1. “Fall down and sit in the dirt, Virgin Daughter Babylon. You have no throne, so sit on the ground, daughter of the Chaldeans. You are not the ruler now. You are no longer the beautiful young princess that people said you were.
2. Get the millstones ready and grind the grain into flour. Take off your veil and fancy clothes. Lift your skirt and get ready to cross the rivers.
3. Men will see your naked body and use you for sex. I will make you pay for the bad things you did, and I will not let anyone help you.
4. “My people say, ‘God saves us. His name is the Lord All-Powerful, the Holy One of Israel.’”
5. “So Babylon, sit down and shut up. Daughter of the Chaldeans, go into the dark prison. You will no longer be ‘The Queen of the Kingdoms.’
6. “I was angry with my people. They were mine, but I turned against them. I let you punish them, but you showed them no mercy. Even for those who were old you made the work hard.
7. You said, ‘I will live forever. I will always be the queen.’ You didn’t care what you did to my people. You didn’t think about what might happen later.
8. So now listen, you who love only pleasure! Feeling so safe, you tell yourself, ‘I alone am important, and no one else matters. I will never be a widow or lose my children.’