What does Isaias Chapter 47 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The passage retains its particular declarations, images and conditions. Edition interpretations remain identified separately from the chapter’s speech. Historical additions and universal practical guarantees are not treated as source facts.

Chapter breakdown

Isaias 47 orders Babylon's virgin daughter down to dust and ground, without throne or the titles delicate and tender. She is told to grind meal, uncover shame, strip shoulder and bare legs while crossing rivers. Nakedness and shame are exposed under vengeance no man resists. The redeemer is named Lord of hosts and Holy One of Israel. Veil, watching nations and an actual captive transport scene are not supplied.

The Chaldean daughter enters silence and darkness and loses the title lady of kingdoms. The Lord says anger led to his inheritance being given to her, but she showed no mercy and imposed an exceedingly heavy yoke on the ancient. Her perpetual-lady boast overlooked the latter end. Confident self-assertion and denial of widowhood and barrenness meet a promise of both suddenly in one day, because of sorceries and enchanters' hardness. This wording is not changed to despite sorceries, and the images are not definitively mapped to dead monarchs and imperial children.

Trust in wickedness, the claim none sees and deceptive wisdom and knowledge accompany unforeseen evil, violent calamity and sudden misery. Enchanters and sorceries are challenged to profit or strengthen her. Failed counsels summon astrologers who gaze at stars and count months to predict; like burnt stubble they cannot save themselves, with no warming coals or fire. Lifelong merchants each err their own way and none saves. Panicked dispersal and philosophical schools are not narrated, and the warning is not generalized into a timetable for every modern empire.

The story inside

Opening: The passage retains its particular declarations, images and conditions. Development: Edition interpretations remain identified separately from the chapter’s speech. Conclusion: Historical additions and universal practical guarantees are not treated as source facts.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The passage retains its particular declarations, images and conditions.
2
Edition interpretations remain identified separately from the chapter’s speech.
3
Historical additions and universal practical guarantees are not treated as source facts.

Test your recall

Which images and requests does the speaker use, and what does the chapter leave unresolved?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 82474–82482
47:1. Come down, sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne for the daughter of the Chaldeans, for thou shalt no more be called delicate and tender. 47:2. Take a millstone and grind meal: uncover thy shame, strip thy shoulder, make bare thy legs, pass over the rivers. 47:3. Thy nakedness shall be discovered, and thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and no man shall resist me.
Lines 82484–82485
47:4. Our redeemer, the Lord of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel.
Lines 82487–82496
47:5. Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called the lady of kingdoms. 47:6. I was angry with my people, I have polluted my inheritance, and have given them into thy hand: thou hast shewn no mercy to them: upon the ancient thou hast laid thy yoke exceeding heavy. 47:7. And thou hast said: I shall be a lady for ever: thou hast not laid these things to thy heart, neither hast thou remembered thy latter end.
Lines 82498–82506
47:8. And now hear these things, thou that art delicate, and dwellest confidently, that sayest in thy heart: I am, and there is none else besides me: I shall not sit as a widow, and I shall not know barrenness. 47:9. These two things shall come upon thee suddenly in one day, barrenness and widowhood. All things are come upon thee, because of the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great hardness of thy enchanters.
Lines 82518–82533
47:12. Stand now with thy enchanters, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, in which thou hast laboured from thy youth, if so be it may profit thee any thing, or if thou mayst become stronger. 47:13. Thou hast failed in the multitude of thy counsels: let now the astrologers stand and save thee, they that gazed at the stars, and counted the months, that from them they might tell the things that shall come to thee. 47:14. Behold they are as stubble, fire hath burnt them, they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flames: there are no coals wherewith they may be warmed, nor fire, that they may sit thereat. 47:15. Such are all the things become to thee, in which thou hast laboured: thy merchants from thy youth, every one hath erred in his own way, there is none that can save thee.