1
Descend and sit upon the dust, virgin daughter of Bavel. Sit upon the ground without a throne, daughter of the Kasdim. For they shall no longer call you tender and delicate.
2
Take millstones and grind flour. Remove your veil; strip off the skirt; uncover the thigh; pass through rivers.
3
Your nakedness shall be uncovered; indeed, your reproach shall be seen. “I shall take vengeance, and I shall not meet you as Adam.”
4
Our Redeemer— Yahuah of Hosts is His Name, the Holy One of Yisra’el.
5
Sit silent and enter darkness, daughter of the Kasdim, for they shall no longer call you mistress of kingdoms.
6
“I was angry with My people. I profaned My Inheritance and gave them into your hand. You showed them no compassion; upon the aged you made your yoke exceedingly heavy.
7
And you said, ‘Forever I shall be mistress,’ so that you did not set these things upon your heart nor remember their end.
8
And now hear this, delicate one, who dwells securely, who says in her heart, ‘I am, and there is none besides me. I shall not sit as a widow nor know loss of sons.’
9
But these two shall come upon you in a moment, in one day: loss of sons and widowhood. In their completeness they shall come upon you despite the multitude of your sorceries, despite the exceeding strength of your spells.
10
You trusted in your evil. You said, ‘None sees me.’ Your wisdom and your knowledge turned you aside, and you said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is none besides me.’
11
Therefore evil shall come upon you, and you shall not know its dawn. Calamity shall fall upon you, and you shall not be able to cover it. Desolation shall come upon you suddenly, which you do not know.
12
Stand now with your spells and with the multitude of your sorceries in which you have labored from your youth. Perhaps you may profit; perhaps you may cause trembling.
13
You are wearied by the multitude of your counsels. Let those who divide the heavens stand and save you— those seeing in the stars, making known by new moons what shall come upon you.
14
See, they have become like stubble; fire burns them. They cannot deliver their being from the hand of the flame. This is no coal for warming, no fire before which to sit.
15
Thus they have become to you— those with whom you labored, your merchants from your youth. Each ish wanders to his own side; none saves you.”