The Book of the Prophet Isaiah
Isaiah 47
Chapter XLVII · Vol. III, pp. 1203–1204
1 God's judgment upon Babylon and Chaldea, 6 for their unmercifulness, 7 pride, 10 and over-boldness, 11 shall be unresistible.
1 Come down,a and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter1 of Babylon; sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate.
2 Takeb the millstones, and grind meal:2 uncoverc thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the 3rivers.4
b Ex.11.5. Ju.16.21. Job 31.10. La.5.13. Mat.24.41. ch.14.2. Je.27.7; 50.3.
2 That meal still continued, even in the time of our Saviour, to be commonly ground by women in small handmills, is evident from Mat. 24. 41. It was generally the work of captives and slaves, Ex. 11. 5. Ju.16.21.—C.
c ch.3.17; 20.4. Je.13.22,26; 2.26. Na.3.5. Eze.16.37; 4.7; 23.10.
3 Referring to the unfrequency of bridges in the East.—C.
4 The sense may be thus expressed:—'Raise thy long flowing vail; lift up thy flowing robes; uncover thy legs, and thus a poor, helpless, weary captive, wade through the streams into the land of thy captivity.' Babylon had conquered, oppressed, and enslaved Israel, now a like fate awaited herself. The contrast is drawn with great graphic power between the oppressor and the oppressed. Babylon the oppressor, sitting for a time in queenly state, with Israel in chains at her feet; then Israel freed and re-established in her own land, under the rule of her heavenly King, while Babylon, humbled and degraded, is driven into captivity.—P.
3 Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: dI will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man.5
4 Ase for our Redeemer, the LORD of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel.
e ch.43.3,14; 44.6. Je.50.15,17-19,28,33,34; 51.33-37,56.
5 Sitg thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called, The lady of kingdoms.
6 Ih was wroth with my people; I have polluted mine inheritance, and given them into thine hand: ithou didst show them no mercy; upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke.
7 And thou saidst, I shall be ja lady for ever: so that thou didst not lay these things to thy heart, neither didst remember the latter end of it.
j ver.5; ch.14.4-6,16,17; 13.14. Je.25.9-11; 27.6,8. Da.2.37; 5.18,19. Re.18.7. La.1.9. ch.5.12-14. De.32.20-29.
8 Therefore hear now this, kthou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly; that sayest in thine heart, lI am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children:
k ch.21.4. Da.5.1-4. Ju.18.17. ch.32.9. Je.50.11. Zep.2.15.
l Je.50.31,32; 51.53. ch.13.19; 14.13,14. Da.4.30,31; 5.18-23. 2 Th.2.4. Re.18.7.
9 Butn these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection for othe multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments.
10 For thou hast ptrusted in thy wickedness: thou qhast said, None seeth me. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge it hath perverted thee:6 and thou hast said in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me.
11 Therefore rshall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it 7riseth: and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it off:8 and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know.
r 1 Th.5.2,3. Da.5.30. ch.xiii. xiv. xxi. Je.l. li. Re.18.9, with Job 1.16. Eze.13.11. Ju.16.30. 1 Ki.20.30. 2 Pe.2.3,9.
7 Heb. the morning thereof.
8 Heb. expiate.
12 Stands now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail.
13 Thout art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers,9 the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators,1 stand up and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.
14 Behold, uthey shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves2 from the power of the flame: vthere shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it.
15 Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast laboured, even xthy merchants,3 from thy youth: ythey shall wander every one to his quarter; none shall save thee.
x ver.12,13, or Eze.xxvii. Re.18.11,12,15,23. Je.50.16,37.
3 Merchants. Dealers in divination and the peculiar Babylonish arts.—C.
y ch.56.11.
Notes
Ver. 1-5. Glorious and unconquered kingdom of Babylon, bewail thy approaching calamities: thou shalt be reduced very low: thy dignity and authority taken from thee; thy luxury and delicacy shall be exchanged for afflicting straits and oppressing miseries; thy wretched inhabitants shall be reduced to grind at the mills, or to perform other pieces of the basest drudgery, or driven in herds of captives before their cruel conquerors; they shall be exposed to scorn and disgrace in every form. I, the Almighty God and Redeemer of Israel, by the irresistible effects of my just judgment, will render your city and country desolate and miserable. 6-8. Because ye have cruelly murdered and oppressed the Jews, and presumptuously boasted that your empire could never fall, never be equalled in power and wealth, and never want a king and people to defend it. 14, 15. No comfort shall be left you;—and your merchants and hired troops shall flee away to their respective countries.
Ver. 5. The lady of kingdoms. There is a great tendency in all nations to be proud of their capitals, and to bestow upon them great swelling titles: 'lady of kingdoms,' indicating beauty and delicacy! What a name for a heap of rubbish, the habitation of serpents and wild beasts! 'The eternal city,' the fond title of imperial Rome, indicating a certainty of unchangeable splendour! what a name for the ruins that encumber her seven hills, and typify the judgments that are ready to sweep her away! C.
Ver. 9. In a moment in one day. Babylon was of such prodigious strength, and possessed of such resources, both of provisions and men, that Belshazzar and the city and army were engaged in the revelry of a festival: in 'a moment,' and without a blow struck in self-defence, the city was taken, and the kingdom overthrown, about 540 years before the Christian era.—The loss of children. The Babylonians afterwards rebelled against the Persians, and Darius Hystaspes besieged them. For the purpose of prolonging their means of defence, they resolved that all who were incapable of aiding in the defence, including their wives and children, should be put to death. Thus fulfilling, by their own decree and hand, the terrible doom of loss of children which God had denounced against them. C.
Ver. 12. Babylon, during all its history, was the fruitful parent of idolatry, lewdness, and debauchery. These were accompanied with high pretensions to the knowledge of occult sciences, called 'sorceries and enchantments,' Da. 2. 2, by which ignorant and superstitious minds were kept in mental and bodily subjection to a wicked priesthood and tyrannical government. C.
Ver. 13. Astrologers. Judicial astrology, or the pretence of foretelling the future fortunes of children from the position of the planets at the hour of their birth, still holds its place in India; and was at one period very prevalent in Europe, from some parts of which it is scarcely yet completely banished. Such, alas! has been, and continues to be, the folly and the presumption of men! C.
Reflections.—God delights to abase the proud, and to deal justly with the unmerciful. And, alas! the mightiest nations soon sink under the hand of an angry but righteous God, and the weight of their manifold sins. The very sins in which they had gloried or laboured, or by which they had hoped to save themselves, become the principal causes of their ruin. Yea, the mischiefs which sinners least dreaded often come fatally upon them. And false teachers, who are the instruments in deceiving others, shall themselves feel the heaviest stroke of judgment.