Isaiah 47:1-15 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Bible Comments

A Taunt-Song of Triumph on the Fall of Babylon.

Isaiah 47:1-7. Babylon, erroneously personified as a virgin, as if never before captured, is bidden descend from the effeminate ease of her throne to the menial task of grinding the hand-mill. The garments of a secluded princess she must lay aside, to wade through the fords. For Yahweh's vengeance is inexorable, and she who queened it over the kingdoms of the earth must go into the darkness of captivity. When Yahweh, angry with His people, suffered His land to be profaned by the invader, and His people to be taken captive to Babylon, she treated them with cruelty, thinking ever to maintain her proud position, unaware that this was Yahweh's doing and that He would control its issue.

Isaiah 47:8-15. But though she lives in voluptuous ease and, serenely insolent, boasts her unrivalled position, she shall be bereaved of husband the figure changes to that of a favourite wife in the harem and children in one moment, nor shall the magic in which the Babylonians were pre-eminent and arrogantly confident ward off the danger. Calamity shall come which all these resources will be powerless to avert. Let her try these impotent magical arts! Let the astrologers and compilers of the monthly calendars of lucky and unlucky days help her now! They shall be as stubble licked up by the flame of disaster. Unable to save themselves, how can they deliver her? They stumble to destruction and she is left to her fate.

Isaiah 47:3 f. and will. redeemer: read, and will not refrain saith our redeemer.

Isaiah 47:7. Render, I shall live for ever, a queen to eternity. Thou didst not, etc.

Isaiah 47:8. carelessly: care-free.

Isaiah 47:9. in their full measure: LXX and Syr. suddenly.

Isaiah 47:11. Read mg.

Isaiah 47:12. Stand now: render, persist, pray. strike terror (mg.): i.e. into the demon who causes the calamity.

Isaiah 47:13. from. thee: connect with prognosticators, and render, prognosticators of the quarters whence (evil) shall come upon thee.

Isaiah 47:15 b. Render, Such have they proved to thee for whom thou didst toil from thy youth (omitting they that have trafficked).

Related Commentaries of Isaiah 47:1

Isaiah 47:1-15

1 Come 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.

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

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

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

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

6 I 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.

7 And 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.

8 Therefore 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:

9 But 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.

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

11 Therefore 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.

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

14 Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselvesc from the power of the flame: there 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 thy merchants, from thy youth: they shall wander every one to his quarter; none shall save thee.