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12 Keep all your magic spells and charms;
    you have used them since you were young.
Perhaps they will be of some help to you;
    perhaps you can frighten your enemies.
13 You are powerless in spite of the advice you get.
Let your astrologers come forward and save you—
    those people who study the stars,
    who map out the zones of the heavens
    and tell you from month to month
    what[a] is going to happen to you.

14 “They will be like bits of straw,
    and a fire will burn them up!
They will not even be able to save themselves—
    the flames will be too hot for them,
    not a cozy fire to warm themselves by.

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 47:13 Some ancient translations what; Hebrew from what.

12 “Keep on, then, with your magic spells
    and with your many sorceries,(A)
    which you have labored at since childhood.
Perhaps you will succeed,
    perhaps you will cause terror.
13 All the counsel you have received has only worn you out!(B)
    Let your astrologers(C) come forward,
those stargazers who make predictions month by month,
    let them save(D) you from what is coming upon you.
14 Surely they are like stubble;(E)
    the fire(F) will burn them up.
They cannot even save themselves
    from the power of the flame.(G)
These are not coals for warmth;
    this is not a fire to sit by.

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