Isaiah 47:14

Straw burns fiercely for a very short time. Such a fire is not useful; it has no good purpose.

Babylonian ~ a person from the country called Babylon; or anything that has a relationship with the country called Babylon.'human, human being ~ a person.
Lord ~ God’s personal name in the Bible. In the original language, God’s name ‘Lord’ means ‘head over all’ and ‘God always’.
woe ~ a very sad cry because much pain is to come.
millstones ~ two heavy flat stones; the worker turns one stone on top of the other stone to reduce grain to flour.
satisfaction ~ a glad or content feeling; the feeling that a person has when (for example) his enemy suffers punishment.
BC ~ ‘Before Christ’ (for dates before the birth of Jesus Christ).
Mistress ~ a female ruler over domestic affairs; a female leader over an empire.
empire ~ a group of many countries that a powerful king has taken by force.
empire ~ a group of many countries that a powerful king has taken by force.
astrology ~ the study of the stars to discover future events. The Bible forbids this practice (Deuteronomy 4:19).

1. Isaiah: New *Heavens and a New Earth

God’s Servant Saves God’s People

Isaiah Chapter s 41 to 55

Gordon Churchyard

The words in square brackets, […], are not in the *Hebrew Bible. They make the book easier to understand in English. Isaiah wrote his book in the *Hebrew language. Words in round brackets, (…) are explanations.

Chapter 47

1. Magic will not help Babylon

v1 ‘Get down [to the ground] and sit in the dust, Babylon’s people. Sit on the ground without a throne (royal seat), Chaldea’s (Babylon’s) people. Nobody will call you gentle or delicate again.

v2 Use a stone to break [corn] into flour. Uncover your face. Lift up your skirt and make your legs bare. Walk through streams [of water].

v3 Everybody will see that you are naked. Nothing will hide your shame. I will punish [you] and I will leave nobody out.’

v4 Our *Redeemer is the *Holy [God] of Israel. His name is the *LORD of Everything.

v5 ‘Chaldea’s (Babylon’s) people, sit in silence and go into darkness. Nobody will again call you the queen of *kingdoms.

v6 I was angry with my people [in Judah]. I made what was mine *unclean. I gave them into your power, but you did not pity them. You even made the old people into slaves.

v7 You said, “I will always continue to be queen. [I will be queen] for all time!” But you did not think about these things. You did not think about what might happen [to you].

v8 Now then, listen [to me], you [women] that love pleasure. You lie about in your security and you say [this] to yourself. “[Here] I am, and there is nobody apart from me. I will never be a widow and I will never lose [my] children.”

v9 Both of these things will happen to you in one moment. [They will happen] in a single day. You will lose your children and you will become a widow. It will all happen to you, even if you [try to stop it] with much magic and powerful spells (magic words).

v10 You have thought that there is security in your evil deeds. And you have said, “Nobody sees me [when I do these things]”. But your wisdom and your knowledge have caused you to make mistakes. This happened when you said to yourself, “[Here] I am, and there is nobody apart from me.”

v11 Then evil things will happen to you. And you will not know what spells (magic words) [will remove them]. So they will ruin you and you will have no *ransom for them. They will destroy you suddenly, in a way that you have no experience of.

v12 Carry on, then, with your magic! [Carry on] with your many spells (magic words)! You have worked hard at them since you were children. Perhaps you will succeed, perhaps you will frighten [your enemies]!

v13 All the advice that you have received has worn you out! Let the people that make records of the skies come forward. Let those people who study the stars [come forward]. They [try to] say what will happen each month. Let them save you from what will happen to you.

v14 Certainly, they are [just] like straw! Fire will burn them [away]. They cannot rescue their *souls from the power of the flames. This is not coal that will bake their bread. [It is] not a fire to sit by.

v15 This is [all] that they [have done] for you. You worked with them since you were children. They were your companions. [But now] each of them continues to make [the same] error. There is nobody to save you.’

2. Notes

Verses 1-3. The *Hebrew text here has the ‘*Virgin Daughter of Babylon’. It probably means ‘all the citizens of Babylon’, especially the leaders. The *Hebrew also has ‘Daughter of Chaldea’s People’. Chaldea is another name for Babylon. So the *LORD is speaking to the people that live there. He compares all those people to a young woman. She will not be a queen again. She will not sit on a ‘throne’, in other words, a special seat that kings and queens sit on. Instead, she will be a slave. She will wear few or no clothes. She will do hard work. She will ‘walk through streams’ as the enemy takes her into *exile. ‘*Exile’ is when people force someone to live in a foreign country. In that way, they punish that person. God is speaking to the men and to the women that live in Babylon.

Verse 4 Here Isaiah reminds us who said the words in verses 1-3 and 5-15. He is:

• the *Holy [God] of Israel; (see Isaiah 1:4)

• the *LORD of Everything; (see Isaiah 1:9)
• the *Redeemer. (see Isaiah 43:1)

All these gave God the right to punish Babylon. God gives his reason in verse 6.

Verse 5 The *Hebrew text has ‘Daughter of Chaldea’s People’. It means all the citizens of Babylon, especially the leaders. They will have to:

• Sit in silence. This means that they cannot give orders to people. They will lose their authority.

• Go into darkness. That means *exile. It will be like darkness, because the people will lose their freedom.
• Nobody will call them ‘queen of *kingdoms’. This means that they will lose their important place in the world. A *kingdom is a country which has a king.

Verses 6-7 When *Jews met foreigners, the *Jews became *unclean. This did not mean that they were dirty. It was a word that referred to their religion. When they were *unclean, the *Jews could not *worship God at his house called the temple. They had to obey the rules in Leviticus to become clean again. When the *Babylonians took the *Jews into *exile, they made them *unclean. Because God allowed the *Babylonians to do this, God says, ‘I made what was mine *unclean’. ‘What was mine’ means ‘my people the *Jews’. The *Babylonians punished the *Jews more than God wanted them to do. They were not kind, especially to old people. They did not realise that they would not always have power over the *Jews. They thought, ‘I always will be queen.’ Notice that God still refers to all the people of Babylon as female, as a queen. This is because people used female words to refer to cities in the ancient world.

Verse 8 ‘Women that love pleasure’ may mean that they were prostitutes. In other words, they let men have sex with them for money. But more probably it means that they felt safe. These women thought that their husbands gave them security. There were no other women who could attract their husbands. They would never be widows. That means that they would never lose their homes. They would never lose their children. That means that they would always have somebody to provide food and a home for them. Remember that these statements are just a word-picture for all the citizens of Babylon. This means that everyone in the city felt safe. They all thought that Babylon would always have security. But the rest of the chapter tells Babylon that this will not happen!

Verse 9 The people in Babylon were using magic constantly. They did it because they wanted their false gods to help them. There is a connection between false gods and evil spirits. The ‘spells’ (magic words) were the words that they said to the false gods. These things were probably part of their religion in Babylon.

Verse 10 The people in Babylon trusted their magic. So they thought that Babylon had security. ‘Here I am, and there is nobody apart from me’ are the same words as in verse 8. In verse 8, the words meant, ‘There is no other country as powerful as us.’ Here they probably also mean, ‘There is no God more powerful than our gods.’ That is why they said, ‘Nobody sees me.’ They did not mean people, they meant God! In other words, they were saying that the real God could not see them!

Verse 11 The evil things that they did to other nations (verse 10) will happen to them. This is how God will punish them, verse 3. ‘*Ransom’ is the money that people pay to free themselves. There is a note on ‘*ransom’ in Isaiah 43:3. Here it is ‘the money’. There it is ‘to pay the money’.

Verse 12 Here God is really asking the people of Babylon a question. He is asking, ‘Will your religion make you strong when trouble comes?’ They think that the answer is ‘Yes!’ But verses 13-15 make clear that the answer will be ‘No!’

Verses 13-14 In the original language, ‘people that make records of the skies’ is this: ‘the people that divide the *heavens’. They were scientists who studied the stars. They divided the sky into parts. They studied the stars in these different parts. But they were also astrologers. Astrologers try to say what will happen in the future. They say that the stars help them to do this. Christians do not believe that they can do this. Verse 14 agrees with what Christians believe. A fire will burn these astrologers away. It is not an ordinary fire. You can use an ordinary fire to bake bread and to warm yourself. This is a fire that destroys people’s *souls after their deaths (Isaiah 66:24). In other words, it describes their punishment in hell.

Verse 15 The *Hebrew word that we have translated ‘companions’ probably means this: ‘people that helped you with magic spells (magic words to make things happen)’.

3. Something to do

Find the verses in Isaiah chapter 47 where God describes Babylon as a woman. Then read Revelation chapter 18.

10. heavens ~ another word for ‘skies’. It can also mean the place where God lives and the skies above us.
    Hebrew ~ the language that Isaiah spoke.
    holy ~ very, very good. Only God is really holy. He is so holy that he is separate from everybody else.
    LORD ~ LORD is a special name of God. In the Hebrew language it is YHWH. It may mean ‘always alive’. So LORD is a sign that the Hebrew word is YHWH.
    lord ~ master. When it has a capital L (that is, ‘Lord’) it is a name for God.
    Hebrew ~ the language that Isaiah spoke.
    kingdom ~ a country that a king rules.
    unclean ~ not acceptable for the purposes of religion; unable to worship God in his temple; foods that God did not allow the Jews to eat.
    worship ~ to tell God (or a false god) that he is wonderful; and also, to tell him that you love him.
    temple ~ God’s house in Jerusalem. False gods also had temples.
    Jews ~ the people that lived in Judah (which sounds like ‘Jew-dah’) and Israel.
    ransom ~ to give money or goods in order to rescue someone. The word emphasises the price in order to free that person.
    soul ~ the spirit; the part of a person that continues to live after the death of the body.
    virgin ~ a woman that has not had sex.
    exile ~ a person whom enemies force to live away from his own home or country. Or, the place where that person has to live.
    exile ~ a person whom enemies force to live away from his own home or country. Or, the place where that person has to live.
    Jews ~ the people that lived in Judah (which sounds like ‘Jew-dah’) and Israel.
    worship ~ to tell God (or a false god) that he is wonderful; and also, to tell him that you love him.
    Babylonian ~ a person from the country called Babylonia, or anything that has a relationship with that country.
    ransom ~ to give money or goods in order to rescue someone. The word emphasises the price in order to free that person.
    heavens ~ another word for ‘skies’. It can also mean the place where God lives and the skies above us.