New International Version NIV
Young's Literal Translation YLT
1 “Go down, sit in the dust, Virgin Daughter Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne, queen city of the Babylonians.No more will you be called tender or delicate.
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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 no more do they cry to thee, `O tender and delicate one.'
2 Take millstones and grind flour; take off your veil. Lift up your skirts, bare your legs, and wade through the streams.
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Take millstones, and grind flour, Remove thy veil, draw up the skirt, Uncover the leg, pass over the floods.
3 Your nakedness will be exposed and your shame uncovered. I will take vengeance; I will spare no one.”
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Revealed is thy nakedness, yea, seen is thy reproach, Vengeance I take, and I meet not a man.
4 Our Redeemer—the LORD Almighty is his name— is the Holy One of Israel.
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Our redeemer [is] Jehovah of Hosts, His name [is] the Holy One of Israel.
5 “Sit in silence, go into darkness, queen city of the Babylonians; no more will you be called queen of kingdoms.
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Sit silent, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans, For no more do they cry to thee, `Mistress of kingdoms.'
6 I was angry with my people and desecrated my inheritance; I gave them into your hand, and you showed them no mercy. Even on the aged you laid a very heavy yoke.
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I have been wroth against My people, I have polluted Mine inheritance And I give them into thy hand, Thou hast not appointed for them mercies, On the aged thou hast made thy yoke very heavy,
7 You said, ‘I am forever— the eternal queen!’ But you did not consider these things or reflect on what might happen.
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And thou sayest, `To the age I am mistress,' While thou hast not laid these things to thy heart, Thou hast not remembered the latter end of it.
8 “Now then, listen, you lover of pleasure, lounging in your security and saying to yourself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me. I will never be a widow or suffer the loss of children.’
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And now, hear this, O luxurious one, Who is sitting confidently -- Who is saying in her heart, `I [am], and none else, I sit not a widow, nor know bereavement.'
9 Both of these will overtake you in a moment, on a single day: loss of children and widowhood. They will come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and all your potent spells.
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And come in to thee do these two things, In a moment, in one day, childlessness and widowhood, According to their perfection they have come upon thee, In the multitude of thy sorceries, In the exceeding might of thy charms.
10 You have trusted in your wickedness and have said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and knowledge mislead you when you say to yourself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me.’
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And thou art confident in thy wickedness, Thou hast said, `There is none seeing me,' Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, It is turning thee back, And thou sayest in thy heart, `I [am], and none else.'
11 Disaster will come upon you, and you will not know how to conjure it away. A calamity will fall upon you that you cannot ward off with a ransom; a catastrophe you cannot foresee will suddenly come upon you.
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And come in on thee hath evil, Thou knowest not its rising, And fall on thee doth mischief, Thou art not able to pacify it, And come on thee suddenly doth desolation, Thou knowest not.
12 “Keep on, then, with your magic spells and with your many sorceries, which you have labored at since childhood. Perhaps you will succeed, perhaps you will cause terror.
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Stand, I pray thee, in thy charms, And in the multitude of thy sorceries, In which thou hast laboured from thy youth, It may be thou art able to profit, It may be thou dost terrify!
13 All the counsel you have received has only worn you out! Let your astrologers come forward, those stargazers who make predictions month by month, let them save you from what is coming upon you.
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Thou hast been wearied in the multitude of thy counsels, Stand up, I pray thee, and save thee, Let the charmers of the heavens, Those looking on the stars, Those teaching concerning the months, From those things that come on thee!
14 Surely they are like stubble; the fire will burn them up. They cannot even save themselves from the power of the flame. These are not coals for warmth; this is not a fire to sit by.
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Lo, they have been as stubble! Fire hath burned them, They deliver not themselves from the power of the flame, There is not a coal to warm them, a light to sit before it.
15 That is all they are to you— these you have dealt with and labored with since childhood. All of them go on in their error; there is not one that can save you.
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So have they been to thee with whom thou hast laboured, Thy merchants from thy youth, Each to his passage they have wandered, Thy saviour is not!
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide.
Young's Literal Translation is in the public domain.