Isaiah 47:12

12 So take your stand with your spells and with your many sorceries, with which you have wearied yourself from your youth. Perhaps you will succeed; perhaps you will inspire terror!

Isaiah 47:12 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 47:12

Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of
thy sorceries
An ironic expression, deriding those evil arts, bidding defiance to them, calling upon the masters of them to do their utmost by them: wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth;
from the infancy of their state; as soon as their monarchy was founded, or they became a people, they were given to these practices, and were famous for them; and in which, no doubt, many among them were brought up from their youth; and to gain the knowledge of which they were at great labour and expense; and yet it was all in vain, and to no purpose: if so be thou shall be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail;
if skill in these things can be of any advantage to keep off the impending calamity, and fortify against the powerful enemy that will quickly surprise thee; try if by thine art thou canst foresee the danger, and prevent it.

Isaiah 47:12 In-Context

10 You were secure in your wickedness; you said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and knowledge led you astray; you told yourself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me.’

11 But disaster will come upon you; you will not know how to charm it away. A calamity will befall you that you will be unable to ward off. Devastation will happen to you suddenly and unexpectedly.

12 So take your stand with your spells and with your many sorceries, with which you have wearied yourself from your youth. Perhaps you will succeed; perhaps you will inspire terror!

13 You are wearied by your many counselors; let them come forward now and save you— your astrologers who observe the stars, who monthly predict your fate.

14 Surely they are like stubble; the fire will burn them up. They cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame. There will be no coals to warm them or fire to sit beside.