Babylon, addressed as "virgin daughter" throned no longer, receives a sustained taunt-song: come down into the dust, take the millstones, strip the veil, wade the rivers, slave labor and public shame replacing the title "mistress of kingdoms." Jehovah explains the charge: he gave his people into her hand in his wrath, but she showed no mercy, laying a heavy yoke on the aged. Her self-deifying boast, "I am, and there is none else besides me," echoes Jehovah's own refrain from chapter 45, and it draws the sentence: loss of children and widowhood in one day, in a moment. Her sorceries, enchantments, astrologers, star-gazers, and monthly prognosticators are summoned to save her and cannot; they burn as stubble (a fire not for warming) and her lifelong trading partners wander off, leaving none to save.

Drawn from Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory, Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary, John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and John Calvin, Commentaries.

Context

Prophecy · Isaiah — Isaiah overview

A. 1–7 Come Down and Sit in the Dust, Virgin Daughter of Babylon
B. 8–15 Astrologers and Stargazers Cannot Save Thee

Top cross-references8 chapters ▾

Isaiah 473 verses
- Isaiah 47:5“Sit in silence and go into darkness, O Daughter of Chaldea. For you will no longer be called the queen of kingdoms.
- Isaiah 47:7You said, ‘I will be queen forever.’ You did not take these things to heart or consider their outcome.
- Isaiah 47:10You were secure in your wickedness; you said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and knowledge led you astray; you told yourself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me.’
- Read Isaiah 47 →
Nahum 32 verses
- Nahum 3:4because of the many harlotries of the harlot, the seductive mistress of sorcery, who betrays nations by her prostitution and clans by her witchcraft.
- Nahum 3:5“Behold, I am against you,” declares the LORD of Hosts. “I will lift your skirts over your face. I will show your nakedness to the nations and your shame to the kingdoms.
- Read Nahum 3 →
Jeremiah 512 verses
- Jeremiah 51:20“You are My war club, My weapon for battle. With you I shatter nations; with you I bring kingdoms to ruin.
- Jeremiah 51:33For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “The Daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is trampled. In just a little while her harvest time will come.”
- Read Jeremiah 51 →
Isaiah 442 verses
- Isaiah 44:6Thus says the LORD, the King and Redeemer of Israel, the LORD of Hosts: “I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God but Me.
- Isaiah 44:25who foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners, who confounds the wise and turns their knowledge into nonsense,
- Read Isaiah 44 →

4 more chapters this one speaks with

Revelation 182 verses
- Revelation 18:9Then the kings of the earth who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her will weep and wail at the sight of the smoke rising from the fire that consumes her.
- Revelation 18:16saying: “Woe, woe to the great city, clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet, adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls!
- Read Revelation 18 →
1 Thessalonians 51 verse
- 1 Thessalonians 5:3While people are saying, “Peace and security,” destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
- Read 1 Thessalonians 5 →
Psalms 1371 verse
- Psalms 137:8O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, blessed is he who repays you as you have done to us.
- Read Psalms 137 →
Jeremiah 461 verse
- Jeremiah 46:11Go up to Gilead for balm, O Virgin Daughter of Egypt! In vain you try many remedies, but for you there is no healing.
- Read Jeremiah 46 →

Cross-references from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge and OpenBible.info.