Below are some preliminary questions to assist in the study of this passage. For a comprehensive study of the passage, download the Study Guided (PDF download).
1. How is the great empire of Babylon portrayed in verses 1-3 (printed below?)
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 longer be called tender and delicate. (2) Take the millstone and grind flour. Remove your veil; lift up your skirt, and wade through the stream with your legs uncovered. (3) Your nakedness will be exposed, and your shame will be uncovered. I will take vengeance; I will spare no one. (Isaiah 47:1-3)
The great empire of Babylon is portrayed as a beautiful queen who is brought to disgrace and humiliation. The Lord issues the command, “Come down (from your lofty throne of power and prestige), and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon!”—virgin daughter of Babylon indicates a nation that has known no defeat in battle. The Lord further gives the command, “remove your veil; lift up your skirt, wade through the stream with your legs uncovered.” This great queen must remove her royal apparel and conduct herself in a most unladylike manner: splashing across a stream like a common peasant girl, instead of being conveyed across in a stylish coach carried by servants. The Lord declares that He shall reduce this great world power to nakedness and humiliation as an act of righteous vengeance and judgment (verse 3).
2. What misconception did Babylon have? See Isaiah 47:10a (printed below)
You have trusted in your wickedness. You have said, No one sees me. (Isaiah 47:10a)
The Lord rebukes the incredible perverseness of Babylon: “You have trusted in your wickedness. You have said, No one sees me” (verse 10a). The great nation of Babylon viewed herself as being hidden from God; and thus entertained the false confidence that she could continue to practice wickedness, and rely upon wicked measures to advance her own purposes, without fear of punishment and just retribution.
3. What delusion did Babylon entertain about herself and what caused her to hold such a view? See Isaiah 47:10b (printed below)
Your wisdom and your knowledge have deluded you, causing you to say in your heart, I am, and there is none besides me. (Isaiah 47:10b)
Addressing Babylon, the Lord declares, “Your wisdom and your knowledge have deluded you, causing you to say in your heart, I am, and there is none besides me.” Here is great confidence in human wisdom and human knowledge (the outlook that maintains that man possesses the knowledge to solve all problems and accomplish all things)—and this haughty self-confidence deluded the nation into deifying itself.
4. What consequence will befall Babylon because of her sinful attitude? See Isaiah 47:11 (printed below)
Therefore, 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 could not foresee will suddenly come upon you. (Isaiah 47:11)
“Therefore,” declares the Lord, because of Babylon’s haughty self-confidence and self-deification, “disaster will come upon you.” “You will not know how to conjure it away”—all of Babylon’s superstition and magic shall not be able to drive away the calamity sent by the Lord of heaven. “A calamity will fall upon you that you cannot ward off with a ransom”—Babylon shall not have the strength or the resources to defend itself and to repel the calamity ordained against it by the Lord Almighty. “A catastrophe you could not foresee will suddenly come upon you”—it shall overtake the nation unexpectedly, catching her totally unaware; she shall neither be prepared for its coming nor have the wherewithal to withstand it. It shall be a calamity such as she has never known before (a calamity that took the form of invasion and defeat by the Medes and the Persians under King Cyrus).
5. How do God’s people react to the Lord’s judgment upon Babylon? See Isaiah 47:4 (printed below)
Our Redeemer—Jehovah of hosts is his name—is the Holy One of Israel. (Isaiah 47:4)
Upon hearing the pronouncement of God’s righteous decrees against proud Babylon, the people of God cry out in praise and thanksgiving: “Our Redeemer—Jehovah of hosts is his name—is the Holy One of Israel.” They proclaim that the Lord their God is both the Holy One of Israel and their Redeemer. They are acknowledging that it was because of their sins that the Lord had consigned them to the Babylonian captivity (see verse 6), and now by His omnipotent power He has become the Redeemer of His repentant people.
