Humble Yourself before the Lord – Isaiah 47:1-15
47 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. (4) Our Redeemer—Jehovah of hosts is his name—is the Holy One of Israel. (5) Sit in silence, depart into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans; for you shall no longer be called, The Queen of Kingdoms. (6) I was angry with my people, therefore I desecrated my inheritance and delivered them into your hand; but you showed them no mercy. Even on the aged you laid a very heavy yoke.
(7) You said, I will be queen forever. So you did not consider these things, nor did you reflect on what would happen. (8) Now then, listen to this, you who give yourself over to your pleasures, you who lounge in your security, you who say in your heart, I am, and there is none besides me; I will never be a widow, nor will I suffer the loss of children. (9) Both of these things will overtake you in a moment—in a single day: loss of children and widowhood. They will come upon you in full measure, despite the multitude of your sorceries and the great number of your incantations. (10) You have trusted in your wickedness. You have said, No one sees me. Your wisdom and your knowledge have deluded you, causing you to say in your heart, I am, and there is none besides me. (11) 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. (12) Adhere to your incantations and the multitude of your sorceries in which you have labored from your youth; if you will be able to benefit from them, if you will be able to prevail by means of them. (13) The great number of your consultations has worn you out! Now let your astrologers come forward—those stargazers who make predictions month by month—and save you from what is coming upon you. (14) Surely they will be like stubble; the fire will burn them up. They will not be able to deliver themselves from the power of the flame—this will not be a fire of coals to provide warmth nor a campfire around which they may sit. (15) This is what the things with which you have labored will be for you—they will be of no value! Furthermore, those with whom you have carried on trade from the time of your youth will each wander away to his own home; there will be no one to save you.
A note on the Scripture text that accompanies each individual message: The American Standard Version and the New International Version, along with the original Greek and Hebrew, have been used in an effort to achieve the greatest degree of accuracy and clarity. Where words or phrases have been added to the original text in an effort to better express its meaning, those words or phrases have usually been indicated by means of italics.
Now proceed to the next section of this study, entitled, Exploring the Passage.
