Good News Translation GNT
World English Bible WEB
1 The Lord says, "Babylon, come down from your throne, and sit in the dust on the ground. You were once like a virgin, a city unconquered, but you are soft and delicate no longer! You are now a slave!
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Come down, and sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne, daughter of the Chaldeans: for you shall no more be called tender and delicate.
2 Turn the millstone! Grind the flour! Off with your veil! Strip off your fine clothes! Lift up your skirts to cross the streams!
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Take the millstones, and grind meal; remove your veil, strip off the train, uncover the leg, pass through the rivers.
3 People will see you naked; they will see you humbled and shamed. I will take vengeance, and no one will stop me."
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Your nakedness shall be uncovered, yes, your shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and will spare no man.
4 The holy God of Israel sets us free - his name is the Lord Almighty.
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Our Redeemer, Yahweh of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel.
5 The Lord says to Babylon, "Sit in silence and darkness; no more will they call you the queen of nations!
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Sit you silent, and get you into darkness, daughter of the Chaldeans; for you shall no more be called The mistress of kingdoms.
6 I was angry with my people; I treated them as no longer mine: I put them in your power, and you showed them no mercy; even the aged you treated harshly.
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I was angry with my people, I profaned my inheritance, and gave them into your hand: you did show them no mercy; on the aged have you very heavily laid your yoke.
7 You thought you would always be a queen, and did not take these things to heart or think how it all would end.
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You said, I shall be mistress forever; so that you did not lay these things to your heart, neither did remember the latter end of it.
8 "Listen to this, you lover of pleasure, you that think you are safe and secure. You claim you are as great as God - that there is no one else like you. You thought that you would never be a widow or suffer the loss of your children.
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Now therefore hear this, you who are given to pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your 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 in a moment, in a single day, both of these things will happen. In spite of all the magic you use, you will lose your husband and children.
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but these two things shall come to you in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood; in their full measure shall they come on you, in the multitude of your sorceries, and the great abundance of your enchantments.
10 "You felt sure of yourself in your evil; you thought that no one could see you. Your wisdom and knowledge led you astray, and you said to yourself, "I am God - there is no one else like me.'
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For you have trusted in your wickedness; you have said, None sees me; your wisdom and your knowledge, it has perverted you, and you have said in your heart, I am, and there is none else besides me.
11 Disaster will come upon you, and none of your magic can stop it. Ruin will come on you suddenly - ruin you never dreamed of!
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Therefore shall evil come on you; you shall not know the dawning of it: and mischief shall fall on you; you shall not be able to put it away: and desolation shall come on you suddenly, which you don't know.
12 Keep all your magic spells and charms; you have used them since you were young. Perhaps they will be of some help to you; perhaps you can frighten your enemies.
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Stand now with your enchantments, and with the multitude of your sorceries, in which you have labored from your youth; if so be you shall be able to profit, if so be you may prevail.
13 You are powerless in spite of the advice you get. Let your astrologers come forward and save you - those people who study the stars, who map out the zones of the heavens and tell you from month to month what is going to happen to you.
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You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels: let now the astrologers, the star-gazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save you from the things that shall come on you.
14 "They will be like bits of straw, and a fire will burn them up! They will not even be able to save themselves - the flames will be too hot for them, not a cozy fire to warm themselves by.
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Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: it shall not be a coal to warm at, nor a fire to sit before.
15 That is all the good they will do you - those astrologers you've consulted all your life. They all will leave you and go their own way, and none will be left to save you."
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Thus shall the things be to you in which you have labored: those who have trafficked with you from your youth shall wander everyone to his quarter; there shall be none to save you.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.
The World English Bible is in the public domain.