Isaiah 47:12

12 "Keep on using your tricks and doing all your magic that you have used since you were young. Maybe they will help you; maybe you will be able to scare someone.

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 do evil things, but you feel safe and say, 'No one sees what I do.' Your wisdom and knowledge have fooled you. You say to yourself, 'I am God, and no one is equal to me.'
11 But troubles will come to you, and you will not know how to stop them. Disaster will fall on you, and you will not be able to keep it away. You will be destroyed quickly; you will not even see it coming.
12 "Keep on using your tricks and doing all your magic that you have used since you were young. Maybe they will help you; maybe you will be able to scare someone.
13 You are tired of the advice you have received. So let those who study the sky -- those who tell the future by looking at the stars and the new moons -- let them save you from what is about to happen to you.
14 But they are like straw; fire will quickly burn them up. They cannot save themselves from the power of the fire. They are not like coals that give warmth nor like a fire that you may sit beside.
Scripture taken from the New Century Version. Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.