Isaiah 47:1-2

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 47:2

Take the millstones, and grind meal . Do the hard work commonly allotted to female slaves. Turn the heavy upper millstone all day long upon the nether one (comp. Exodus 11:5 ). Babylon having been personified as a female captive, the details have to be in unison. Uncover thy locks. Babylonian women are represented in the Assyrian sculptures as wearing closefitting caps upon their heads. Make bare the leg … pass over the rivers . On the way from their own city to the land of their... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Isaiah 47:1

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 is therefore represented as a proud female accustomed to luxury and ease, suddenly brought to the lowest condition, and compelled to perform the most menial services.And sit in the dust - To sit on... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Isaiah 47:2

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 submitting to the deepest disgrace and ignominy. There is an allusion here to the custom of grinding in the East. The mills which were there commonly used, and which are also extensively used to this day,... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Isaiah 47:1-2

Isaiah 47:1-2. Come down From thy throne; and sit in the dust As a mourner for thy approaching calamities; O virgin daughter of Babylon Thou that art tender and delicate like a virgin. Sit on the ground In a condition the most abject and degraded. There is no throne Namely, for thee. Imperial power is taken from thee, and translated to the Persians. Thou shalt no more be called tender Thou shalt be reduced to the greatest hardships and miseries. Take the millstones Thou shalt be... read more

Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Isaiah 47:1-15

Judgment on Babylon (47:1-15)The great nation Babylon is likened to a beautiful and vain young lady who is now disgraced. She once lived in luxury, but now she is made to sit in the dirt, forced to work like a slave girl, stripped of her beautiful clothing and made to walk around naked (47:1-3). God’s judgment on Babylon brings freedom to Israel (4).Pride is the reason for Babylon’s downfall. God’s desire was to use Babylon to punish Israel, but Babylon has gone beyond the limits God set and... read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Isaiah 47:1

ground = earth. Hebrew. 'arez. there is no throne = throneless. read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Isaiah 47:2

grind meal: the work of slaves (Exodus 11:5 .Matthew 24:41; Matthew 24:41 ). meal. Put by Figure of speech, for the corn from which meal is ground. uncover thy locks = remove thy veil. make bare the leg = lift up thy skirts or train. read more

James Burton Coffman

Coffman Commentaries on the Bible - Isaiah 47:1

This chapter is a prophecy of the destruction of Babylon. The Lord, through Isaiah, had already denounced the idols of that great city and had foretold their worthlessness and impotence for providing any kind of assistance to the city in the time of her calamity; but here he detailed the doom and destruction of Babylon itself. The speaker throughout is God Himself except for Isaiah 47:4, which may be attributed to a heavenly chorus,[1] after the manner of the proleptic passages in Revelation,... read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Isaiah 47:1-3

Isaiah 47:1-3. Come down, and sit in the dust, &c.— The prophet here commands Babylon to assume the habit and forms of the most abject state, most opposite to that state of honour and glory in which she had long flourished. She is addressed as a virgin, according to the usual modes of speaking, when cities or states are personified; though some say that she is called the virgin daughter of Babylon, because, according to Herodotus, she had never been conquered before. Take the mill-stones,... read more

Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Isaiah 47:1

1. in the dust—(See on :-; Job 2:13; Lamentations 2:10). virgin—that is, heretofore uncaptured [HERODOTUS, 1.191]. daughter of Babylon—Babylon and its inhabitants (see on Isaiah 1:8; Isaiah 47:3). no throne—The seat of empire was transferred to Shushan. Alexander intended to have made Babylon his seat of empire, but Providence defeated his design. He soon died; and Seleucia, being built near, robbed it of its inhabitants, and even of its name, which was applied to Seleucia. delicate—alluding... read more

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