47:1.
“Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the
ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no
more be called tender and delicate.”
It was thus
that God announced Babylon’s fall at the hand of Cyrus king of Persia over
150 years before it occurred in 539 B.C., an end which foreshadows the
coming destruction of the great religious harlot, the Roman Catholic church
that has wielded Satanic power over countless millions for almost two
thousand years, see Revelation
14:8, and chapters 17-18,
chapter 17:9 making it clear beyond all doubt that the ultimate
application is to Rome, for it alone is universally known as the “city of
the seven hills.”
The word
“virgin” in the present context refers not to purity, but to the fact that
Babylon had never been conquered, having lorded it over the world of that
day until being vanquished by Cyrus.
Sitting on the
ground, and having no throne is the metaphorical description of Babylon’s
having been overcome and rendered powerless. No longer would she be
accorded adulation similar to that given a beautiful and refined woman.
The JFB
commentary defines delicate as “the effeminate debauchery and
prostitution of all classes at banquets and religious rites.”
47:2.
“Take the millstones, and grind meal: uncover thy locks, make bare the leg,
uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers.”
The once proud
city would be reduced to the equivalent of the lowest female slave whose
work was to grind corn, her degradation being the greater by reason of
having to go about with her head uncovered, and her skirt tied up around her
waist thus exposing her legs and thighs, a very great shame for a woman of
that time.
Her having to
“pass over the rivers” is generally understood to refer to the Babylonians
being carried out of their own land by their conquerors.
47:3.
“Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take
vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man.”
The first part
of the verse continues to declare the humiliation awaiting the Babylonians
in captivity, the vengeance being the revenge the conquerors would exact for
what they had suffered as victims of a Babylon that had ruled mercilessly
when supreme, the conquerors being God’s instruments to punish her.
“I will not
meet thee as a man” is also translated “I will let no man intercede; no man
can stop me; I will ignore all entreaty; I will not relent.” There was no
hope for Babylon. God would not change His mind relative to her punishment.
47:4.
“As for our redeemer, the Lord of hosts is his name, the Holy One of
Israel.”
The first
clause presents Jehovah as Israel’s redeemer; the second declares His
omnipotence; and the third, His holiness and His special relationship with
Israel: they alone were His people.
47:5.
“Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans:
for thou shalt no more be called, The lady of kingdoms.”
The context
indicates that the command to sit silent signified the end of Babylon’s
national existence; her going into darkness pointing to the eternal darkness
each citizen would enter in common with all who die in unbelief. She who
had once been called “The lady of kingdoms,” i.e., queen or mistress of the
nations, would be remembered only by the historians as just another of the
many that have passed from a brief day of earthly glory into not just
historical obscurity, but into the eternal torment of the lake of fire.
The number of
earth’s great ones who have entered that same dreadful realm will be
revealed only at the Great White Throne, see
Revelation 20:11-15.
47:6.
“I was wroth with my people, I have polluted mine inheritance, and given
them into thine hand: thou didst show them no mercy; upon the ancient hast
thou very heavily laid thy yoke.”
In the present
context “pollute” is to profane, i.e., give over to an unholy use. Because
they had refused to serve Him, and thus be blessed, God had delivered Israel
into the hand of the Babylonians who treated them mercilessly, compelling
the old to do the same heavy work as the young. And no wonder: the
Babylonian’s master was Satan. How different is it with God’s servants!
His gracious invitation to all is, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me,
for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light,” Mt 11:29-30. I have yet to
find a true servant of God who has found His service onerous.
47:7.
“And thou saidst, I shall be a lady for ever: so that thou didst not lay
these things to thy heart, neither didst remember the latter end of it.”
Babylon
fatuously believed that her dominion would last for ever and that she would
never be called to account, as does also the evil system she represents:
Papal Rome. And the average unbeliever duplicates her folly; but God’s
warning is, “Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer
thee in the days of thy youth; and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in
the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will
bring thee into judgment,” Ecclesiastes 11:9, “Hear counsel, and receive
instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end,” Proverbs 19:20,
for “... it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment,”
Hebrews 9:27.
47:8.
“Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest
carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me; I
shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children:”
Embodied in
the word “pleasures” is the idea of voluptuousness; and as was Babylon so is
today’s western society: hedonism is its governing principle, to the disgust
and anger of many less sophisticated but more moral nations who watch
helplessly the corruption of their young people by western lifestyles
exported through the media.
In her
unjustified arrogance Babylon never imagined that her day of dominion and
glory would ever end, nor does today’s world even dream that in the now
immanent future it will lie in ruins following the judgments of the Great
Tribulation.
47:9.
“But these two thing shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of
children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection for
the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine
enchantments.”
The speed of
the coming destruction is indicated in the phrase “in one day”; and in “the
loss of children, and widowhood” God is announcing the destruction of the
population. The widow’s destitute state is a metaphor for what Babylon
would become through the slaughter of the city’s inhabitants.
“... in their
perfection” means “in full measure,” and “sorceries and enchantments”
embraces all their activities in connection with the evil spirit world.
47:10.
“For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness: thou has said, None seeth me. Thy
wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee; and thou hast said in
thine heart, I am, and none else beside me.”
History
attests Babylon’s advancement in knowledge and learning, but the phrase
“none seeth me” certifies also the degree to which she had wilfully misused
that power to abuse rather than edify others, foolishly imagining that she
would never be called to account.
“...perverted”
means to “lead astray morally,” and that is exactly what Babylon’s wisdom
and knowledge had done by deluding her into thinking that she had no need of
God. Nor is she alone in this spirit of independence: today’s modern,
educated, sophisticated world is similarly deceived, note e.g., today’s
covert elimination of God by attributing to “Mother Nature” what were once
acknowledged as “acts of God.”
The last
phrase of the verse declares the spirit of superiority which governed
Babylon’s attitude and conduct toward all others: they were inferior; and
that same disposition marks western society towards the rest of the world.
But national characteristics simply reflect those of the people, and this is
nowhere more apparent than in the realm of religion. Note for example the
holier-than-thou spirit of the Pharisees which the Lord so angrily rebuked,
and which can develop insidiously in even a genuine believer. The Lord sets
a high value on humility, see e.g., 1 Peter 3:4, “... the ornament of a meek
and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.”
47:11.
“Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it
riseth: and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it
off: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not
know.”
“... evil” is
also translated disaster, and it would come upon Babylon suddenly,
unexpectedly, and beyond her power to avert or overcome. Job 36:18 sounds a
similar warning to all the unconverted, “Because there is wrath, beware lest
He take thee away with His stroke: then a great ransom cannot deliver thee,”
and again, “... behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of
salvation,” 2 Corinthians 6:2.
Mischief is
also translated disaster, doom, ruin; and “desolation” is rendered
sudden destruction, unforseen ruin.
Desolation
means virtually the same as mischief, and is used here for emphasis;
and “which thou shalt not know” may be rendered “of which you have no
expectation.” Babylon’s destruction would reveal, too late for remedy, that
her diviners and soothsayers were lying charlatans.
47:12.
“Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries,
wherein thou hast labored from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to
profit, if so be thou mayest prevail.”
“...
enchantments” are incantations, i.e., words imagined to be capable of
producing magical results; and “sorceries” are virtually the same, except
that they may also involve the use of tangible things such as burning
aromatic powders, entrails, hair, etc. All of this so-called magic had been
part and parcel of Babylonian life.
The last two
clauses of this verse express sarcastic skepticism as to the efficacy of any
of the above-mentioned means to accomplish a desired objective.
47:13.
“Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the
astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save
thee from these things that shall come upon thee.”
Astrology is
defined as “the study that assumes and attempts to interpret the influence
of the heavenly bodies on human affairs”; and stargazers are those who study
the stars in the imagined belief that their movements somehow disclose the
future; and monthly prognosticators are those who undertake to tell month by
month what those future events will be. God’s evaluation of all such
foretelling is expressed in His sarcastic command to have the
fortune-tellers reveal how the people might save themselves from the
destruction that He was about to send as punishment for their wickedness.
47:14.
“Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not
deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to
warm at, nor fire to sit before it.”
The fire here
is a figure of God’s wrath which would devour the Babylonians as fire
consumes straw, and from which it was too late to save themselves. The heat
of His fierce wrath would be very different from the genial heat of the
fires at which they were accustomed to sit for warmth and pleasant
conversation. It would be destructive. And surely spiritual intelligence
will have no difficulty seeing in this a glimpse of what awaits unbelievers
eternally in the awful lake of fire, the place “where their worm dieth not,
and the fire is not quenched,” Mark 9:44-46. See also Matthew 25:41, “Then
shall He say also unto them on His left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed,
into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.”
47:15.
“Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast labored, even thy
merchants from thy youth: they shall wander every one to his quarter; none
shall save thee.”
Other
translations are, “So much for your magicians with whom you have trafficked
all your life ... they have stumbled off, each his own way, and there is
none to save you,” NEB. “This is what your wizards will do for you, those
men for whom you have worn yourself out since your youth. They will go off,
each his own way, powerless to save you” JERUS. The reference may also be
to the merchants who had traded in her markets.
It requires
very little spiritual intelligence to see in this a symbolic picture of
apostate Christendom. Countless multitudes who have been congregants of
so-called “churches,” and who have imbibed the teaching of unconverted
“ministers” whose only qualification is a theological degree (of which
Scripture knows nothing), will compose that vast multitude, congregants and
ministers alike, who will “wander every one to his quarter,” i.e., plunge
first into hell, and then eternally into the unquenchable flame of the awful
lake of fire.
