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Isaiah 47

KJV · Chapter 47/66

1Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter 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.

2Take the millstones, and grind meal: uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers.

3Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man.

4As for our redeemer, the Lord of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel.

5Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called, The lady of kingdoms.

6I was wroth with my people, I have polluted mine inheritance, and given them into thine hand: thou didst shew them no mercy; upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke.

7And thou saidst, I shall be a lady for ever: so that thou didst not lay these things to thy heart, neither didst remember the latter end of it.

8Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children:

9But 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 the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments.

10For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness: thou hast said, None seeth me. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee; and thou hast said in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me.

11Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it riseth: and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know.

12Stand 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.

13Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.

14Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it.

15Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast laboured, even thy merchants, from thy youth: they shall wander every one to his quarter; none shall save thee.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Isaiah announces Babylon's humiliating fall — the city that had prided itself on being 'lady of kingdoms' and trusted in sorceresses and astrologers. She will be brought down suddenly, with no magic or wisdom able to save her.

Explanation

Babylon is portrayed as a proud 'lady' or 'princess' who will be forced to sit in the dust, an image of total humiliation using the same language Isaiah had earlier used to describe the humbling of Jerusalem (chapter 3) — showing that the pattern of judgment on pride applies equally to any nation. The mention of astrologers, 'stargazers,' and those who 'predict by the new moons' reflects Babylon's real historical fame as a center of astrology and divination in the ancient world. The central irony is that all this mystical wisdom would be powerless to foresee or prevent its own downfall. The practical application today is that trusting in superstitions, horoscopes, or dubious sources of 'wisdom' to predict the future is, from a biblical perspective, a futility that cannot replace genuine trust in God.

Fun facts

  • Babylon was historically famous for its astrologers and for inventing the zodiac as we know it today — the Babylonians were pioneers in cataloguing constellations and predicting eclipses, advanced astronomical technology for the time.
  • Babylon's historical fall to Cyrus's Persian army in 539 BC is described by ancient historians such as Herodotus as surprisingly swift, matching the 'sudden destruction' Isaiah had announced decades earlier.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Isaiah 47:1Calling Babylon a virgin, a fragile daughter, is irony: the city that thought itself untouchable is brought down to the position of a slave, sitting on the ground barefoot, grinding meal as manual labor. It’s the image of a power falling from the top to the bottom.
  2. Isaiah 47:2Grinding meal at the millstone was heavy labor normally reserved for servants or prisoners, and uncovering the legs to wade across rivers describes the total loss of modesty for someone who once lived protected like royalty.
  3. Isaiah 47:3Exposing Babylon’s shame and reproach portrays its fall in terms of public humiliation, and the vengeance that will “not meet thee as a man” points to a judgment on a scale greater than any ordinary human conflict.
  4. Isaiah 47:4In the middle of the denunciation of Babylon, this verse pauses to recall who Israel’s redeemer is, almost a breath of identity in the midst of the oracle of judgment against the enemy city.
  5. Isaiah 47:5“Get thee into darkness” and losing the title “The lady of kingdoms” describe the fall from a center of absolute power to total irrelevance, an epithet Babylon genuinely bore as an imperial capital.
  6. Isaiah 47:6The text acknowledges that it was God Himself who handed His people over to Babylon as punishment, but condemns the excess: instead of restraint, Babylon treated even the elderly with needless cruelty.
  7. Isaiah 47:7“I shall be a lady for ever” sums up Babylon’s imperial arrogance, convinced that its dominion would never end, without foreseeing or considering the future consequences of that oppression.
  8. Isaiah 47:8“Given to pleasures” describes a lifestyle of extreme luxury and security, and the phrase “I am, and none else beside me” ironically copies the very language the text uses for God, applied here to the arrogance of a city.
  9. Isaiah 47:9Losing children and becoming a widow at the same moment is the contrast to Babylon’s arrogance, which claimed it would never lose anything. The prophesied reversal is swift and total, colliding head-on with the confidence of a city that thought itself eternal.
  10. Isaiah 47:10Trusting in her own wickedness and thinking “None seeth me” describes Babylon’s sense of impunity, and the blame is placed on the city’s own wisdom and knowledge, which led her to deceive herself.
  11. Isaiah 47:11Describing an evil “thou shalt not know from whence it riseth” and a sudden desolation reinforces that Babylon’s fall will catch the city by surprise, with no time to react and no way to avoid it.
  12. Isaiah 47:12The ironic invitation to keep on with enchantments and sorceries, practices Babylon invested a lifetime in, is a challenge for the city to try to save itself, knowing it will fail.
  13. Isaiah 47:13The court astrologers, who read the future in the stars and new moons, had a famous reputation in the Babylon of that time. The prophet dares these specialists to use their own craft to save themselves, and says it won’t do any good.
  14. Isaiah 47:14Comparing the enchanters and sorcerers to “stubble” that fire quickly consumes is an image of total destruction with nothing left of survival value: not even a coal remains to warm anyone afterward.
  15. Isaiah 47:15The “merchants” who worked with Babylon a whole lifetime, probably including trading partners and perhaps even the astrologers themselves, wander off each his own way, with no one willing to save the city when it falls.

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