Isaiah 47:2 BSB — MannaFest

Isaiah 47:2

Take millstones and grind flour; remove your veil; strip off your skirt, bare your thigh, and wade through the streams.

BSB

Parallel translations (2) ▾

ASV

Take the millstones, and grind meal; remove thy veil, strip off the train, uncover the leg, pass through the rivers.

KJV

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

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Commentary

4 voices

Jerome

Commentary on Isaiah (420)

(Chapter 47, verses 1 and following) Descend, sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon: sit on the ground, there is no throne for the daughter of the Chaldeans, for you shall no longer be called tender and delicate. Take a millstone and grind flour: uncover your nakedness, uncover your shoulder, reveal your legs, cross the rivers. Your shame will be exposed, and your disgrace will be seen; I will take vengeance, and no one will be able to resist me. 70: Descend, sit on the ground, virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground.

The record, by era

The Reformation1 voice

John Calvin

1509–1564

Commentaries (1554)

The whole of this description tends to shew that there shall be a great change among the Babylonians, so that this city, which was formerly held in the highest honor, shall be sunk in the lowest disgrace, and subjected to outrages of every kind, and thus shall exhibit a striking display of the wrath of God.

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

John Gill

1697–1771

Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)

Take the millstones, and grind meal,.... Foretelling that the Chaldeans should be taken captives, and used as such, and sent to prison houses, where they should turn the mill, and grind corn into meal; a very servile work, and which used to be done by captives and slaves, even by female ones, Exo 11:

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible (1832)

Take the millstones, and grind meal “Take the mill, and grind corn” - It was the work of slaves to grind the corn. They used hand-mills: water-mills were not invented till a little before the time of Augustus, (see the Greek epigram of Antipater, which seems to celebrate it as a new invention, Anthol. Cephalae, 653); wind-mills, not until long after. It was not only the work of slaves, but the hardest work; and often inflicted upon them as a severe punishment: - Molendum in pistrino; vapulandum; habendae compedes. Terent. Phorm. 2:1. 19. Hominem pistrino dignum. Id. Heaut. 3:2.

Voices on this verse

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Original language & word study

12 tagged words

Original	Transliteration	Meaning	Word study
קְחִ֥י	ke.Chi	take	H3947 →
רֵחַ֖יִם	re.Cha.yim	a hand-mill	H7347 →
וְטַ֣חֲנִי	ve.Ta.cha.ni	and grind	H2912 →
קָ֑מַח	Ka.mach	flour	H7058 →
גַּלִּ֨י	ga.Li	uncover	H1540 →
צַמָּתֵ֧ךְ	tza.ma.Tekh	veil your	H6777 →
חֶשְׂפִּי־	ches.pi-	strip off	H2834 →
שֹׁ֛בֶל	Shoel	a skirt	H7640 →
גַּלִּי־	ga.li-	uncover	H1540 →
שׁ֖וֹק	Shok	a leg	H7785 →
עִבְרִ֥י	'iv.Ri	pass through	H5674 →
נְהָרֽוֹת׃	ne.ha.Rot	rivers	H5104 →

Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.

The walk

The walk8

Where the connections lead

Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.

Through
Exodus 11:5
and every firstborn son in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, to the firstborn of the servant girl behind the hand mill, as well…
leads to
- Matthew 24:41
  Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left.
  Reached by 2 independent paths from here.
- Psalms 78:51
  He struck all the firstborn of Egypt, the virility in the tents of Ham.
- Psalms 136:10
  He struck down the firstborn of Egypt His loving devotion endures forever.
- Exodus 4:23
  and I told you to let My son go so that he may worship Me. But since you have refused to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son!’”
Through
Judges 16:21
Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, where he was bound with bronze shackles and forced to grind grain in the prison.
leads to
- Exodus 11:5
  and every firstborn son in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, to the firstborn of the servant girl behind the hand mill, as well…
  Reached by 2 independent paths from here.
- Proverbs 2:19
  None who go to her return or negotiate the paths of life.
- Proverbs 14:14
  The backslider in heart receives the fill of his own ways, but a good man is rewarded for his ways.
Through
Isaiah 20:4
so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, young and old alike, naked and barefoot, with bared buttocks—to Egypt’s shame.
leads to
- Isaiah 19:4
  I will deliver the Egyptians into the hands of harsh masters, and a fierce king will rule over them,” declares the Lord GOD of Hosts.

Featured studies on this passage

Walks through Isaiah 47

Babylon

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Walks through Isaiah 47

Mazzaroth

Twelve constellation groupings; one biblical word (Job 38:32). Bullinger and Seiss read them as a gospel-arc; modern critics trace their figures to Albumazar, not Adam. The objections below are presented at full strength, and the founder's own slot on the page is his to fill.

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About Isaiah

The Prophet Isaiah — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain

Isaiah: the study guide →Read chapter 47 →The featured study →

Continue: Isaiah 47 →

01Commentary

The record, by era

Voices on this verse

02Original language & word study

03The walk

Where the connections lead

04Related verses

05Featured studies on this passage

06About Isaiah

The record, by era

Where the connections lead

Commentary

Original language & word study

The walk

Related verses

Featured studies on this passage

About Isaiah