1 "Come down, and sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne, daughter of the Chaldeans: for you shall no more be called tender and delicate. 2 Take the millstones, and grind meal; remove your veil, strip off the train, uncover the leg, pass through the rivers. 3 Your nakedness shall be uncovered, yes, your shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and will spare no man." 4 Our Redeemer, Yahweh of Armies is his name, the Holy One of Israel. 5 "Sit in silence, and go into darkness, daughter of the Chaldeans; for you shall no more be called the mistress of kingdoms. 6 I was angry with my people, I profaned my inheritance, and gave them into your hand: you showed them no mercy; on the aged you have very heavily laid your yoke. 7 You said, I shall be mistress forever; so that you did not lay these things to your heart, neither did remember the latter end of it. 8 "Now therefore hear this, you who are given to pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, I am, and there is none else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children: 9 but these two things shall come to you in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood; in their full measure shall they come on you, in the multitude of your sorceries, and the great abundance of your enchantments. 10 For you have trusted in your wickedness; you have said, No one sees me; your wisdom and your knowledge, it has perverted you, and you have said in your heart, I am, and there is none else besides me. 11 Therefore evil will come on you; you won't know when it dawns: and mischief will fall on you; you will not be able to put it away: and desolation shall come on you suddenly, which you don't know. 12 "Stand now with your enchantments, and with the multitude of your sorceries, in which you have labored from your youth; if so be you shall be able to profit, if so be you may prevail. 13 You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels: let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save you from the things that shall come on you. 14 Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: it shall not be a coal to warm at, nor a fire to sit before. 15 Thus shall the things be to you in which you have labored: those who have trafficked with you from your youth shall wander everyone to his quarter; there shall be none to save you.
In the closing verse of the previous chapter, add had given the assurance that his people should certainly be delivered from their captivity in Babylon, and restored to their own land. In this chapter, he describes the vengeance which he would take on Babylon, and the entire chapter is occupied in portraying, under various images, the prostration and humiliation of that proud and oppressive seat of magnificence and of empire. Babylon is described under the image of a lady, carefully nourished and decorated; and all the images of her destruction are drawn from those circumstances which would tend to humble a happy and proud female that had been accustomed to luxury, and unused to scenes of humiliation, poverty, and bereavement. The scope of the chapter is, to state the crimes for which she would be humbled and punished, and the manner in which it would be done. These are intermingled, but they may be contemplated separately. The chapter may, therefore, be regarded as consisting of the following items:
I. Babylon is addressed, by an apostrophe to her, as the seat of empire, and her humiliation is directly predicted under the image of a happy and delicately reared female, suddenly reduced to circumstances of great humiliation and disgrace Isaiah 47:1-5. She is commanded to sit down in the dust; she should no longer be treated as tender and delicate Isaiah 47:1; she would be reduced to the most abject condition - like a delicate and tender female from elevated life compelled to perform the most menial offices, and stripped of all her fine attire Isaiah 47:2-3; she was to sit in darkness, or obscurity; her honor was to be taken away, and she was no more to be called the lady of kingdoms Isaiah 47:5; and all this was to be done by Yahweh, to take vengeance on the oppressors of his people Isaiah 47:3-4.
II. God states the reasons why he would thus humble and punish her Isaiah 47:6-7. It was because she had shown no mercy to his people, and had laid a heavy yoke on an ancient nation Isaiah 47:6; and because she had vainly calculated that her power and magnificence would continue forever, notwithstanding the manner in which she had oppressed the people whom God had given into her hand Isaiah 47:7.
III. The nature of the punishment which should come upon her for this is more distinctly and fully predicted, intermingled with further statements of the causes why she should be punished and humbled Isaiah 47:8-9. The causes were, that luxury and effeminacy abounded; that she was proud, and did not apprehend that it was possible that she should be reduced from her state of magnificence and grandeur; and that she had cherished sorcerers and enchantments. The punishment was, that she should be reduced in a moment to the condition of a widow, and to the state of one who had been suddenly bereft of all hcr children.
IV. The crime and the punishment of the city are further stated Isaiah 47:10-11. The crime was, that she had supposed no avenging God saw her; and that she had become proud and vain of her wisdom and knowledge. The punishment would be, that evil would come upon her from a quarter where she little expected it, and in a manner which she could not prevent.
V. Babylon is sarcastically called on to invoke to her aid those in whom she had trusted - the astrologers, the star-gazers, and those who practiced sorcery and enchantments Isaiah 47:12-13.
VI. The chapter concludes with a statement of the utter vanity of the sorcerers, and the absolute folly of trusting in them Isaiah 47:14-15. Even the flame would pass over them; and so far were they from having any power to deliver those who trusted in them, that they had no power to preserve themselves from ruin.
This chaptcr, therefore, contains many very particular statements about the manner in which Babylon was to be destroyed, statements which will be found to have been fulfilled with surprising accuracy. They are statements, moreover, which could not have been the result of conjecture, or mere political sagacity, for political conjecture and sagacity do not descend to minute particulars and details. It is to be borne in remembrance that this prophecy was uttered a hundred and fifty years before its fulfillment, and that there were no circumstances existing in the time of Isaiah which could have laid the foundation for conjecture in regard to the events predicted here. The temple was then standing; the city of Jerusalem was strongly fortified; the kingdom of Judah was powerful; Babylon was just rising into magnificence; the power which ultimately overthrew it had scarcely begun to start into being: and none of the causes which ultimately led Cyrus to attack and destroy it, had as yet an existence. And if these things were so then the conclusion is inevitable that Isaiah was under the influence of divine inspiration. It is the particularity of the description in the prophets long before the events occurred, which, more than anything else, distinguishes them from mere political conjecture; and if the particular descriptions here and elsewhere recorded of the overthrow of Babylon, and of other future events, were actually made before the events occurred, then the conclusion is irresistible that they were inspired by God.
The destruction of Babylon is denounced by a beautiful selection of circumstances, in which her prosperous is contrasted with her adverse condition. She is represented as a tender and delicate female reduced to the work and abject condition of a slave, and bereaved of every consolation, Isaiah 47:1-4. And that on account of her cruelty, particularly to God's people, her pride, voluptuousness, sorceries, and incantations, Isaiah 47:5-11. The folly of these last practices elegantly exposed by the prophet, Isaiah 47:12-15. It is worthy of observation that almost all the imagery of this chapter is applied in the book of the Revelation, (in nearly the same words), to the antitype of the illustrious capital of the Chaldean empire, viz., Babylon the Great.
INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 47
This chapter is a prophecy of the destruction of Babylon, and of the Chaldeans, and declares the causes of it. The mean, low, ignominious, and miserable condition Babylon and the Chaldeans should be brought into by the Lord, the Redeemer of his people, is described, Isaiah 47:1, the causes of it are their cruelty to the Jews, Isaiah 47:6, their pride, voluptuousness, and carnal security, Isaiah 47:7 their sorceries and enchantments, and trust in their own wisdom, Isaiah 47:9, wherefore their destruction should come suddenly upon them, and they should not be able to put it off, Isaiah 47:11, their magic art, and judiciary astrology, which they boasted of, by them they could neither foresee nor withstand their ruin, which would be of no avail unto them, Isaiah 47:12, nor their merchants either, Isaiah 47:15.
(Isaiah 47:1-6) God's judgments on Babylon.
(Isaiah 47:7-15) Carelessness and confidence shall not prevent the evil.
*More commentary available by clicking individual verses.