1 Go down and sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne, daughter of Babylonia! No longer will people call you gentle and delicate. 2 Go to work grinding flour with millstones. Remove your veil. Strip off your skirt, bare your legs, wade through rivers. 3 You will be seen naked; what should be kept private will be shamefully exposed. I will take vengeance—I won't spare anyone. 4 Our Redeemer—his name is the Lord Almighty—is the Holy One of Israel. 5 Sit quietly, and go into the darkness, daughter of Babylonia. Never again will you be called queen of all kingdoms. 6 I was angry with my people, and I abandoned those who belonged to me. I handed them over to you. But you didn't show them mercy—you even mistreated old people. 7 You said, “I will reign forever as the eternal queen.” But you didn't think about what was coming; you didn't remember what would happen to you in the end. 8 Now listen to this, you sensual woman, sitting there so sure of yourself, saying to yourself, “I am supreme—there's nobody besides me. I shall never be a widow or experience the loss of my children.” 9 But both these things will happen to you in quick succession! In just one day you will lose your children and become a widow. You will have this experience in its totality, in spite of all your witchcraft, in spite of all your magic spells. 10 You put your trust in your evil actions, saying, “No one can see what I'm doing.” Your wisdom and knowledge seduced you, and you told yourself, “I am supreme—there's nobody besides me.” 11 Evil is going to strike you, and you won't be able to magic it away. Disaster will fall on you that you can't stop by paying a ransom. Destruction will suddenly hit you that you weren't expecting. 12 So keep going with your magic spells and all your witchcraft, which you have worked at since you were young. Maybe you'll be successful, maybe you'll terrify people! 13 All the advice you've received has worn you out! Where are your astrologers, those who look to the stars for guidance, who give you their predictions every month? Let them stand up and save you from what's coming down on you! 14 But look at them! They're like stubble that fire burns up completely—they can't even save their own lives from the flames. This is no fire to sit beside and grow warm! 15 All those people you've worked with, all those you've traded with from when you were young—they will all go their own way, nobody will come and save you.
Isaiah 47 Free Bible Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Cross references (15)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Psalm 137:8; Jeremiah 51:33; Jeremiah 46:11; Jeremiah 50:42; Zechariah 2:7
- 2 Judges 16:21; Isaiah 20:4; Exodus 11:5; Matthew 24:41; Genesis 24:65
- 3 Nahum 3:5; Jeremiah 51:20–24; Jeremiah 50:27–28; Revelation 16:19; Jeremiah 51:34–36
- 4 Isaiah 49:26; Jeremiah 50:33–34; Isaiah 43:14; Isaiah 44:6; Isaiah 41:14
- 5 Revelation 18:16–19; Habakkuk 2:20; Isaiah 47:7; Isaiah 14:23; Zechariah 2:13
- 6 Zechariah 1:15; 2 Chronicles 28:9; Deuteronomy 28:50; Obadiah 10; James 2:13
- 7 Deuteronomy 32:29; Isaiah 47:5; Jeremiah 5:31; Isaiah 46:8–9; Ezekiel 7:3–9
- 8 Isaiah 32:9; Zephaniah 2:15; Isaiah 47:10; Revelation 18:3–8; Jeremiah 50:11
- 9 1 Thessalonians 5:3; Psalm 73:19; Nahum 3:4; Isaiah 47:12–13; Revelation 18:8–10
- 10 Isaiah 5:21; Romans 1:22; Isaiah 29:15; Psalm 52:7; Ezekiel 8:12
- 11 1 Thessalonians 5:3; Revelation 18:9–10; Nehemiah 4:11; Revelation 3:3; Jeremiah 51:39–42
- 12 Acts 13:8–12; Isaiah 47:9–10; Nahum 3:4; Jeremiah 2:28; Revelation 17:4–6
- 13 Isaiah 44:25; Daniel 2:2–10; Isaiah 57:10; Ezekiel 24:12; Jeremiah 51:58
- 14 Malachi 4:1; Nahum 1:10; Ezekiel 15:7; Isaiah 10:17; Isaiah 41:2
- 15 Revelation 18:11–19; Ezekiel 27:12–25; Jeremiah 51:6–9; Isaiah 56:11
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
… heed, pray, to astrologers; for of these the divine Scripture saith, Let the stargazers of the heaven stand up and save thee, and what follows: Behold, they all shall be consumed as stubble on the fire, and shall not deliver their soul from the flame.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)