Isaiah 47:2 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Take the millstones; betake thyself to the millstones; as we commonly say, Take thy bed, or, Betake thyself to thy bed. The meaning is, Thou shalt be brought down to the basest kind of slavery, which grinding at the mill was esteemed; of which see on Exodus 11:5 Judges 16:21 Job 31:10 Lamentations 5:13. For this work was not performed by horses, as now it is, but by the labour of slaves and captives. Grind meal; grind bread corn into meal for thy master's use. Such metonymical expressions we find Isaiah 28:28 Hosea 8:7, and elsewhere. Uncover thy locks; or, thine hair. Take off the ornaments wherewith such women as were free and of good quality used to cover and dress their heads. This and the following passages, though delivered in the form of a command, are only predictions of what they should be forced to do or suffer, as appears from the next verse. Make bare the leg, uncover the thigh; gird up thy garments close and short about thee, that thou mayst be fit for service, and for travelling on foot, and, as it follows, for passing over those rivers, through which thou wilt be constrained to wade, in the way to the land of thy captivity.