English / ERV
Isaiah 47
Easy-to-Read Version, 2006
- 1“Fall down and sit in the dirt, Virgin Daughter Babylon. You have no throne, so sit on the ground, daughter of the Chaldeans.[1] You are not the ruler now. You are no longer the beautiful young princess that people said you were.
- 2Get the millstones ready and grind the grain into flour. Take off your veil and fancy clothes. Lift your skirt and get ready to cross the rivers.[2]
- 3Men will see your naked body and use you for sex. I will make you pay for the bad things you did, and I will not let anyone help you.
- 4“My people say, ‘God saves us. His name is the LORD All-Powerful, the Holy One of Israel.’”
- 5“So Babylon, sit down and shut up. Daughter of the Chaldeans, go into the dark prison. You will no longer be ‘The Queen of the Kingdoms.’
- 6“I was angry with my people. They were mine, but I turned against them. I let you punish them, but you showed them no mercy. Even for those who were old you made the work hard.
- 7You said, ‘I will live forever. I will always be the queen.’ You didn’t care what you did to my people. You didn’t think about what might happen later.
- 8So now listen, you who love only pleasure! Feeling so safe, you tell yourself, ‘I alone am important, and no one else matters. I will never be a widow or lose my children.’
- 9These two things will happen to you: First, you will lose your children and then your husband. And none of your magic spells will help you.
- 10You do bad things but still feel safe.[3] You say to yourself, ‘No one sees the wrong I do.’ You thought that your wisdom and knowledge would save you. You tell yourself, ‘I alone am important, and no one else matters.’
- 11“But disaster is coming your way. You don’t know when it will happen, but disaster is coming. And there is nothing you can do to stop it.