Isaiah 47
Berean Standard Bible · Compare translations · 700 BC – 539 BC · Exile in Babylon · Tap a verse to copy, share or highlight ·
15 verses · 422 words · ~2 min read · ~3 min listen
The Humiliation of Babylon
1“Go down and sit in the dust,
O Virgin Daughter of Babylon.
Sit on the ground without a throne,
O Daughter of the Chaldeans!
For you will no longer be called
tender or delicate.
2Take millstones and grind flour;
remove your veil;
strip off your skirt, bare your thigh,
and wade through the streams.
3Your nakedness will be uncovered
and your shame will be exposed.
I will take vengeance;
I will spare no one.”
4Our Redeemer—the Lord of Hosts is His name—
is the Holy One of Israel.
5“Sit in silence and go into darkness,
O Daughter of the Chaldeans.
For you will no longer be called
the queen of kingdoms.
6I was angry with My people;
I profaned My heritage,
and I placed them under your control.
You showed them no mercy;
even on the elderly you laid a most heavy yoke.
7You said, ‘I will be queen forever.’
You did not take these things to heart
or consider their outcome.
8So now hear this,
O lover of luxury who sits securely,
who says to herself,
‘I am, and there is none besides me.
I will never be a widow
or know the loss of children.’
9These two things will overtake you in a moment,
in a single day:
loss of children, and widowhood.
They will come upon you in full measure,
in spite of your many sorceries
and the potency of your spells.
10You were secure in your wickedness;
you said, ‘No one sees me.’
Your wisdom and knowledge led you astray;
you told yourself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me.’
11But disaster will come upon you;
you will not know how to charm it away.
A calamity will befall you
that you will be unable to ward off.
Devastation will happen to you
suddenly and unexpectedly.
12So take your stand with your spells
and with your many sorceries,
with which you have wearied yourself
from your youth.
Perhaps you will succeed;
perhaps you will inspire terror!
13You are wearied by your many counselors;
let them come forward now and save you—
your astrologers who observe the stars,
who monthly predict your fate.
14Surely they are like stubble;
the fire will burn them up.
They cannot deliver themselves
from the power of the flame.
There will be no coals to warm them
or fire to sit beside.
15This is what they are to you—
those with whom you have labored and traded from youth—
each one strays in his own direction;
not one of them can save you.
Footnotes (1)
- a v1 That is, the Babylonians; also in verse 5
Study notes on this chapter · 1
Prophecy & fulfillmentDebated
Babylon the great, the woman on the beast
Revelation 17 shows a woman seated on a scarlet beast, drunk on the blood of the saints, called 'Babylon the Great, mother of prostitutes', and explains that the seven heads are seven hills and also seven kings. 'Babylon' in Revelation builds on Isaiah's and Jeremiah's oracles against the historical city. Interpreters differ on which power John means.
When: Revelation, c. AD 90s (or before AD 70, in some dating).
Original passageRevelation 17:1–18
Ways people read this (5)
- Rome: the seven hills and the emperors, as the original readers would have understood (the most common scholarly view).
- Jerusalem, as the city that killed the prophets (some preterist readings).
- A future global political-economic-religious system (futurist).
- A particular institution, such as the Roman Catholic Church (historicist Protestant, rejected by Catholics and many others).
- The world system in every age that opposes God (idealist).
Editorial note by BibleWay. Interpretations vary; dates are approximate scholarly estimates.