| New Living Translation | Berean Study Bible |
| 1“Come down, virgin daughter of Babylon, and sit in the dust. For your days of sitting on a throne have ended. O daughter of Babylonia, never again will you be the lovely princess, tender and delicate. | 1“Go down and sit in the dust, O Virgin Daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne, O Daughter of Chaldea! For you will no longer be called tender or delicate. |
| 2Take heavy millstones and grind flour. Remove your veil, and strip off your robe. Expose yourself to public view. | 2Take millstones and grind flour; remove your veil; strip off your skirt, bare your thigh, and wade through the streams. |
| 3You will be naked and burdened with shame. I will take vengeance against you without pity.” | 3Your nakedness will be uncovered and your shame will be exposed. I will take vengeance; I will spare no one.” |
| 4Our Redeemer, whose name is the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, is the Holy One of Israel. | 4Our Redeemer—the LORD of Hosts is His name—is the Holy One of Israel. |
| 5“O beautiful Babylon, sit now in darkness and silence. Never again will you be known as the queen of kingdoms. | 5“Sit in silence and go into darkness, O Daughter of Chaldea. For you will no longer be called the queen of kingdoms. |
| 6For I was angry with my chosen people and punished them by letting them fall into your hands. But you, Babylon, showed them no mercy. You oppressed even the elderly. | 6I 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. |
| 7You said, ‘I will reign forever as queen of the world!’ You did not reflect on your actions or think about their consequences. | 7You said, ‘I will be queen forever.’ You did not take these things to heart or consider their outcome. |
| 8“Listen to this, you pleasure-loving kingdom, living at ease and feeling secure. You say, ‘I am the only one, and there is no other. I will never be a widow or lose my children.’ | 8So 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.’ |
| 9Well, both these things will come upon you in a moment: widowhood and the loss of your children. Yes, these calamities will come upon you, despite all your witchcraft and magic. | 9These 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“You felt secure in your wickedness. ‘No one sees me,’ you said. But your ‘wisdom’ and ‘knowledge’ have led you astray, and you said, ‘I am the only one, and there is no other.’ | 10You 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.’ |
| 11So disaster will overtake you, and you won’t be able to charm it away. Calamity will fall upon you, and you won’t be able to buy your way out. A catastrophe will strike you suddenly, one for which you are not prepared. | 11But 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. |
| 12“Now use your magical charms! Use the spells you have worked at all these years! Maybe they will do you some good. Maybe they can make someone afraid of you. | 12So take your stand with your spells and with your many sorceries, with which you have wearied yourself from your youth. Perhaps you will succeed; perhaps you will inspire terror! |
| 13All the advice you receive has made you tired. Where are all your astrologers, those stargazers who make predictions each month? Let them stand up and save you from what the future holds. | 13You are wearied by your many counselors; let them come forward now and save you—your astrologers who observe the stars, who monthly predict your fate. |
| 14But they are like straw burning in a fire; they cannot save themselves from the flame. You will get no help from them at all; their hearth is no place to sit for warmth. | 14Surely 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. |
| 15And all your friends, those with whom you’ve done business since childhood, will go their own ways, turning a deaf ear to your cries. | 15This 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. |
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