In the closing verse of the previous chapter, add had given the assurance that his people should certainly be delivered from their captivity in Babylon, and restored to their own land. In this chapter, he describes the vengeance which he would take on Babylon, and the entire chapter is occupied in p... [ Continue Reading ]
COME DOWN - Descend from the throne; or from the seat of magnificence and power. The design of this verse has already been stated in the analysis. It is to foretell that Babylon would be humbled, and that she would be reduced from her magnificence and pride to a condition of abject wretchedness. She... [ Continue Reading ]
TAKE THE MILLSTONES, AND GRIND MEAL - The design of this is plain. Babylon, that had been regarded as a delicately-trained female, was to be reduced to the lowest condition of poverty and wretchedness - represented here by being compelled to perform the most menial and laborious offices, and submitt... [ Continue Reading ]
THY NAKEDNESS - This denotes the abject condition to which the city would be reduced. All its pride would be taken away; and it would be brought to such a state as to fill its inhabitants with the deepest mortification and shame. Vitringa supposes that it means, that all the imbecility and weakness;... [ Continue Reading ]
AS FOR OUR REDEEMER - This verse stands absolutely, and is not connected with the preceding or the following. It seems to be an expression of admiration, or of grateful surprise, by which the prophet saw Yahweh as the Redeemer of his people. He saw, in vision, Babylon humbled, and, full of the subje... [ Continue Reading ]
SIT THOU SILENT - The same general sentiment is expressed here as in the preceding verses, though the figure is changed. In Isaiah 47:1, Babylon is represented under the image of a frivolous and delicately-reared female, suddenly reduced from her exalted station, and compelled to engage in the most... [ Continue Reading ]
I WAS WORTH WITH MY PEOPLE - In this verse and the following, a reason is assigned why God would deal so severely with her. One of the reasons was, that in executing the punishment which he had designed on the Jewish people, she had done it with pride, ambition, and severity; so that though God inte... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THOU SAIDST, I SHALL BE A LADY FOR EVER - This passage describes the pride and self-confidence of Babylon. She was confident in her wealth; the strength of her gates and walls; and in her abundant resources to resist an enemy, or to sustain a siege. Babylon was ten miles square; and it was suppo... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE HEAR NOW THIS - The prophet proceeds, in this verse and the following, to detail more particularly the sins of Babylon, and to state the certainty of the punishment which would come upon her. In the previous verses, the denunciation of punishment had been figurative. It had been represente... [ Continue Reading ]
IN A MOMENT, IN ONE DAY - This is designed, undoubtedly, to describe the suddenness with which Babylon would be destroyed. It would not decay slowly, and by natural causes, but it would not decay slowly, and by natural causes, but it would be suddenly and unexpectedly destroyed. How strikingly this... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THOU HAST TRUSTED IN THY WICKEDNESS - The word ‘wickedness’ here refers doubtless to the pride, arrogance, ambition, and oppressions of Babylon. It means, that she had supposed that she was able by these to maintain the ascendancy over other nations, and perpetuate her dominion. She supposed tha... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE SHALL EVIL COME UPON THEE - In consequence of thy pride and self-confidence; of the prevalence of corruption, licentiousness, and sin; of the prevalence of the arts of magic and of divination abounding there; and of the cruel and unfeeling oppression of the people of God; for all these cri... [ Continue Reading ]
STAND NOW WITH THY ENCHANTMENTS - (See the notes at Isaiah 47:9). This is evidently sarcastic and ironical. It is a call on those who practiced the arts of magic to stand forth, and to show whether they were able to defend the city, and to save the nation. WHEREIN THOU HAST LABORED - Or in practici... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU ART WEARIED - Thou hast practiced so many arts, and practiced them so long, that thou art exhausted in them. The ‘counsels’ here referred to, are those which the astrologers and diviners would take in examining the prognostications, and the supposed indications of future events. LET NOW THE AST... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, THEY SHALL BE AS STUBBLE - They shall be no more able to resist the judgments which are coming upon the city, than dry stubble can resist the action of the fire. A similar figure is used in Isaiah 1:31 (see the notes at that verse). Compare also Isaiah 29:6; Isaiah 30:30, where fire is a sym... [ Continue Reading ]
WITH WHOM THOU HAST LABORED - The multitude of diviners, astrologers, and merchants, with whom thou hast been connected and employed. The idea is, that Babylon had been the mart where all of them had been assembled. EVEN THY MERCHANTS FROM THY YOUTH - Babylon was favorably situated for traffic; and... [ Continue Reading ]