Isaiah 47

Isa 47:1-15.

THE

DESTRUCTION OF

BABYLON

IS

REPRESENTED UNDER THE

IMAGE OF A

ROYAL

VIRGIN

BROUGHT

DOWN IN A

MOMENT FROM

HER

MAGNIFICENT

THRONE TO THE

EXTREME OF

DEGRADATION.

1. in the dust--(See on

Isa 3:26;

Job 2:13;

La 2:10).

virgin--that is, heretofore uncaptured

[HERODOTUS, 1.191].

daughter of Babylon--Babylon and its inhabitants

(see on

Isa 1:8;

Isa 37:22).

no throne--The seat of empire was transferred to Shushan. Alexander

intended to have made Babylon his seat of empire, but Providence

defeated his design. He soon died; and Seleucia, being built near,

robbed it of its inhabitants, and even of its name, which was applied to

Seleucia.

delicate--alluding to the effeminate debauchery and prostitution of

all classes at banquets and religious rites

[CURTIUS, 5.1;

HERODOTUS, 1.199;

BARUCH, 6.43].

2. millstones--like the querns or hand-mills, found in this

country, before the invention of water mills and windmills: a convex

stone, made by the hand to turn in a concave stone, fitted to receive

it, the corn being ground between them: the office of a female slave in

the East; most degrading

(Job 31:10;

Mt 24:41).

uncover thy locks--rather, "take off thy veil" [HORSLEY]: perhaps the removal of the plaited hair

worn round the women's temples is included; it, too, is a

covering

(1Co 11:15);

to remove it and the veil is the badge of the lowest female

degradation; in the East the head is the seat of female modesty; the

face of a woman is seldom, the whole head almost never,

seen bare (see on

Isa 22:8).

make bare the leg--rather "lift up (literally, 'uncover'; as in

lifting up the train the leg is uncovered) thy flowing train." In

Mesopotamia, women of low rank, as occasion requires, wade across the

rivers with stript legs, or else entirely put off their garments and

swim across. "Exchange thy rich, loose, queenly robe, for the most

abject condition, that of one going to and fro through rivers as a

slave, to draw water," &c.

uncover . . . thigh--gather up the robe, so as to wade across.

3. not meet . . . as a man--rather, "I will not meet a man," that

is, suffer man to intercede with me--give man an audience

[HORSLEY]. Or,

"I will not make peace with any man," before all are destroyed.

Literally, "strike a league with"; a phrase arising from the custom of

striking hands together in making a compact

[MAURER],

(see on

Pr 17:18;

Pr 22:26; 11:15,

Margin). Or else from striking the victims sacrificed in

making treaties.

4. As for--rather supply, "Thus saith our Redeemer"

[MAURER].

LOWTH supposes this verse to be the exclamation of a chorus breaking in

with praises, "Our Redeemer! Jehovah of hosts," &c.

(Jer 50:34).

5. Sit--the posture of mourning

(Ezr 9:4;

Job 2:13;

La 2:10).

darkness--mourning and misery

(La 3:2;

Mic 7:8).

lady of kingdoms--mistress of the world

(Isa 13:19).

6. reason for God's vengeance on Babylon: in executing God's will

against His people, she had done so with wanton cruelty

(Isa 10:5,

&c.; Jer 50:17; 51:33;

Zec 1:15).

polluted my inheritance--

(Isa 43:28).

the ancient--Even old age was disregarded by the Chaldeans, who treated

all alike with cruelty

(La 4:16; 5:12)

[ROSENMULLER]. Or, "the ancient" means Israel,

worn out with calamities in the latter period of its history

(Isa 46:4),

as its earlier stage of history is called its "youth"

(Isa 54:6;

Eze 16:60).

7. so that--Through thy vain expectation of being a queen for ever,

thou didst advance to such a pitch of insolence as not to believe "these

things" (namely, as to thy overthrow,

Isa 47:1-5)

possible.

end of it--namely, of thy insolence, implied in her words, "I shall

be a lady for ever."

8. given to pleasures--(See on

Isa 47:1).

In no city were there so many incentives to licentiousness.

I am . . . none . . . beside me--

(Isa 47:10).

Language of arrogance in man's mouth; fitting for God alone

(Isa 45:6).

See

Isa 5:8,

latter part.

widow . . . loss of children--A state, represented as a female, when

it has fallen is called a widow, because its king is no more;

and childless, because it has no inhabitants; they having been

carried off as captives

(Isa 23:4; 54:1, 4, 5;

Re 18:7, 8).

9. in a moment--It should not decay slowly, but be suddenly and

unexpectedly destroyed; in a single night it was taken by Cyrus. The

prophecy was again literally fulfilled when Babylon revolted against

Darius; and, in order to hold out to the last, each man chose one

woman of his family, and strangled the rest, to save provisions.

Darius impaled three thousand of the revolters.

in . . . perfection--that is, "in full measure."

for . . . for--rather, "notwithstanding the . . . notwithstanding";

"in spite of" [LOWTH].

So "for"

(Nu 14:11).

Babylon was famous for "expiations or sacrifices, and other

incantations, whereby they tried to avert evil and obtain good" [DIODORUS SICULUS].

10. wickedness--as in

Isa 13:11,

the cruelty with which Babylon treated its subject states.

None seeth me--

(Ps 10:11; 94:7).

"There is none to exact punishment from me." Sinners are not safe,

though seeming secret.

Thy wisdom--astrological and political

(Isa 19:11,

&c., as to Egypt).

perverted--turns thee aside from the right and safe path.

11. from whence it riseth--Hebrew, "the dawn thereof," that is,

its first rising. Evil shall come on thee without the least previous

intimation [ROSENMULLER].

But dawn is not applied to "evil," but to

prosperity shining out after misery

(Isa 21:12).

Translate, "Thou shall not see any dawn" (of alleviation) [MAURER].

put . . . off--rather, as Margin, "remove by expiation"; it shall

be never ending.

not know--unawares: which thou dost not apprehend. Proving the fallacy

of thy divinations and astrology

(Job 9:5;

Ps 35:8).

12. Stand--forth: a scornful challenge to Babylon's magicians to

show whether they can defend their city.

laboured--The devil's service is a laborious yet fruitless one

(Isa 55:2).

13. wearied--(compare

Isa 57:10;

Eze 24:12).

astrologers--literally, those who form combinations of the heavens;

who watch conjunctions and oppositions of the stars. "Casters of the

configurations of the sky" [HORSLEY].

GESENIUS explains it: the dividers

of the heavens. In casting a nativity they observed four signs:--the

horoscope, or sign which arose at the time one was born; the

mid-heaven; the sign opposite the horoscope towards the west; and

the hypogee.

monthly prognosticators--those who at each new moon profess to tell

thereby what is about to happen. Join, not as English Version, "save . . . from those things," &c.; but, "They that at new moons

make known from (by means of) them the things that shall come upon

thee" [MAURER].

14.

(Isa 29:6; 30:30).

not . . . a coal--Like stubble, they shall burn to a dead ash,

without leaving a live coal or cinder (compare

Isa 30:14),

so utterly shall they be destroyed.

15. Thus, &c.--Such shall be the fate of those astrologers who cost

thee such an amount of trouble and money.

thy merchants, from thy youth--that is, with whom thou hast trafficked

from thy earliest history, the foreigners sojourning in Babylon for the

sake of commerce

(Isa 13:14;

Jer 51:6, 9;

Na 3:16, 17)

[BARNES]. Rather, the astrologers, with

whom Babylon had so many dealings

(Isa 47:12-14)

[HORSLEY].

to his quarter--literally, "straight before him"

(Eze 1:9, 12).

The foreigners, whether soothsayers or merchants, shall flee home out of

Babylon

(Jer 50:16).