‘Come down and sit in the dust,
O virgin daughter of Babylon,
Sit on the ground without a throne,
O daughter of the Chaldeans.
For you will no longer be called tender and delicate.
Take the millstones and grind meal,
Remove your veil,
Strip off the robe, uncover the leg,
Pass through the rivers.
Your nakedness will be uncovered,
Yes, your shame will be seen.'
The picture is vivid and not suited to the modern Christian mind. It is a picture of a tender and delicate young queen who is dethroned and made to sit on the ground in the dust, then has to take the lowliest and most undesirable of occupations in order to survive, and is finally dragged down and raped. It is the picture of a woman's worst nightmare, and is describing the fate of Babylon. It will be reduced to poverty and servitude, and will be stripped and raped. The slow progress of her degradation admirably fits the slow progress of judgment on Babylon revealed in history, until its final end came and it was stripped naked of all that it was.
‘Virgin' is not a strictly accurate translation although it is difficult to think of another which is succint enough. ‘Bethulah' could at this time be used of a young married woman (married goddesses are called ‘virgins', and later even temple prostitutes would be called ‘virgins'). It is rather intended here to indicate a woman ripe for sex, but reserved for those seen as chosen (compare the woman in Revelation 17).
‘The Chaldeans.' These were initially a people in South Babylonia but the name had come to mean Babylonians in general.
She is called on to descend from her throne and to sit on the ground, in the dust, because she is no longer to be looked on as tender and delicate, as a lady. She is to be humiliated and distressed, possibly even becoming a beggar. Then she is told that if she wants to eat and drink she must take millstones and grind meal. This was a task for the very poor, the very humble and for prisoners (compare Exodus 11:4).
Then she is told to unveil herself, take her clothes off, and ‘pass through the rivers', probably a euphemism for rape, for her nakedness will be uncovered (see Leviticus 18:6-19; Leviticus 20:17-21 where this describes illicit sexual intercourse). To pass through the rivers was to go through difficult times (compare Isaiah 43:2). She is to be totally shamed. The idea is that the worst that can possibly happen will come upon Babylon.
Some, however, see ‘pass through the rivers' as an indication of going into ignominious captivity, for captives were often led off naked (compare Isaiah 20:4), while still others see the picture as depicting a woman taking off her long skirt and uncovering her legs so she that she could do work in the fields and wade through the irrigation ditches of the rivers. She would become not only a beggar (Isaiah 47:1) but a field servant.
“I will take vengeance,
And I will meet no man.”
This is the reality. God will exact vengeance on Babylon in full because of her behaviour. Her sin will receive its deserved punishment to the full. There will be no quarter. ‘I will meet no man' may mean that God is saying, ‘I will spare no man', or it may indicate a refusal to parley, a refusal to draw back from complete punishment. Either way it is now too late for mercy. Babylon must face its final doom.