Table of Contents
Isaiah 47
Isaiah 47
1 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.
2 Take the millstones, and grind meal: uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers.
3 Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man.
4 As for our redeemer, the Lord 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 shew them no mercy; upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke.
7 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.
8 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:
9 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.
10 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.
11 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.
12 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.
13 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.
14 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.
15 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.
Notes
Cross Reference
Commentary
Rashi
Verse 1
<html><b>without a throne</b> Without a kingdom. <b>for no longer</b> [lit. for you shall not continue,] that they call you tender and delicate.</html>
Verse 2
<html><b>Take millstones</b> This is hard labor, i.e., subordinate yourself from now on, to the kings of Persia and Media. Alternatively: And grind flour for supplies on the road of your exile. <b>bare your covered parts</b> Your arms and your legs, parts veiled, tied, and covered. <b>uncover the paths</b> Heb. חֶשְׂפִּי שֹׁבֶל. Uncover the paths of the water that is upon them, for that way you shall go out into exile, or bare your leg and cross rivers.</html>
Verse 3
<html><b>I will not entreat any man</b> I will ask no man to take My revenge.</html>
Verse 4
<html><b>Our redeemer, the Lord of Hosts is His name</b> The prophet states: All this the Lord of Hosts does, to redeem us from there.</html>
Verse 6
<html><b>on the aged you made your yoke very heavy</b> On the aged, who were unable to bear hard work, you made heavy your yoke.</html>
Verse 7
<html><b>And you said</b> to yourself, “I will forever be a mistress, and no retribution shall come upon me,” and this thing enticed you until you did not take to heart these blows that would come upon you, and you did not remember the end of your evil that you have done.</html>
Verse 8
<html><b>delicate one</b> Heb. עֲדִינָה. Jonathan renders: מְפַנֶּקְתָּא, delicate. <b>and there is none besides me</b> Heb. וְאַפְסִי. And there is none outside of me. Like אֵין זוּלָתִי.</html>
Verse 9
<html><b>these two</b> that you said that you would not sit as a widow and you would not know bereavement, shall suddenly come upon you. <b>bereavement</b> of your inhabitants. <b>and widowhood</b> of your king. Any burial of children or exile of the people of a land is called bereavement. <b>in their full measure</b> All of them, complete in their decree, the bereavement and the widowhood. <b>your charms</b> Heb. חֲבָרַיִךְ. An expression of sorcery. Comp. (Deut. 18:11) “And a charmer (וְחֹבֵר חָבֶר).”</html>
Verse 10
<html><b>your wisdom and your knowledge</b> Your wisdom and the evil of your heart that perverted you. They turned your heart to be perverted, envesede in O.F. It perverted you from the way of other people (other daughters [mss. and K’li Paz]).</html>
Verse 11
<html><b>you shall not know how to remove it by prayer</b> Heb. לֹֹא תֵדְעִי שַׁחְרָהּ. You shall not know to pray about it (Jonathan). Whom will you beseech to extricate you therefrom? <b>to rid yourself of it</b> Heb. כַּפְּרָהּ, to wipe it away and to remove it, and this is every expression of atonement (כַּפָּרָה). It is an expression of wiping and taking away.</html>
Verse 12
<html><b>Stand now</b> Strengthen yourself now. <b>perhaps you will gain strength</b> Heb. תַּעֲרוֹצִי. Jonathan renders: Perhaps you will be able to become strong.</html>
Verse 13
<html><b>astrologers</b> Heb. הֹבְרֵי שָׁמַיִם. Jonathan renders it like ‘the gazers of the heavens,’ who gaze at the constellations of the heavens. He compares it to (Song 6:10) “Clear (בָּרָה) as the sun,” and to (Job 33: 3) “Spoke a clear (בָּרוּר) word.” And so did Menahem associate it with them (Machbereth Menahem p. 47f.); those who clarify the orbit of the constellations, and he interpreted it thus because the diviners are unable to determine the seconds of the day and the night until the heaven is perfectly clear to them. Micah, too, said in prophecy (3:6), “It has become too dark for you to divine.” This teaches us that on a dark day the stars are sealed, and they cannot divine (ibid. p. 13). <b>the monthly prognosticators of what will come upon you</b> For when the moon is in its first phase [lit. renewed], they see at the time of its ‘birth’ part of what is destined to come, but they do not know it clearly. Therefore, it is stated, “of what.” Similarly, he says elsewhere (supra 8:19): “who chirp and mutter,” like these birds who chirp and mutter and do not know why.</html>
Verse 14
<html><b>Behold they were</b> Your stargazers were like stubble. <b>there is no coal by which to warm oneself</b> They have no remnant, like stubble, the fire of which does not leave over coals by whose fire one can warm himself.</html>
Verse 15
<html><b>each one strayed to his side</b> each one to his way, to the side of his face [i.e., each one wandered away in the direction he was facing].</html>