your youth, || They have each wandered to his passage, || None is saving you!"