Isaiah 47:2-12

2 Take millstones and grind flour; take off your veil. Lift up your skirts, bare your legs, and wade through the streams.

3 Your nakedness will be exposed and your shame uncovered. I will take vengeance; I will spare no one.”

4 Our Redeemer—the LORD Almighty is his name— is the Holy One of Israel.

5 “Sit in silence, go into darkness, queen city of the Babylonians; no more will you be called queen of kingdoms.

6 I was angry with my people and desecrated my inheritance; I gave them into your hand, and you showed them no mercy. Even on the aged you laid a very heavy yoke.

7 You said, ‘I am forever— the eternal queen!’ But you did not consider these things or reflect on what might happen.

8 “Now then, listen, you lover of pleasure, lounging in your security and saying to yourself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me. I will never be a widow or suffer the loss of children.’

9 Both of these will overtake you in a moment, on a single day: loss of children and widowhood. They will come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and all your potent spells.

10 You have trusted in your wickedness and have said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and knowledge mislead you when you say to yourself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me.’

11 Disaster will come upon you, and you will not know how to conjure it away. A calamity will fall upon you that you cannot ward off with a ransom; a catastrophe you cannot foresee will suddenly come upon you.

12 “Keep on, then, with your magic spells and with your many sorceries, which you have labored at since childhood. Perhaps you will succeed, perhaps you will cause terror.

Isaiah 47:2-12 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 47

This chapter is a prophecy of the destruction of Babylon, and of the Chaldeans, and declares the causes of it. The mean, low, ignominious, and miserable condition Babylon and the Chaldeans should be brought into by the Lord, the Redeemer of his people, is described, Isa 47:1-5, the causes of it are their cruelty to the Jews, Isa 47:6, their pride, voluptuousness, and carnal security, Isa 47:7,8 their sorceries and enchantments, and trust in their own wisdom, Isa 47:9,10, wherefore their destruction should come suddenly upon them, and they should not be able to put it off, Isa 47:11, their magic art, and judiciary astrology, which they boasted of, by them they could neither foresee nor withstand their ruin, which would be of no avail unto them, Isa 47:12-14, nor their merchants either, Isa 47:15.

Cross References

• 1. Exodus 11:5; Matthew 24:41
• 2. S Judges 16:21
• 3. S Genesis 24:65
• 4. S Isaiah 32:11
• 5. S Genesis 2:25; Ezekiel 16:37; Nahum 3:5
• 6. S Isaiah 20:4
• 7. S Isaiah 1:24; S Isaiah 34:8
• 8. Isaiah 13:18-19
• 9. S Job 19:25
• 10. S Isaiah 13:4
• 11. Isaiah 48:2; Jeremiah 50:34; Amos 4:13
• 12. S Isaiah 1:4; Isaiah 48:17
• 13. S Job 2:13
• 14. Isaiah 9:2; Isaiah 13:10
• 15. S Isaiah 21:9
• 16. ver 7; Lamentations 1:1; Revelation 18:7
• 17. S Isaiah 13:19; Revelation 17:18
• 18. S 2 Chronicles 28:9
• 19. S Deuteronomy 13:15; S Isaiah 42:24; Jeremiah 2:7; Jeremiah 50:11
• 20. Isaiah 10:13
• 21. S Isaiah 14:6
• 22. S Isaiah 10:13; Daniel 4:30
• 23. S ver 5; Revelation 18:7
• 24. S Isaiah 42:23,25
• 25. S Deuteronomy 32:29
• 26. S Isaiah 32:9
• 27. S Isaiah 45:6; Zephaniah 2:15
• 28. Isaiah 49:21; Isaiah 54:4; Lamentations 1:1; Revelation 18:7
• 29. S Psalms 55:15; Psalms 73:19; 1 Thessalonians 5:3; Revelation 18:8-10
• 30. S Isaiah 13:18
• 31. Isaiah 4:1; Jeremiah 15:8; Jeremiah 18:21
• 32. ver 12; Nahum 3:4; Malachi 3:5
• 33. Deuteronomy 18:10-11; Revelation 9:21; Revelation 18:23
• 34. S Job 15:31; Psalms 52:7; Psalms 62:10
• 35. S 2 Kings 21:16; S Isaiah 29:15
• 36. S Isaiah 5:21
• 37. Isaiah 44:20
• 38. S Isaiah 10:3; S Isaiah 14:15; S Isaiah 21:9; S Isaiah 31:2; Luke 17:27
• 39. S Psalms 55:15; S Isaiah 17:14; 1 Thessalonians 5:3
• 40. S ver 9; S Exodus 7:11