Isa 47.1-15 is a prophecy about the destruction of Babylon and the Chaldeans, and what caused it.
v 1…Come down and sit in the dust (a sign of mourning), O virgin daughter of Babylon (a beautiful and splendid city); sit on the ground without a throne (their seat of authority is lost), O daughter of the Chaldeans (Babylon is pictured as a degraded woman). For you shall no longer be called tender and delicate (but afflicted).
v 2…Take the millstone and grind meal (basic slavery). Remove your veil, strip off the skirt, uncover the leg across the rivers (so you don’t get wet crossing the rivers as you travel).
v 3…Your nakedness will be uncovered (either they had no clothes or their enemies did this on purpose), your shame (especially for women) will also be exposed (exposing the wickedness of Babylon); I will take vengeance and will not spare a man.
v 4…Our Redeemer, the Lord of Hosts (Yehovah Tzavaot) is his name; the Holy One of Israel.
v 5…Sit silently (a sign of mourning), and go into darkness (of a dungeon, captivity), O daughter of the Chaldeans; for you will be no more called the queen of kingdoms.
v 6…I was angry with my people (the Babylonian captivity was a result of their idolatry and turning away from the Torah), I profaned my heritage (by allowing Babylon into the land, Jerusalem and the Temple), and gave them into your hand; you did not show mercy to them (treated the Jewish people with cruelty), on the aged you made your yoke heavy (treated them with indignity).
v 7…Yet you said, “I shall be a queen forever (continue to rule),” These things you did not consider (the extent of her cruelty and sins); nor remember the outcome of them (considered the consequences).
v 8…Now, then, hear this, you sensual one (given to pleasures), who dwell securely (or they thought they did), who says in your (her) heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me (in pride). I shall not sit as a widow (with no husband as king and that the army of Babylon could ever be beaten), nor shall I know loss of children (of her citizens in a war, they thought they had the best military).”
v 9…But these two things shall come upon you suddenly in one day (Jer 51.30); loss of children and widowhood. They shall come on you in full measure (fully accomplished, in full) in spite of your many sorceries (which was all over Babylon), in spite of the great power of your spells (occultic arts).
v 10…And you felt secure in your wickedness (covered up their sins of wealth, power, political wickedness, dishonest gain, ambition, cruelty) and said, “No one sees me.” Your wisdom and your knowledge, they have deluded you (they had a high opinion of themselves); for you have said in your heart, “I am and there is no one besides me.”
v 11…But evil will come upon you which you will not know how to charm away (or compromise with through politics); and disaster will fall on you for which you cannot atone, and destruction about which you do not know (a surprise) will come upon you suddenly.
v 12…Stand fast now in your spells and in your many sorceries with which you have labored from your youth (relying on their magicians ); perhaps you will be able to profit, perhaps you may cause trembling (see if you can stop what’s coming by your occultic practices and false religion).
v 13…You are wearied with your many counsels, let now the astrologers, those who prophesy by the stars, those who predict by the new moons, stand up and save you from what will come upon you.
v 14…Behold (take note of), they have become like stubble, fire burns them, they cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame (Yehovah’s wrath comes upon them in total destruction); there will be no coal to warm by, nor a fire to sit before (nothing left)!
v 15…So have those become to you with whom you have labored, who have trafficked with you from your youth (the astrologers and sorcerers, and those who they made money with in commerce with foreigners); each has wandered in his own way (to their own country). There is none to save you (the astrologers and merchants can’t help and are useless).
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