Isaiah 47:12
in Isaiah 47So take your stand with your spells and with your many sorceries, with which you have wearied yourself from your youth. Perhaps you will succeed; perhaps you will inspire terror!
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast labored from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail.
KJV
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.
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This verse in Isaiah 47
Commentary
10 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Stand now with thy enchantments - (See the notes at Isa 47:9). This is evidently sarcastic and ironical. It is a call on those who practiced the arts of magic to stand forth, and to show whether they were able to defend the city, and to save the nation. Wherein thou hast labored - Or in practicing which thou hast been diligently employed. From thy youth - From the very commencement of thy national existence. Babylon was always distinguished for these arts.
This site's exposition
Stand now with thine enchantments
on Isaiah 47:12-15
Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth, summons Babylon's own occult resources to the trial, the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators named by their specific offices rather than as a vague catalogue. The bench notes the irony that a city famous across the ancient world for reading the heavens is told to stand up and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee, the very disciplines proving powerless at the moment they are needed. They shall be as stubble, the fire shall burn them, closes the astrologers' fate with the same fire that answered the ashes and dust of the opening verses. None shall save thee ends the oracle where it began, a throne with nothing under it and merchants who wander away rather than answer her call.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
The prophetic text addresses these words to [Babylon] in an ironic manner: stick to your habitual magic; stick to your customary incantations. It is likely that you will escape from misfortunes that besiege you! Then he proclaims the vainness of these practices.
(Verse 12 and following) Stand with your sorcerers, and with the multitude of your evil deeds, in which you have labored since your youth, if perhaps it will benefit you, or if you can become stronger. You have failed in the multitude of your plans: let the astrologers of the heavens stand and save you, who observe the stars and calculate the months, to announce to you what is to come.
The Medieval Church1 voice
Stand now with your enchanters. Here he excludes their trust in escape; and concerning this, he does two things. First, he excludes hope from the wise, excluding their help, as to sorcerers: stand now with your enchanters; from your youth, from when they were created, …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
This baffling of the diviners was literally fulfilled when, the night that Babylon was taken and Belshazzar slain, all his astrologers, soothsayers, and wise men, were quite nonplussed with the handwriting on the wall that pronounced the fatal sentence, Dan. v. 8 . (4.) They are upbraided with the fall of the wise men themselves in the common ruin,
4 As for our redeemer, the L ORD of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel. 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. 6 I was wroth with my people, I have polluted mine inheritance, and given them into thine hand: thou didst show them no mercy; upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke.
quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — scripture-overlap:96%@v4-6
3 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Stand - Persist in these practices. laboured - From the beginning of thy kingdom. For the Chaldeans in all ages were famous for the practice of these arts.
Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
Stand--forth: a scornful challenge to Babylon's magicians to show whether they can defend their city. laboured--The devil's service is a laborious yet fruitless one (Isa 55:2).
The words behind it
13 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| עִמְדִי־ | ʾimdi- | stand | H5975 → | 521 times |
| נָ֤א | na' | please | H4994 → | 404 times |
| בַחֲבָרַ֙יִךְ֙ | vachavarayikh | in spells your | H2267 → | |
| וּבְרֹ֣ב | uvero | and in [the] abundance of | H7230 → | 149 times |
| כְּשָׁפַ֔יִךְ | keshafayikh | sorceries your | H3785 → | |
| בַּאֲשֶׁ֥ר | baasher | in which | H834 → | 5497 times |
| יָגַ֖עַתְּ | yagaat | you have labored | H3021 → | 26 times |
| מִנְּעוּרָ֑יִךְ | mineurayikh | since youth<s> your | H5271 → | 47 times |
| אוּלַ֛י | ʾulai | perhaps | H194 → | 45 times |
| תּוּכְלִ֥י | tukheli | you will be able | H3201 → | 194 times |
| הוֹעִ֖יל | hoil | to profit | H3276 → | 23 times |
| אוּלַ֥י | ʾulai | perhaps | H194 → | 45 times |
| תַּעֲרֽוֹצִי׃ | taarotzi | you will inspire awe | H6206 → | 15 times |
עִמְדִי־stand
ʾimdi-H5975 →521 times
נָ֤אplease
na'H4994 →404 times
בַחֲבָרַ֙יִךְ֙in spells your
vachavarayikhH2267 →
וּבְרֹ֣בand in [the] abundance of
uveroH7230 →149 times
כְּשָׁפַ֔יִךְsorceries your
keshafayikhH3785 →
בַּאֲשֶׁ֥רin which
baasherH834 →5497 times
יָגַ֖עַתְּyou have labored
yagaatH3021 →26 times
מִנְּעוּרָ֑יִךְsince youth<s> your
mineurayikhH5271 →47 times
אוּלַ֛יperhaps
ʾulaiH194 →45 times
תּוּכְלִ֥יyou will be able
tukheliH3201 →194 times
הוֹעִ֖ילto profit
hoilH3276 →23 times
אוּלַ֥יperhaps
ʾulaiH194 →45 times
תַּעֲרֽוֹצִי׃you will inspire awe
taarotziH6206 →15 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Isaiah 19:3Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be emptied out from among them, and I will frustrate their plans, so that they will resort to idols and spirits of the dead, to mediums and…
it leads to
- Isaiah 8:19
When men tell you to consult the spirits of the dead and the spiritists who whisper and mutter, shouldn’t a people consult their God instead? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?
- Daniel 2:2
So the king gave orders to summon the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, and astrologers to explain his dreams. When they came and stood before the king,
- Isaiah 8:19
Through
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.
it leads to
- Isaiah 47:9
These two things will overtake you in a moment, in a single day: loss of children, and widowhood. They will come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and the…
- Isaiah 47:12–13
So take your stand with your spells and with your many sorceries, with which you have wearied yourself from your youth. Perhaps you will succeed; perhaps you will inspire terror!
- Isaiah 47:9
Through
Jeremiah 2:28But where are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them rise up in your time of trouble and save you if they can; for your gods are as numerous as your cities, O…
it leads to
- Jeremiah 11:13
Your gods are indeed as numerous as your cities, O Judah; the altars of shame you have set up—the altars to burn incense to Baal—are as many as the streets of Jerusalem.’
- Deuteronomy 32:37
He will say: “Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge,
- Isaiah 45:20
Come, gather together, and draw near, you fugitives from the nations. Ignorant are those who carry idols of wood and pray to a god that cannot save.
- Judges 10:14
Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you in your time of trouble.”
- Jeremiah 11:13
Where this verse is studied
About Isaiah
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Theodoret of Cyrus, COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 14:47.12 and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.