Isaiah

¹ virgin daughter of Babylon. No more throne for you—sit on the ground, daughter of the Chaldeans. Nobody will be calling you 'charming' and 'alluring' anymore. Get used to it.

² Clean gutters, scrub toilets. Hock your gowns and scarves, put on overalls—the party's over.

³ exposed to vulgar taunts. It's vengeance time, and I'm taking vengeance. No one gets let off the hook."

⁴ named God-of-the-Angel-Armies, The Holy of Israel:

⁵ daughter of Chaldeans. You'll no longer be called 'First Lady of the Kingdoms.'

⁶ thoroughly disgusted with my progeny. I turned them over to you, but you had no compassion. You put old men and women to cruel, hard labor.

⁷ I'll always be the pampered darling.' You took nothing seriously, took nothing to heart, never gave tomorrow a thought.

⁸ You're acting like the center of the universe, Smugly saying to yourself, 'I'm Number One. There's nobody but me. I'll never be a widow, I'll never lose my children.'

⁹ suddenly, on the same day: Spouse and children gone, a total loss, despite your many enchantments and charms.

¹⁰ saying, 'No one sees me.' You thought you knew so much, had everything figured out. What delusion! Smugly telling yourself, 'I'm Number One. There's nobody but me.'

¹¹ you can't charm it away. Disaster strikes— you can't cast it off with spells. Catastrophe, sudden and total— and you're totally at sea, totally bewildered!

¹² of enchantments there must be one you haven't yet tried. You've been at this a long time. Surely something will work.

¹³ but don't give up. Call in the astrologers and stargazers. They're good at this. Surely they can work up something!

¹⁴ that are already in the fire, A fire that is even now raging. Your 'experts' are in it and won't get out. It's not a fire for cooking venison stew, not a fire to warm you on a winter night!

¹⁵ you've been in cahoots with all your life. They reel, confused, bumping into one another. None of them bother to help you.