BOOK 23 OF 66 · MAJOR PROPHETS · KING JAMES BIBLE

Isaiah 47

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Isaiah 47 Overview

Daughter Babylon is commanded to come down from her throne into humiliation; luxury, sorcery, self-confidence, and the boast 'I am, and none else beside me' are answered by sudden disaster no astrologer can prevent.

IsaiahBook

47Chapter

15Verses

Major ProphetsDivision

Before you read Isaiah 47

Coming from

Babylon’s gods Bel and Nebo must be carried by beasts, but the LORD reminds Israel that He has carried them from the womb and will carry them to old age; He alone declares the end from the beginning and brings His purpose to pass.

In this chapter

Leads into

The LORD confronts stubborn Israel for invoking His name without truth, explains that He foretold events so they could not credit idols, calls them to leave Babylon, and insists that there is no peace for the wicked.

Key understandingExplore deeper

After chapters 45–46 establish Cyrus and the LORD’s superiority over idols, chapter 47 addresses Babylon itself as a proud queen about to lose status.

The interpretive center of Isaiah 47 is the chapter’s own movement: imperial luxury can hide moral cruelty. Read its poetry, signs, historical references, and later biblical connections from that center rather than treating isolated phrases as detached slogans.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Imperial luxury can hide moral cruelty

Babylon’s self-image as refined and secure coexists with merciless treatment of God’s people.

Self-deifying pride invites judgment

Babylon borrows absolute language for itself that properly belongs only to the LORD.

Occult expertise cannot rescue a doomed empire

Astrologers and sorceries fail when judgment arrives.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Daniel 5

Belshazzar’s feast and Babylon’s sudden fall vividly fit the chapter’s reversal from confidence to collapse.

Revelation 18:7-8

Revelation’s Babylon says she sits as a queen and will see no sorrow, closely echoing Isaiah 47.

Isaiah 13–14

Earlier Babylon oracles establish the same themes of pride, downfall, and divine judgment.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not treat Babylon’s female personification as a statement about women.

Cities and nations are commonly personified in biblical poetry.

Do not use the astrology condemnation merely to score cultural points.

The theological issue is seeking control and security apart from the LORD.

Read Isaiah 47 watching for…

Babylon descending from the throne

forced exposure and humiliation

the boast of unique security

sorcery and astrology

sudden evil no adviser can avert

Chapter outline2 sections

1-6Babylon is brought down from luxury to shame because of its cruelty 7-15Babylon’s pride, sorceries, and false security cannot save it from sudden judgment

Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate.

Take the millstones, and grind meal: uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers.

Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man.

As for our redeemer, the LORD of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel.

Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called, The lady of kingdoms.

I was wroth with my people, I have polluted mine inheritance, and given them into thine hand: thou didst shew them no mercy; upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke.

And thou saidst, I shall be a lady for ever: so that thou didst not lay these things to thy heart, neither didst remember the latter end of it.

Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children:

But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments.

For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness: thou hast said, None seeth me. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee; and thou hast said in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me.

Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it riseth: and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know.

Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail.

Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.

Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it.

Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast laboured, even thy merchants, from thy youth: they shall wander every one to his quarter; none shall save thee.