The Humiliation of Babylon

Isaiah 47

1 e Come down and sit in the dust,
O virgin f daughter of Babylon;
g sit on the ground without a throne,
O daughter of h the Chaldeans!
i For you shall no more be called
tender and delicate.
 2 Take the millstones and j grind flour,
k put off your veil,
strip off your robe, uncover your legs,
pass through the rivers.
 3 Your nakedness shall be uncovered,
and your disgrace shall be seen.
I will take vengeance,
and I will spare no one.
 4 l Our Redeemer - the Lord of hosts is his name -
is the Holy One of Israel.

5 m Sit in silence, and go into darkness,
O daughter of h the Chaldeans;
for you shall no more be called
n the mistress of kingdoms.
 6 o I was angry with my people;
I profaned my heritage;
I gave them into your hand;
p you showed them no mercy;
on the aged you made your yoke exceedingly heavy.
 7 You said, "I shall be q mistress forever,"
so that you did not lay these things to heart
or remember their end.

8 Now therefore hear this, q you lover of pleasures,
r who sit securely,
who say in your heart,
s "I am, and there is no one besides me;
t I shall not sit as a widow
or know the loss of children":
 9 u These two things shall come to you
in a moment, v in one day;
the loss of children and widowhood
shall come upon you in full measure,
w in spite of your many sorceries
and the great power of your enchantments.

10 You felt secure in your wickedness,
you said, "No one sees me";
your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray,
and you said in your heart,
x "I am, and there is no one besides me."
 11 But evil shall come upon you,
which you will not know how to charm away;
disaster shall fall upon you,
for which you will not be able to atone;
y and ruin shall come upon you suddenly,
of which you know nothing.

12 z Stand fast in your enchantments
and your many sorceries,
with which you have labored from your youth;
perhaps you may be able to succeed;
perhaps you may inspire terror.
 13 You are wearied with your many counsels;
let them stand forth and save you,
a those who divide the heavens,
who gaze at the stars,
who at the new moons make known
what shall come upon you.

14 Behold, b they are like stubble;
c the fire consumes them;
they cannot deliver themselves
from the power of the flame.
No coal for warming oneself is this,
no fire to sit before!
 15 Such to you are those with whom you have labored,
who have done business with you from your youth;
they wander about, each in his own direction;
there is no one to save you.

  1. Cross References
    Isaiah 43:14
    Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "For your sake I send to Babylon and bring them all down as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships in which they rejoice.
  2. Cross References
    Psalms 137:8
    O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed, blessed shall he be who repays you with what you have done to us!
  3. Cross References
    Isaiah 3:26
    And her gates shall lament and mourn; empty, she shall sit on the ground.
  4. Cross References
    Isaiah 23:13
    Behold the land of the Chaldeans! This is the people that was not; Assyria destined it for wild beasts. They erected their siege towers, they stripped her palaces bare, they made her a ruin.
    Isaiah 48:14
    Assemble, all of you, and listen! Who among them has declared these things? The Lord loves him; he shall perform his purpose on Babylon, and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans.
  5. Cross References
    Isaiah 47:5
    Sit in silence, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans; for you shall no more be called the mistress of kingdoms.
    Isaiah 13:19
    And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them.
  6. Cross References
    Judges 16:21
    And the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles. And he ground at the mill in the prison.
    Matthew 24:41
    Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left.
  7. Cross References
    Isaiah 20:4
    So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian captives and the Cushite exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, the nakedness of Egypt.
  8. Cross References
    Isaiah 43:14
    Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "For your sake I send to Babylon and bring them all down as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships in which they rejoice.
  9. Cross References
    Jeremiah 8:14
    Why do we sit still? Gather together; let us go into the fortified cities and perish there, for the Lord our God has doomed us to perish and has given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against the Lord.
  10. Cross References
    Isaiah 47:1
    Come 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 shall no more be called tender and delicate.
  11. Cross References
    Isaiah 47:1
    Come 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 shall no more be called tender and delicate.
  12. Cross References
    Zechariah 1:15
    And I am exceedingly angry with the nations that are at ease; for while I was angry but a little, they furthered the disaster.
  13. Cross References
    Isaiah 14:17
    Who made the world like a desert and overthrew its cities, who did not let his prisoners go home?
    Isaiah 51:23
    And I will put it into the hand of your tormentors, who have said to you, 'Bow down, that we may pass over'; and you have made your back like the ground and like the street for them to pass over.
  14. Cross References
    Isaiah 47:1
    Come 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 shall no more be called tender and delicate.
  15. Cross References
    Isaiah 47:7
    You said, "I shall be mistress forever," so that you did not lay these things to heart or remember their end.
  16. Cross References
    Zephaniah 2:15
    This is the exultant city that lived securely, that said in her heart, "I am, and there is no one else." What a desolation she has become, a lair for wild beasts! Everyone who passes by her hisses and shakes his fist.
  17. Cross References
    Isaiah 45:6
    That people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other.
    Isaiah 45:18
    For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): "I am the Lord, and there is no other.
    Jeremiah 50:29
    Summon archers against Babylon, all those who bend the bow. Encamp around her; let no one escape. Repay her according to her deeds; do to her according to all that she has done. For she has proudly defied the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.
  18. Cross References
    Lamentations 1:1
    How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow has she become, she who was great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces has become a slave.
    Revelation 18:7
    As she glorified herself and lived in luxury, so give her a like measure of torment and mourning, since in her heart she says, 'I sit as a queen, I am no widow, and mourning I shall never see.
  19. Cross References
    Isaiah 51:19
    These two things have happened to you - who will console you? - devastation and destruction, famine and sword; who will comfort you?
  20. Cross References
    Jeremiah 50:31
    Behold, I am against you, O proud one, declares the Lord God of hosts, for your day has come, the time when I will punish you.
  21. Cross References
    Isaiah 47:12 - 13
    Stand fast in your enchantments and your many sorceries, with which you have labored from your youth; perhaps you may be able to succeed; perhaps you may inspire terror.
    Nahum 3:4
    And all for the countless whorings of the prostitute, graceful and of deadly charms, who betrays nations with her whorings, and peoples with her charms.
  22. Cross References
    Isaiah 45:6
    That people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other.
    Isaiah 45:18
    For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): "I am the Lord, and there is no other.
    Jeremiah 50:29
    Summon archers against Babylon, all those who bend the bow. Encamp around her; let no one escape. Repay her according to her deeds; do to her according to all that she has done. For she has proudly defied the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.
  23. Cross References
    Psalms 35:8
    Let destruction come upon him when he does not know it! And let the net that he hid ensnare him; let him fall into it - to his destruction!
    Jeremiah 51:41
    How Babylon is taken, the praise of the whole earth seized! How Babylon has become a horror among the nations!
  24. Cross References
    Isaiah 47:9
    These two things shall come to you in a moment, in one day; the loss of children and widowhood shall come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and the great power of your enchantments.
  25. Cross References
    Isaiah 44:25
    Who frustrates the signs of liars and makes fools of diviners, who turns wise men back and makes their knowledge foolish.
    Daniel 2:2
    Then the king commanded that the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans be summoned to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king.
    Daniel 2:10
    The Chaldeans answered the king and said, "There is not a man on earth who can meet the king's demand, for no great and powerful king has asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or Chaldean.
  26. Cross References
    Isaiah 41:2
    Who stirred up one from the east whom victory meets at every step? He gives up nations before him, so that he tramples kings underfoot; he makes them like dust with his sword, like driven stubble with his bow.
    Nahum 1:10
    For they are like entangled thorns, like drunkards as they drink; they are consumed like stubble fully dried.
    Malachi 4:1
    For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.
  27. Cross References
    Isaiah 10:17
    The light of Israel will become a fire, and his Holy One a flame, and it will burn and devour his thorns and briers in one day.
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.
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