ISAIAH CHAPTER 47 God's judgments upon Babylon and Chaldea; for their cruelty towards God's people, ISAIAH 47:1; their pride and other sins, ISAIAH 47:7. Their enchantments shall not deliver them, ISAIAH 47:11. COME DOWN FROM THY THRONE, as it follows, _and sit in the dust_; either necessarily, beca... [ Continue Reading ]
TAKE THE MILLSTONES; betake thyself to the millstones; as we commonly say, _Take thy bed_, or, _Betake thyself to thy bed_. The meaning is, Thou shalt be brought down to the basest kind of slavery, which grinding at the mill was esteemed; of which see on EXODUS 11:5 JUDGES 16:21 JOB 31:10 LAMENTATIO... [ Continue Reading ]
THY NAKEDNESS SHALL BE UNCOVERED; either, 1. For want of raiment to cover it; or rather, 2. By thine enemies in way of scorn and contumely, by comparing this place with EZEKIEL 16:37, EZEKIEL 23:29. THY SHAME SHALL BE SEEN upon thee for thy many and great injuries done to my people. I WILL TAKE VEN... [ Continue Reading ]
According to this version, the prophet inserteth this passage in the midst of this prophecy against Babylon, as Jacob inserteth a like passage in the midst of his blessings and prophecies concerning his children, GENESIS 49:18. And this may be here interposed, either, 1. As the reason why the judgm... [ Continue Reading ]
SIT THOU SILENT, through grief and shame, and as mourners use to do, JOB 2:13. Cease thy vaunting and insolent speeches; thou canst say nothing for thine own justification. GET THEE INTO DARKNESS; thou shalt go into an obscure, disconsolate, and calamitous condition. THOU SHALT NO MORE BE CALLED, TH... [ Continue Reading ]
I HAVE POLLUTED MINE INHERITANCE; I cast them away as an unclean thing; I stained their glory; I removed them from the Holy Land, and from the place of my presence and worship, which alone made them a holy and peculiar people; I banished them into a polluted land, amongst uncircumcised and unclean p... [ Continue Reading ]
THESE THINGS; thy cruel usages of my people, and the heavy judgments which thou hadst reason to expect for them. _The latter end of it_; of that lady or of Babylon, and her glory and empire, or of thyself; here being a sudden change of the person, of which I have noted many examples in this prophet.... [ Continue Reading ]
I AM; I am independent, and self-sufficient, and unchangeable, as that phrase implies, which therefore is appropriated to God, ISAIAH 41:4, ISAIAH 43:10, and elsewhere. The prophet doth not here use the very phrase which the Babylonians used, but expresseth their sense in a Scripture phrase. NONE EL... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THEIR PERFECTION; in the highest degree. Thy king and kingdom shall be utterly and eternally destroyed. FOR THE MULTITUDE OF THY SORCERIES, AND FOR THE GREAT ABUNDANCE OF THINE ENCHANTMENTS; for thy superstitious and magical practices, which were very frequent there, as we see ISAIAH 47:12,13, an... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU HAST TRUSTED IN THY WICKEDNESS; confidently expecting to preserve thyself by these and other wicked arts and policies. Thou hast said, NONE SEETH ME; my counsels are so deeply and cunningly laid, that God himself can neither discover nor prevent the execution of them. THY WISDOM AND THY KNOWLED... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE SHALL EVIL COME UPON THEE; or rather, _when it shall come_: Heb. _the morning of it_, the day or time of its approach. And they are justly upbraided and derided for this ignorance, because _the astrologers, the star-gazers, and the monthly prognosticators_, mentioned here, ISAIAH 17:13, pr... [ Continue Reading ]
STAND: this word notes either, 1. Continuance. Persist or go on in these practices. Or, 2. Their gesture. For those that inquired of their gods by any of these superstitious practices used to stand; this being a posture, both of reverence, and waiting for an answer. But this is not a command or co... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU ART WEARIED; thou hast spent thy time and strength in going from one to another, in trying all manner of experiments, and all to no purpose. STAND UP, AND SAVE THEE to succour thee, or to inquire for thee.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY SHALL NOT DELIVER THEMSELVES, and much less thee, FROM THE POWER OF THE FLAME; they shall be totally consumed, and all the comfort which thou didst expect from them shall utterly vanish.... [ Continue Reading ]
_ Thus_, such comfortless and helpless creatures, shall they be; either, 1. Thy merchants, as it follows, with whom thou hast trafficked. Or, 2. Thy sorcerers, astrologers, &c., with whom they are said _to have laboured_, both here and ISAIAH 47:12, who also may possibly be called their _merchants_... [ Continue Reading ]