Isaiah 47

9. in a moment--It should not decay slowly, but be suddenly and unexpectedly destroyed; in a single night it was taken by Cyrus. The prophecy was again literally fulfilled when Babylon revolted against Darius; and, in order to hold out to the last, each man chose one woman of his family, and strangled the rest, to save provisions. Darius impaled three thousand of the revolters.
in . . . perfection--that is, "in full measure."
for . . . for--rather, "notwithstanding the . . . notwithstanding"; "in spite of" [LOWTH]. So "for" ( Numbers 14:11 ). Babylon was famous for "expiations or sacrifices, and other incantations, whereby they tried to avert evil and obtain good" [DIODORUS SICULUS].

10. wickedness--as in Isaiah 13:11 , the cruelty with which Babylon treated its subject states.
None seeth me--( Psalms 10:11 , 94:7 ). "There is none to exact punishment from me." Sinners are not safe, though seeming secret.
Thy wisdom--astrological and political ( Isaiah 19:11 , &c., as to Egypt).
perverted--turns thee aside from the right and safe path.

11. from whence it riseth--Hebrew, "the dawn thereof," that is, its first rising. Evil shall come on thee without the least previous intimation [ROSENMULLER]. But dawn is not applied to "evil," but to prosperity shining out after misery ( Isaiah 21:12 ). Translate, "Thou shall not see any dawn" (of alleviation) [MAURER].
put . . . off--rather, as Margin, "remove by expiation"; it shall be never ending.
not know--unawares: which thou dost not apprehend. Proving the fallacy of thy divinations and astrology ( Job 9:5 , Psalms 35:8 ).

12. Stand--forth: a scornful challenge to Babylon's magicians to show whether they can defend their city.
laboured--The devil's service is a laborious yet fruitless one ( Isaiah 55:2 ).

13. wearied--(compare Isaiah 57:10 , Ezekiel 24:12 ).
astrologers--literally, those who form combinations of the heavens; who watch conjunctions and oppositions of the stars. "Casters of the configurations of the sky" [HORSLEY]. GESENIUS explains it: the dividers of the heavens. In casting a nativity they observed four signs:--the horoscope, or sign which arose at the time one was born; the mid-heaven; the sign opposite the horoscope towards the west; and the hypogee.
monthly prognosticators--those who at each new moon profess to tell thereby what is about to happen. Join, not as English Version, "save . . . from those things," &c.; but, "They that at new moons make known from (by means of) them the things that shall come upon thee" [MAURER].

14. ( Isaiah 29:6 , 30:30 ).
not . . . a coal--Like stubble, they shall burn to a dead ash, without leaving a live coal or cinder (compare Isaiah 30:14 ), so utterly shall they be destroyed.

15. Thus, &c.--Such shall be the fate of those astrologers who cost thee such an amount of trouble and money.
thy merchants, from thy youth--that is, with whom thou hast trafficked from thy earliest history, the foreigners sojourning in Babylon for the sake of commerce ( Isaiah 13:14 , Jeremiah 51:6 Jeremiah 51:9 , Nahum 3:16 Nahum 3:17 ) [BARNES]. Rather, the astrologers, with whom Babylon had so many dealings ( Isaiah 47:12-14 ) [HORSLEY].
to his quarter--literally, "straight before him" ( Ezekiel 1:9 Ezekiel 1:12 ). The foreigners, whether soothsayers or merchants, shall flee home out of Babylon ( Jeremiah 50:16 ).