Babylon Is Punished

47 “Come down and sit in the dust, O pure daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne, O people of the Babylonians. For you will no longer be called soft and gentle. ² Take the heavy stones and grind grain. Take off your face-covering and your clothing. Take the covering off your legs, and cross the rivers. ³ Your body will not be covered, and your shame will be seen. I will punish, and will not show pity to any man.” ⁴ The One Who bought us and saves us, the Lord of All is His name, the Holy One of Israel. ⁵ “Sit and be quiet, and go into darkness, O people of the Babylonians. For you will no more be called the queen of nations. ⁶ I was angry with My people. I made My chosen nation unclean, and gave them into your hand. You did not show loving-kindness to them. On the older people you made your load very heavy. ⁷ You said, ‘I will be a queen forever.’ So you did not think about these things, or remember what might happen.

⁸ “So now hear this, you who love the desires of the body, who live without fear of danger. You say in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one besides me. I will not sit as a woman whose husband has died, and I will not lose my children.’ ⁹ But these two things will come upon you all at once in one day. You will lose your children and your husband. All this trouble will come to you, even with all your witchcraft and the strong power of your sinful secret ways. ¹⁰ You trusted in your sin and said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and learning have led you the wrong way, for you have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one besides me.’ ¹¹ Much trouble will come upon you, and you will not know how to get away from it. Trouble will fall on you, and there will be no way for you to pay that it might go away. You will not know it but all at once you will be destroyed.

¹² “Keep on with your sinful secret ways and all your witchcraft that you have used since you were young. It might be that you will get something from it. Maybe you can cause fear. ¹³ You are tired with your many wise men. Now call the star watchers, those who tell by the stars what will happen in the future, those who tell the future by the new moons. Have them stand up and save you from what will come upon you. ¹⁴ See, they have become like dry grass. Fire burns them. They cannot take themselves away from the power of the fire. This is no fire for making one warm, or fire to sit by! ¹⁵ This is how those are to you, with whom you have worked since you were young. Each one has gone on in his own wrong way. There is no one who can save you.

Israel Is Not Faithful in Following the Lord

48 “Hear this, O family of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and who come from the seed of Judah. They make promises in the name of the Lord, and call upon the God of Israel, but not in truth or by what is right and good. ² For they call themselves people of the holy city, and trust in the God of Israel. The Lord of All is His name. ³ I made known the things that would happen long ago. From My mouth My words went out. Then all at once I did what I said I would, and they came to pass. ⁴ I know that your heart is hard. Your neck is like iron, and your forehead is like brass. ⁵ So I made them known to you long ago. I told you before they happened, or else you might say, ‘My false god has done them. My objects of worship have made them happen.’ ⁶ You have heard, now look at all this. And will you say that you will not tell about it? I tell you new things from this time on, even hidden things which you have not known. ⁷ They are made now, not long ago. Before today you have never heard of them, or you would say, ‘See, I knew them.’ ⁸ You have not heard. You have not known. Even from long ago your ear has not been open, because I knew that you could not be trusted. You have been known to fight against the law and not obey from birth. ⁹ Because of My name I hold back My anger. For My praise I keep Myself from cutting you off. ¹⁰ See, I have tested you, but not as silver. I have tested you in the fire of suffering. ¹¹ For My own good, for My own good, I will do this. For why should I allow My name to be put to shame? I will not give My shining-greatness to another.

God Will Take Israel Out of Trouble

¹² “Listen to Me, O Jacob, and Israel whom I called. I am He. I am the first, and I am the last. ¹³ My hand put the earth in its place. And My right hand spread out the heavens. When I call to them, they stand together. ¹⁴ Gather together, all of you, and listen! Who among them has made these things known? The Lord loves him. He will do to Babylon what pleases him, and his arm will be against the Babylonians. ¹⁵ I, even I, have spoken. Yes, I have called him, I have brought him, and he will do well. ¹⁶ Come near to Me and listen to this: From the beginning I have not spoken in secret. From the time it came to be, I was there. And now the Lord God has sent me and His Spirit.”

¹⁷ The Lord Who bought you and saves you, the Holy One of Israel, says, “I am the Lord your God, Who teaches you to do well, Who leads you in the way you should go. ¹⁸ If only you had listened to My Laws! Then your peace would have been like a river and your right-standing with God would have been like the waves of the sea. ¹⁹ Your children’s children would have been like the sand. Those born to you would have been like the sand. Their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before Me.”

²⁰ Go out from Babylon! Run from the Babylonians! Call out for joy and let this be known to the end of the earth, saying, “The Lord has bought and set free His servant Jacob!” ²¹ They were not thirsty when He led them through the deserts. He made water flow out of the rock for them. He broke the rock, and the water flowed out. ²² “There is no peace for the sinful,” says the Lord.

The Servant of the Lord

49 Listen to Me, O islands. Listen, you people from far away. The Lord called Me before I was born. From the body of My mother he said My name. ² He has made My mouth like a sharp sword. He has hidden Me in the shadow of His hand. He has made Me a shining arrow, keeping Me in His secret place. ³ And He said to Me, “You are My Servant Israel, in Whom I will show My shining-greatness.” ⁴ But I said, “My work has been for nothing. I have spent My strength for nothing. Yet for sure what should come to Me is with the Lord, and My reward is with My God.”

⁵ And now the Lord speaks, Who made Me before I was born to be His Servant, to bring Jacob back to Him, that Israel might be gathered to Him. For I am honored in the eyes of the Lord, and My God is My strength. ⁶ He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the family groups of Jacob, and to bring back those of Israel I have kept safe. I will also make You a light to the nations, so that men over all the earth can be saved from the punishment of their sins.” ⁷ This is what the Lord, the One Who saves Israel, and its Holy One, says to the hated One, to the One hated by the nations, to the Servant of rulers: “Kings will see and rise up. Rulers will also bow down, because of the Lord Who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel Who has chosen You.”

Israel as a Nation

⁸ The Lord says, “I have answered You at the right time. I have helped You in a day when people are saved. I will keep You and give You for an agreement to the people, to make the land good again, and to give them their land which had been destroyed. ⁹ I will say to those in prison, ‘Come out,’ and to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’ They will eat along the roads, and find grass on all the hills. ¹⁰ They will not be hungry or thirsty. The burning heat of the sun will not trouble them. For He Who has loving-pity on them will lead them. He will lead them to wells of water. ¹¹ And I will make all My mountains a road. My straight roads will be raised up. ¹² See, these will come from far away. See, these will come from the north and from the west, and from the land of Sinim.” ¹³ Sing for joy, O heavens! Be glad, O earth! Break out into songs of joy, O mountains! For the Lord has comforted His people. He will have loving-pity on His suffering people.

God Remembers Zion

¹⁴ But Zion said, “The Lord has left me alone. The Lord has forgotten me.” ¹⁵ “Can a woman forget her nursing child? Can she have no pity on the son to whom she gave birth? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. ¹⁶ See, I have marked your names on My hands. Your walls are always before Me. ¹⁷ Your builders hurry. And those who destroy you will leave you. ¹⁸ Lift up your eyes and look around. All of them gather together and come to you. As I live,” says the Lord, “you will put them on like objects of beauty. You will tie them on as a bride does. ¹⁹ For your waste places and your destroyed land will now be too small for the people. And those who destroyed you will be far away. ²⁰ The children born to you during the time of your sorrow will say for you to hear, ‘The place is too small for us. Make a bigger place for us to live in.’ ²¹ Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who has given birth to these for me? My children were taken from me, and I could not give birth. I was sent away and had no place of my own. Who has brought up these children? See, I was left alone. Where have these come from?’”

²² The Lord God says, “See, I will lift up My hand to the nations. I will raise My flag to the people. And they will bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters will be carried on their shoulders. ²³ Kings will take care of you as fathers. And their queens will be your nursing mothers. They will bow down to you with their faces to the ground, and kiss the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord. Those who wait for Me with hope will not be put to shame. ²⁴ “Can that which was taken by a strong man in battle be taken from him? Can those taken away to prison by a powerful ruler be saved?” ²⁵ The Lord says, “Even those taken away by the strong man will be taken from him. Those taken by the powerful ruler will be saved. For I will fight with the one who fights with you, and I will save your sons. ²⁶ I will feed those who make it hard for you with their own flesh. They will become drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine. Then all flesh will know that I, the Lord, am the One Who saves you, and the One Who bought you, the Powerful One of Jacob.”