Isaiah 47:12

“Stand now with your enchantments,

And with the multitude of your sorceries,

In which you have laboured from your youth.

If so be that you will be able to profit.

If so be that you may prevail.

You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels.

Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators,

Stand up and save you from the things that will come on you.”

Isaiah now calls on her to do what she can with what she has. It will be of no use. Her enchanters and sorcerers have many decades of experience of magic and sorcery, let them now take their stand with it. It will not benefit her, but she may as well try. She will not prevail, but again, she may as well try. Indeed she is worn out by all the advice and words from the gods, and from their ancestors, and from the stars, described as the ‘multitude of your counsels'. And she was so proud of them. Well, let all those who engage in foretelling the future now stand up and save her from what is to come on her. But they will not be able to.

The multiplicity of their counsels, conflicting advice from many sources, is in stark contrast to the one counsel of Yahweh (Isaiah 44:26; Isaiah 46:11). Yahweh's counsel does not weary men by its continual contradictions. It has simply to be responded to or ignored.

‘Enchantments' (what binds) are those means used to bind the supposed heavenly powers to perform on their behalf, the ‘sorceries' are the actual incantations which they utilise in the process. The astrologers divided up the heavens into sections and sought to read the future from the stars (not unknown today, and just as spurious. At least the ancients believed they were gods. The moderns believe they are fate). The stargazers interpreted unusual signs in the heavens. The monthly prognosticators did their work at the new moon.

We are probably to see that all these people are in stark contrast with Yahweh's Servant. He would not seek to such extremes, he would simply listen to the voice of God