Come down, and sit in the dust, &c.— The prophet here commands Babylon to assume the habit and forms of the most abject state, most opposite to that state of honour and glory in which she had long flourished. She is addressed as a virgin, according to the usual modes of speaking, when cities or states are personified; though some say that she is called the virgin daughter of Babylon, because, according to Herodotus, she had never been conquered before. Take the mill-stones, and grind meal, that is, "Thou shalt be reduced from thy lofty seat, as mistress of kingdoms, to the lowest situation of a slave; thy captives shall be forced to grind at the mill, the lowest and most abject degree of drudgery." The subsequent images are taken from a woman, who, from a state of elegance, is reduced to the lowest state of slavery, and exposed to the greatest indignities which could be offered to that sex. Instead of there is no throne, Isaiah 47:1 we may read unthroned.
Related Commentaries of Isaiah 47:1
Isaiah 47:1-3
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.