It is just these features, which our prophet describes in ch. xlvii., in verses more notable for their moral insight and indignation, than for their beauty as a work of literature. He is certain of Babylon's immediate fall from power and luxury into slavery and dishonour (vv. 1-3). He speaks of her cruelty to her captives (ver. 6), of her haughtiness and her secure pride (vv. 7, 8). He touches twice upon her atheistic self-sufficiency, her "autotheism,"--"_I am, and there is none beside me_," words which only God can truly use, but words which man's ignorant, proud self is ever ready to repeat (vv. 8-10). He speaks of the wearisomeness and futility of her religious magic (vv. 10-14). And he closes with a vivid touch, that dissolves the reality of that merely commercial grandeur on which she prides herself. Like every association that arises only from the pecuniary profit of its members, Babylon shall surely break up, and none of those, who sought her for their selfish ends, shall wait to help her one moment after she has ceased to be profitable to them.
Here now are his own words, rendered literally except in the case of one or two conjunctions and articles,--rendered, too, in the original order of the words, and, as far as it can be determined, in the rhythm of the original. The rhythm is largely uncertain, but some verses--1, 5, 14, 15--are complete in that measure which we found in the Taunt-song against the king of Babylon in ch. xiii.,[112] and nearly every line or clause has the same metrical swing upon it.
_Down! and sit in the dust, O virgin,_ _Daughter of Babel!_ _Sit on the ground, with no throne,_ _Daughter of Khasdîm! For not again shall they call thee_ _Tender and Dainty._ _Take to thee millstones, and grind out the meal,_ _Put back thy veil, strip off the garment,_ _Make bare the leg, wade through the rivers;_ _Bare be thy nakedness, yea, be beholden thy shame!_ _Vengeance I take, and strike treaty with none._
_Our Redeemer! Jehovah of Hosts is His Name,_ _Holy of Israel!_
_Sit thou dumb, and get into darkness,_ _Daughter of Khasdîm!_ _For not again shall they call thee_ _Mistress of Kingdoms._ _I was wroth with My people, profaned Mine inheritance,_ _Gave them to thy hand:_ _Thou didst show them no mercy, on old men thou madest_ _Thy yoke very sore._ _And thou saidst, For ever I shall be mistress,_ _Till thou hast set not these things to thy heart,_ _Nor thought of their issue._