Isaiah 47:2

2 Turn the millstone! Grind the flour! Off with your veil! Strip off your fine clothes! Lift up your skirts to cross the streams!

Isaiah 47:2 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 47:2

Take the millstones, and grind meal
Foretelling that the Chaldeans should be taken captives, and used as such, and sent to prison houses, where they should turn the mill, and grind corn into meal; a very servile work, and which used to be done by captives and slaves, even by female ones, ( Exodus 11:5 ) ( 12:29 ) ( Judges 16:21 ) . The Targum is,

``go into servitude;''

of which this was a sign: uncover thy locks:
the attire and dress of the head, by which the locks were bound up and kept together; but being taken off, would hang loose, and be dishevelled, as in captives and mourners. The Targum is,

``uncover the glory of thy kingdom:''

make bare the leg;
or the shoulder, as the Vulgate Latin version, to be scourged by the Persians: uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers:
they are bid to tuck up their clothes so high, that they might pass over the rivers which lay between them and Persia, whither they were carried captives. The Targum is,

``thy princes are broken, the people of their army are scattered, they pass away as the waters of the river.''

Isaiah 47:2 In-Context

1 The Lord says, "Babylon, come down from your throne, and sit in the dust on the ground. You were once like a virgin, a city unconquered, but you are soft and delicate no longer! You are now a slave!

2 Turn the millstone! Grind the flour! Off with your veil! Strip off your fine clothes! Lift up your skirts to cross the streams!

3 People will see you naked; they will see you humbled and shamed. I will take vengeance, and no one will stop me."

4 The holy God of Israel sets us free - his name is the Lord Almighty.

5 The Lord says to Babylon, "Sit in silence and darkness; no more will they call you the queen of nations!

Footnotes

• [a]. cross the streams: [This probably refers to going into exile.]