The Humiliation of Babylon
Isa 47:1 “Go down, sit in the dust, Virgin Daughter Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne, queen city of the Babylonians. No more will you be called tender or delicate.
Isa 47:2 Take millstones and grind flour; take off your veil. Lift up your skirts, bare your legs, and wade through the streams.
Isa 47:3 Your nakedness will be exposed and your shame uncovered. I will take vengeance; I will spare no one.”
Isa 47:4 Our Redeemer—the LORD Almighty is his name— is the Holy One of Israel.
Isa 47:5 “Sit in silence, go into darkness, queen city of the Babylonians; no more will you be called queen of kingdoms.
Isa 47:6 I was angry with my people and desecrated my inheritance; I gave them into your hand, and you showed them no mercy. Even on the aged you laid a very heavy yoke.
Isa 47:7 You said, ‘I am forever— the eternal queen!’ But you did not consider these things or reflect on what might happen.
Isa 47:8 “Now then, listen, you lover of pleasure, lounging in your security and saying to yourself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me. I will never be a widow or suffer the loss of children.’
Isa 47:9 Both of these will overtake you in a moment, on a single day: loss of children and widowhood. They will come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and all your potent spells.
Isa 47:10 You have trusted in your wickedness and have said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and knowledge mislead you when you say to yourself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me.’
Isa 47:11 Disaster will come upon you, and you will not know how to conjure it away. A calamity will fall upon you that you cannot ward off with a ransom; a catastrophe you cannot foresee will suddenly come upon you.
Isa 47:12 “Keep on, then, with your magic spells and with your many sorceries, which you have labored at since childhood. Perhaps you will succeed, perhaps you will cause terror.
Isa 47:13 All the counsel you have received has only worn you out! Let your astrologers come forward, those stargazers who make predictions month by month, let them save you from what is coming upon you.
Isa 47:14 Surely they are like stubble; the fire will burn them up. They cannot even save themselves from the power of the flame. These are not coals for warmth; this is not a fire to sit by.
Isa 47:15 That is all they are to you— these you have dealt with and labored with since childhood. All of them go on in their error; there is not one that can save you.
1 God’s judgment upon Babylon and Chaldea,
6 for their unmercifulness,
7 pride,
10 and overboldness,
11 shall be irresistible.
The Humiliation of Babylon
Isa 47:1 “Go down, sit in the dust, Virgin Daughter Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne, queen city of the Babylonians. No more will you be called tender or delicate.
Compare “virgin, the daughter of Zion” (Isa. 37:22), “of Egypt” (Jer. 46:11). In contrast, Babylon was a harlot (cf. Rev. 17:1, 5). The prostitutes connected with ancient Oriental temples were often spoken of as “sacred virgins,” but they were neither virgin nor holy.
Babylon boasted of her religion, which outwardly appeared a thing of glory and beauty, but inwardly was an abomination. Compare Rev. 17:4. The prophet here unmasks the “virgin daughter” and reveals her shame. Instead of sitting on a throne she is to take her place where she belongs, in the dust of the earth, a symbol of mourning and desolation (cf. Isa. 3:26).
Careful readers of the book of Revelation have noted the great similarity between much of its symbolism and the language of certain passages in the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel.
It is apparent that John, guided by Inspiration, borrowed extensively from the language of the prophets of old, in order to set forth the future experiences of the church in terms that would be familiar and meaningful to the careful reader of the OT.
Oppression by, and the subsequent desolation of, literal Babylon provided John with a pictorial description of the oppression of God’s remnant people by mystical Babylon and of the eventual desolation of the latter.
The symbolism and the language of the book of Revelation become clearer and more meaningful when studied in the light of what the prophets of old wrote concerning events of their era. Various aspects of the punishment of literal Babylon as set forth in Isa. 47 are thus of value in connection with a study of the punishment of mystical Babylon, presented in Rev. 16 to 19. Note the following:
| Isaiah 47 | Revelation 16 to 19 |
| 1. “Sit in the dust” (v. 1). | 1. “Cast dust on their heads” (18:19). |
| 2. “Called tender and delicate” (v. 1). “Given to pleasures . . . dwellest carelessly” (v. 8). | 2. “Lived deliciously” (18:7). “Things which were dainty and goodly” (18:14). |
| 3. “Take the millstones” (v. 2). | 3. ‘Took up a stone like a great millstone” (18:21). |
| 4. “I will take ven-geance” (v. 3). | 4. “Great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath” (16:19). “Reward her even as she rewarded you” (18:6). “Strong is the Lord God who judgeth her” (18:8). “He hath judged the great whore” (19:2). |
| 5. “The lady of kingdoms” (v. 5). “I shall be a lady for ever” (v. 7). “I am, and none else be side me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children” (v. 8). | 5. “That great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth” (17:18). “I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow” (18:7). |
| 6. “Thou didst shew them no mercy . . . very heavily laid thy yoke” (v. 6). | 6. “I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints” (17:6). “In her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth” (18:24). |
| 7. “In a moment in one day” (v. 9). | 7. “In one day . . . in one hour” (18:8, 10, 17, 19). |
| 8. “The multitude of thy sorceries” (v. 9). | 8. “The wine of the wrath of her fornication” (18:3). “By thy sorceries were all nations deceived” (18:23). |
| 9. “Therefore shall evil come upon thee . . . thou shalt not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly” (v. 11). | 9. “Make her desolate and naked . . . eat her flesh” (17:16). “Her plagues” (18:4, 8). In the cup which she hath filled to her double . . . torment and sorrow give her . . . death, and mourning, and famine” (18:6-8). |
| 10. “The flame” (v. 14). | 10. “Burn her with fire” (17:16). “She shall be utterly burned with fire” (18:8). “The smoke of her burning” (18:9). |
| 11. “Thy merchants” (v. 15). | 11. “The merchants . . . were made rich by her” (18:15). “Thy merchants were the great men of the earth” (18:23). |
See also on Isa. 13; 14; 23; Jer. 25:12; 50:1; Eze. 26:13.
Isa 47:2 Take millstones and grind flour; take off your veil. Lift up your skirts, bare your legs, and wade through the streams.
Babylon looked upon herself as a lady (Isa. 47:7; cf. Rev. 18:7), but she was to become a slave (cf. Ex. 11:5; Job 31:10). The ornaments and finery with which she bedecked herself would be stripped away, and the unshapely features of a female slave, deformed from years of exacting toil, would be revealed for all to see.
“Take off your veil,” that is, remove it.
“Lift your skirts.” Assyrian pictures thus depict captive women.
“Wade through the streams.” The picture is of a group of forlorn slaves, stripped of their garments, going barefoot and naked over a stream on the way to the land of their captivity.
Isa 47:3 Your nakedness will be exposed and your shame uncovered. I will take vengeance; I will spare no one.”
God will show no mercy to any Babylonian (see Jer. 50:3, 13, 14, 25, 29, 31, 40; 51:6, 22–24, 62).
Isa 47:4 Our Redeemer—the LORD Almighty is his name— is the Holy One of Israel.
Isa 47:5 “Sit in silence, go into darkness, queen city of the Babylonians; no more will you be called queen of kingdoms.
Isa 47:5 “Sit in silence, go into darkness, queen city of the Babylonians; no more will you be called queen of kingdoms.
Instead of gaiety and rejoicing there would be the silence of desolation and death (see Jer. 50:12, 13, 39; 51:26, 29, 43, 62).
Isa 47:6 I was angry with my people and desecrated my inheritance; I gave them into your hand, and you showed them no mercy. Even on the aged you laid a very heavy yoke.
I was angry. On the past tense referring to the yet future captivity. God permitted Babylon to bring judgment against the sinful people of Judah (see Jer. 5:15; Hab. 1:6), but did not sanction the cruelties Babylon meted out to them. Because of her heartlessness and rapaciousness God would destroy Babylon, the destroyer (Jer. 50:10, 11; 51:25). God dealt with Assyria in a similar manner (Isa. 10:5–15).
Isa 47:7 You said, ‘I am forever— the eternal queen!’ But you did not consider these things or reflect on what might happen.
In boastful confidence Babylon thought she would always be the chief city and mistress of the world. Rome similarly considered herself the “eternal city.” In the last days mystical Babylon would also regard herself a queen destined to “see no sorrow” (Rev. 18:7).
In her hour of prosperity and glory Babylon failed to consider the result of her evil course and her arrogant pride. Happy are those today who remember that “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Gal. 6:7), and that paths of wrong are “ways of death” (Prov. 14:12).
Isa 47:8 “Now then, listen, you lover of pleasure, lounging in your security and saying to yourself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me. I will never be a widow or suffer the loss of children.’
None besides me. This claim belongs to God alone (Deut. 4:35, 39; Isa. 44:8; 45:5), but Babylon was soon proudly to arrogate it to herself. Nineveh had made the same boast (Zeph. 2:15).
Never be a widow. Compare Rev. 18:7.
Isa 47:9 Both of these will overtake you in a moment, on a single day: loss of children and widowhood. They will come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and all your potent spells.
Babylon’s mystic arts would not save her in her hour of doom.
In the last night of Babylon’s history, the astrologers and soothsayers were called before Belshazzar, but they were unable even to read the handwriting upon the wall, to say nothing of saving the city from its fate (Dan. 5:7, 26–31).
It is by sorcery that mystical Babylon succeeds in deceiving and ensnaring the nations of earth (Rev. 18:23). By the practice of occult magic the Babylonian sorcerers professed to be in touch with the gods, yet when their claims were put to the test they could only make the shameful admission that they possessed no such power (Dan. 2:2, 11).
Isa 47:10 You have trusted in your wickedness and have said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and knowledge mislead you when you say to yourself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me.’
Isa 47:11 Disaster will come upon you, and you will not know how to conjure it away. A calamity will fall upon you that you cannot ward off with a ransom; a catastrophe you cannot foresee will suddenly come upon you.
God foretold the fall of Babylon a century and a half earlier, indeed before the Neo-Babylonian Empire rose, yet all the wise men of Babylon were surprised when that hour struck (Dan. 5:4–9; cf. Matt. 24:39). Against the decree of Heaven and the might of Cyrus the sorcerers of Babylonian sorcerers had no charms.
Isa 47:12 “Keep on, then, with your magic spells and with your many sorceries, which you have labored at since childhood. Perhaps you will succeed, perhaps you will cause terror.
Isaiah’s words are not without a touch of irony. Knowing that Babylon will cling to her sorceries despite every warning, Isaiah proposes, with evident irony, that she continue in her folly—perhaps her magic will prove successful after all! Compare Hosea 4:17.
Isa 47:13 All the counsel you have received has only worn you out! Let your astrologers come forward, those stargazers who make predictions month by month, let them save you from what is coming upon you.
Astrologers. Literally, “dividers of the heavens.” Astrology, though not yet well-developed, was important in ancient Babylon. The heavens were carefully studied for portents of coming events. But the labors of Babylonian stargazers were to no purpose. Isaiah challenges the Babylonian wise men to continue with their practice of the occult arts and find out for themselves what advantage it might bring them at the hour of doom the Lord had foretold.
Month by month. Literally, “the ones who cause to know [the times of] the new moons,” a branch of the ancient science of astronomy.
Isa 47:14 Surely they are like stubble; the fire will burn them up. They cannot even save themselves from the power of the flame. These are not coals for warmth; this is not a fire to sit by.
These counselors would be useless to those who depended on them for security—as useless against the flames of war as stubble consumed by the fire.
Isa 47:15 That is all they are to you— these you have dealt with and labored with since childhood. All of them go on in their error; there is not one that can save you.
Mystical Babylon is also closely associated with “the merchants of the earth” (Rev. 18:11–19). Ancient Babylon’s great interest was in material things and in financial gain. The illegitimate use of material blessings ever proves a curse to those who accumulate them (see Deut. 8:10–18; Hosea 2:5–9; Luke 12:13–21; see pp. 32, 33).