ground,
O Fair Chaldea;
Nevermore shall they call you
The tender and dainty one.
2Grasp the handmill and grind meal.
Remove your veil,
Strip off your train, bare your leg,
Wade through the rivers.
3Your nakedness shall be uncovered,
And your shame shall be exposed.
I will take vengeance,
a-And let no man intercede.
4Our Redeemer—LORD of Hosts is His name—
Is the Holy One of Israel.-a
5Sit silent; retire into darkness,
O Fair Chaldea;
Nevermore shall they call you
Mistress of Kingdoms.
6I was angry at My people,
I defiled My heritage;
I put them into your hands,
But you showed them no mercy.
Even upon the aged you made
Your yoke exceedingly heavy.
7You thought, “I shall always be
The mistress still.”
You did not take these things to heart,
You gave no thought to the end of it.
8And now hear this, O pampered one—
Who dwell in security,
Who think to yourself,
“I am, and there is none but me;
I shall not become a widow
Or know loss of children”—
9These two things shall come upon you,
Suddenly, in one day:
Loss of children and widowhood
Shall come upon you in full measure,
Despite your many enchantments
And all your countless spells.
10You were secure in your wickedness;
You thought, “No one can see me.”
It was your skill and your science
That led you astray.
And you thought to yourself,
“I am, and there is none but me.”
11Evil is coming upon you
Which you will not know how to b-charm away;-b
Disaster is falling upon you
Which you will not be able to appease;
Coming upon you suddenly
Is ruin of which you know nothing.
12Stand up, with your spells and your many enchantments
On which you labored since youth!
Perhaps you’ll be able to profit,
Perhaps you c-will find strength.-c
13You are helpless, despite all your art.
Let them stand up and help you now,
The scannersd of heaven, the star-gazers,
Who announce, month by month,
Whatever will come upon you.
14See, they are become like straw,
Fire consumes them;
They cannot save themselves
From the power of the flame;
This is no coal for warming oneself,
No fire to sit by!
15This is what they have profited you—
The traders you dealt with since youth—
Each has wandered off his own way,
There is none to save you.
48 Listen to this, O House of Jacob,
Who bear the name Israel
And have issued from the watersa of Judah,
Who swear by the name of the LORD
And invoke the God of Israel—
Though not in truth and sincerity—
2For youb are called after c-the Holy City-c
And youb do lean on the God of Israel,
Whose name is LORD of Hosts:
3Long ago, I foretold things that happened,
From My mouth they issued, and I announced them;
Suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.
4Because I know how stubborn you are
(Your neck is like an iron sinew
And your forehead bronze),
5Therefore I told you long beforehand,
Announced things to you ere they happened—
That you might not say, “My idol caused them,
My carved and molten images ordained them.”
6You have d-heard all this; look, must you not acknowledge it?-d
As of now, I announce to you new things,
Well-guarded secrets you did not know.
7Only now are they created, and not of old;
d-Before today-d you had not heard them;
You cannot say, “I knew them already.”
8You had never heard, you had never known,
Your ears were not opened of old.
Though I know that you are treacherous,
That you were called a rebel from birth,
9For the sake of My name I control My wrath;
To My own glory, d-I am patient-d with you,
And I will not destroy you.
10See, I refine you, but not as silver;
I test you in the furnace of affliction.
11For My sake, My own sake, do I act—
Lest [My name]e be dishonored!
I will not give My glory to another.
12Listen to Me, O Jacob,
Israel, whom I have called:
I am He—I am the first,
And I am the last as well.
13My own hand founded the earth,
My right hand spread out the skies.
I call unto them, let them stand up.
14Assemble, all of you, and listen!
Who among youf foretold these things:
d-“He whom the LORD loves
Shall work His will against Babylon,
And, with His might, against Chaldea”?-d
15I, I predicted, and I called him;
I have brought him and he shall succeed in his mission.
16Draw near to Me and hear this:
From the beginning, I did not speak in secret;
From the time anything existed, I was there.g
“And now the Lord God has sent me, h-endowed
with His spirit.”-h
17Thus said the LORD your Redeemer,
The Holy One of Israel:
I the LORD am your God,
Instructing you for your own benefit.
Guiding you in the way you should go.
18If only you would heed My commands!
Then your prosperity would be like a river,
Your triumph like the waves of the sea.
19Your offspring would be as many as the sand,
Their issue as many as its grains.d
Their name would never be cut off
Or obliterated from before Me.
20Go forth from Babylon,
Flee from Chaldea!
Declare this with loud shouting,
Announce this,
Bring out the word to the ends of the earth!
21Say: “The LORD has redeemed
His servant Jacob!”
They have known no thirst,
Though He led them through parched places;
He made water flow for them from the rock;
He cleaved the rock and water gushed forth.
22There is no safety—said the LORD—for the wicked.
49 Listen, O coastlands, to me,
And give heed, O nations afar:
The LORD appointed me before I was born,
He named me while I was in my mother’s womb.
2He made my mouth like a sharpened blade,
He hid me in the shadow of His hand,
And He made me like a polished arrow;
He concealed me in His quiver.
3And He said to me, “You are My servant,
Israel in whom I glory.”
4I thought, “I have labored in vain,
I have spent my strength for empty breath.”
But my case rested with the LORD,
My recompense was in the hands of my God.
5And now the LORD has resolved—
He who formed me in the womb to be His servant—
To bring back Jacob to Himself,
That Israel may be restored to Him.
And I have been honored in the sight of the LORD,
My God has been my strength.
6For He has said:
“It is too little that you should be My servant
In that I raise up the tribes of Jacob
And restore the survivors of Israel:
I will also make you a lighta of nations,
That My salvation may reach the ends of the earth.”
7Thus said the LORD,
The Redeemer of Israel, his Holy One,
b-To the despised one,
To the abhorred nations,-b
To the slave of rulers:
Kings shall see and stand up;
Nobles, and they shall prostrate themselves—
To the honor of the LORD, who is faithful,
To the Holy One of Israel who chose you.
8Thus said the LORD:
In an hour of favor I answer you,
And on a day of salvation I help you—
I created you and appointed you c-a covenant people-c—
Restoring the land,
Allotting anew the desolate holdings,
9Saying to the prisoners, “Go free,”
To those who are in darkness, “Show yourselves.”
They shall pasture along the roads,
On every bare height shall be their pasture.
10They shall not hunger or thirst,
Hot wind and sun shall not strike them;
For He who loves them will lead them,
He will guide them to springs of water.
11I will make all My mountains a road,
And My highways shall be built up.
12Look! These are coming from afar,
These from the north and the west,
And these from the land of Sinim.d
13Shout, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth!
Break into shouting, O hills!
For the LORD has comforted His people,
And has taken back His afflicted ones in love.
14Zion says,
“The LORD has forsaken me,
My Lord has forgotten me.”
15Can a woman forget her baby,
Or disown the child of her womb?
Though she might forget,
I never could forget you.
16See, I have engraved you
On the palms of My hands,
Your walls are ever before Me.
17Swiftly your children are coming;
Those who ravaged and ruined you shall leave you.
18Look up all around you and see:
They are all assembled, are come to you!
As I live
—declares the LORD—
You shall don them all like jewels,
Deck yourself with them like a bride.
19As for your ruins and desolate places
And your land laid waste—
You shall soon be crowded with settlers,
While destroyers stay far from you.
20The children e-you thought you had lost-e
Shall yet say in your hearing,
“The place is too crowded for me;
Make room for me to settle.”
21And you will say to yourself,
“Who bore these for me
When I was bereaved and barren,
Exiled and disdainedf—
By whom, then, were these reared?
I was left all alone—
And where have these been?”
22Thus said the Lord GOD:
I will raise My hand to nations
And lift up My ensign to peoples;
And they shall bring your sons in their bosoms,
And carry your daughters on their backs.
23Kings shall tend your children,
Their queens shall serve you as nurses.
They shall bow to you, face to the ground,
And lick the dust of your feet.
And you shall know that I am the LORD—
Those who trust in Me shall not be shamed.
24Can spoil be taken from a warrior,
Or captives retrieved from a victor?
25Yet thus said the LORD:
Captives shall be taken from a warrior
And spoil shall be retrieved from a tyrant;
For I will contend with your adversaries,
And I will deliver your children.
26I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh,
They shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine.
And all mankind shall know
That I the LORD am your Savior,
The Mighty One of Jacob, your Redeemer.
50 Thus said the LORD:
aWhere is the bill of divorce
Of your mother whom I dismissed?
And which of My creditors was it
To whom I sold you off?
You were only sold off for your sins,
And your mother dismissed for your crimes.
2Why, when I came, was no one there,
Why, when I called, would none respond?
Is my arm, then, too short to rescue,
Have I not the power to save?
With a mere rebuke I dry up the sea,
And turn rivers into desert.
Their fish stink from lack of water;
They lie dead b-of thirst.-b
3I clothe the skies in blackness
And make their raiment sackcloth.
4c-The Lord GOD gave me a skilled tongue,
To know how to speak timely words to the weary.-c
Morning by morning, He rouses,
He rouses my ear
To give heed like disciples.
5The Lord GOD opened my ears,
And I did not disobey,
I did not run away.
6I offered my back to the floggers,
And my cheeks to those