The Humiliation of Babylon 1 CPDV Descend, sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon! Sit on the ground. There is no throne for the daughter of the Chaldeans. For you shall no longer be called delicate and tender. BSB BSB: “Go down and sit in the dust, O Virgin Daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne, O Daughter of the Chaldeans! For you will no longer be called tender or delicate.
2 CPDV Take a millstone and grind meal. Uncover your shame, bare your shoulder, reveal your legs, cross the streams. BSB BSB: Take millstones and grind flour; remove your veil; strip off your skirt, bare your thigh, and wade through the streams.
3 CPDV Your disgrace will be revealed, and your shame will be seen. I will seize vengeance, and no man will withstand me. BSB BSB: Your nakedness will be uncovered and your shame will be exposed. I will take vengeance; I will spare no one.”
4 CPDV Our Redeemer, the Lord of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel. BSB BSB: Our Redeemer—the LORD of Hosts is His name—is the Holy One of Israel.
5 CPDV Sit in silence, and enter into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans! For you shall no longer be called the noblewoman of kingdoms. BSB BSB: “Sit in silence and go into darkness, O Daughter of the Chaldeans. For you will no longer be called the queen of kingdoms.
6 CPDV I was angry with my people. I have polluted my inheritance, and I have given them into your hand. You have not shown mercy to them. You have greatly increased the burden of your yoke upon the elders. BSB BSB: I was angry with My people; I profaned My heritage, and I placed them under your control. You showed them no mercy; even on the elderly you laid a most heavy yoke.
7 CPDV And you have said: “I will be a noblewoman forever.” You have not set these things upon your heart, and you have not remembered your end. BSB BSB: You said, ‘I will be queen forever.’ You did not take these things to heart or consider their outcome.
8 CPDV And now, hear these things, you who are delicate and have confidence, who say in your heart: “I am, and there is no one greater than me. I will not sit as a widow, and I will not know barrenness.” BSB BSB: So now hear this, O lover of luxury who sits securely, who says to herself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me. I will never be a widow or know the loss of children.’
9 CPDV These two things will suddenly overwhelm you in one day: barrenness and widowhood. All things shall overwhelm you, because of the multitude of your sorceries and because of the great cruelty of your enchantments. BSB BSB: These two things will overtake you in a moment, in a single day: loss of children, and widowhood. They will come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and the potency of your spells.
10 CPDV And you have trusted in your malice, and you have said: “There is no one who sees me.” Your wisdom and your knowledge, these have deceived you. And you have said in your heart: “I am, and beside me there is no other.” BSB BSB: You were secure in your wickedness; you said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and knowledge led you astray; you told yourself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me.’
11 CPDV Evil will overwhelm you, and you will not notice its rising. And calamity will fall violently over you, and you will not be able to avert it. You will suddenly be overwhelmed by a misery such as you have never known. BSB BSB: But disaster will come upon you; you will not know how to charm it away. A calamity will befall you that you will be unable to ward off. Devastation will happen to you suddenly and unexpectedly.
14 CPDV Behold, they have become like stubble. Fire has consumed them. They will not free themselves from the power of the flames. These are not coals by which they may be warmed, nor is this a fire which they may sit beside. BSB BSB: Surely they are like stubble; the fire will burn them up. They cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame. There will be no coals to warm them or fire to sit beside.
15 CPDV So have all these things, in which you have labored, become to you. Your merchants from your youth, each one has erred in his own way. There is no one who can save you. BSB BSB: This is what they are to you—those with whom you have labored and traded from youth—each one strays in his own direction; not one of them can save you.
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.