From the gods of Babylon the proclamation of judgment passes onto Babylon itself. "Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter Babel; sit on the ground without a throne, O Chaldaeans-daughter! For men no longer call thee delicate and voluptuous. Take the mill, and grind meal: throw back they veil, lift up the train, uncover the thigh, wade through streams. Let thy nakedness be uncovered, even let thy shame be seen; I shall take vengeance, and not spare men. Our Redeemer, Jehovah of hosts is His name, Holy One of Israel." This is the first strophe in the prophecy. As v. 36 clearly shows, what precedes is a penal sentence from Jehovah. Both בּת in relation to בּתוּלת (Isaiah 23:12; Isaiah 37:22), and בּבל and כּשׂדּים in relation to בּת, are appositional genitives; Babel and Chaldeans (כשׂדים as in Isaiah 48:20) are regarded as a woman, and that as one not yet dishonoured. The unconquered oppressor is threatened with degradation from her proud eminence into shameful humiliation; sitting on the ground is used in the same sense as in Isaiah 3:26. Hitherto men have called her, with envious admiration, rakkâh va‛ânuggâh (from Deuteronomy 28:56), mollis et delicata, as having carefully kept everything disagreeable at a distance, and revelled in nothing but luxury (compare ‛ōneg, Isaiah 13:22). Debauchery with its attendant rioting (Isaiah 14:11; Isaiah 25:5), and the Mylitta worship with its licensed prostitution (Herod. i. 199), were current there; but now all this was at an end. תוסיפי, according to the Masora, has only one pashta both here and in Isaiah 47:5, and so has the tone upon the last syllable, and accordingly metheg in the antepenult. Isaiah's artistic style may be readily perceived both in the three clauses of Isaiah 47:1 that are comparable to a long trumpet-blast (compare Isaiah 40:9 and Isaiah 16:1), and also in the short, rugged, involuntarily excited clauses that follow. The mistress becomes the maid, and has to perform the low, menial service of those who, as Homer says in Od. vii. 104, ἀλετρεύουσι μύλης ἔπι μήλοπα καρπόν (grind at the mill the quince-coloured fruit; compare at Job 31:10). She has to leave her palace as a prisoner of war, and, laying aside all feminine modesty, to wade through the rivers upon which she borders. Chespı̄ has ĕ instead of ĭ, and, as in other cases where a sibilant precedes, the mute p instead of f (compare 'ispı̄, Jeremiah 10:17). Both the prosopopeia and the parallel, "thy shame shall be seen," require that the expression "thy nakedness shall be uncovered" should not be understood literally. The shame of Babel is her shameful conduct, which is not to be exhibited in its true colours, inasmuch as a stronger one is coming upon it to rob it of its might and honour. This stronger one, apart from the instrument employed, is Jehovah: vindictam sumam, non parcam homini. Stier gives a different rendering here, namely, "I will run upon no man, i.e., so as to make him give way;" Hahn, "I will not meet with a man," so destitute of population will Babylon be; and Ruetschi, "I will not step in as a man." Gesenius and Rosenmller are nearer to the mark when they suggest non pangam (paciscar) cum homine; but this would require at any rate את־אדם, even if the verb פּגע really had the meaning to strike a treaty. It means rather to strike against a person, to assault any one, then to meet or come in an opposite direction, and that not only in a hostile sense, but, as in this instance, and also in Isaiah 64:4, in a friendly sense as well. Hence, "I shall not receive any man, or pardon any man" (Hitzig, Ewald, etc.). According to an old method of writing the passage, there is a pause here. But Isaiah 47:4 is still connected with what goes before. As Jehovah is speaking in Isaiah 47:5, but Israel in Isaiah 47:4, and as Isaiah 47:4 is unsuitable to form the basis of the words of Jehovah, it must be regarded as the antiphone to Isaiah 47:1-3 (cf., Isaiah 45:15). Our Redeemer, exclaims the church in joyfully exalted self-consciousness, He is Jehovah of Hosts, the Holy One of Israel! The one name affirms that He possesses the all-conquering might; the other that He possesses the will to carry on the work of redemption - a will influenced and constrained by both love and wrath.

Isaiah 47:10 Parallel Commentaries

thou hast trusted

Isaiah 28:15 Because you have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement...

Isaiah 59:4 None calls for justice, nor any pleads for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief...

Psalm 52:7 See, this is the man that made not God his strength; but trusted in the abundance of his riches...

Psalm 62:9 Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance...

thou hast said

Isaiah 29:15 Woe to them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who sees us?...

Job 22:13,14 And you say, How does God know? can he judge through the dark cloud...

Psalm 10:11 He has said in his heart, God has forgotten: he hides his face; he will never see it.

Psalm 64:5 They encourage themselves in an evil matter: they commune of laying snares privately; they say, Who shall see them?

Psalm 94:7-9 Yet they say, The LORD shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it...

Ecclesiastes 8:8 There is no man that has power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither has he power in the day of death...

Jeremiah 23:24 Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? said the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? said the LORD.

Ezekiel 8:12 Then said he to me, Son of man, have you seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark...

Ezekiel 9:9 Then said he to me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood...

thy wisdom

Isaiah 5:21 Woe to them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

Ezekiel 28:2-6 Son of man, say to the prince of Tyrus, Thus said the Lord GOD; Because your heart is lifted up, and you have said, I am a God...

Romans 1:22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

1 Corinthians 1:19-21 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent...

1 Corinthians 3:19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He takes the wise in their own craftiness.

perverted thee. or, caused thee to turn away. I am

Isaiah 47:8 Therefore hear now this, you that are given to pleasures, that dwell carelessly, that say in your heart, I am, and none else beside me...