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The Humiliation of Babylon

47

Come down and sit in the dust,

virgin daughter Babylon!

Sit on the ground without a throne,

daughter Chaldea!

For you shall no more be called

tender and delicate.

2

Take the millstones and grind meal,

remove your veil,

strip off your robe, uncover your legs,

pass through the rivers.

3

Your nakedness shall be uncovered,

and your shame shall be seen.

I will take vengeance,

and I will spare no one.

4

Our Redeemer—the L ord of hosts is his name—

is the Holy One of Israel.

 

5

Sit in silence, and go into darkness,

daughter Chaldea!

For you shall no more be called

the mistress of kingdoms.

6

I was angry with my people,

I profaned my heritage;

I gave them into your hand,

you showed them no mercy;

on the aged you made your yoke

exceedingly heavy.

7

You said, “I shall be mistress forever,”

so that you did not lay these things to heart

or remember their end.

 

8

Now therefore hear this, you lover of pleasures,

who sit securely,

who say in your heart,

“I am, and there is no one besides me;

I shall not sit as a widow

or know the loss of children”—

9

both these things shall come upon you

in a moment, in one day:

the loss of children and widowhood

shall come upon you in full measure,

in spite of your many sorceries

and the great power of your enchantments.

 

10

You felt secure in your wickedness;

you said, “No one sees me.”

Your wisdom and your knowledge

led you astray,

and you said in your heart,

“I am, and there is no one besides me.”

11

But evil shall come upon you,

which you cannot charm away;

disaster shall fall upon you,

which you will not be able to ward off;

and ruin shall come on you suddenly,

of which you know nothing.

 

12

Stand fast in your enchantments

and your many sorceries,

with which you have labored from your youth;

perhaps you may be able to succeed,

perhaps you may inspire terror.

13

You are wearied with your many consultations;

let those who study the heavens

stand up and save you,

those who gaze at the stars,

and at each new moon predict

what shall befall you.

 

14

See, they are like stubble,

the fire consumes them;

they cannot deliver themselves

from the power of the flame.

No coal for warming oneself is this,

no fire to sit before!

15

Such to you are those with whom you have labored,

who have trafficked with you from your youth;

they all wander about in their own paths;

there is no one to save you.

 


7. And thou saidst, I shall for ever 224224     “He chastises the pride and exeessive confidence of Babylon, by which she promised to herself an eternal reign. Thus Rome is ealled eternal in the constitutions of the emperors, and in inscriptions and coins, and also ‘The mistress of the whole world, the queen and mistress of the world.’” — Rosenmuller. be a mistress. Here he censures the haughtiness of the Babylonians, in promising to themselves perpetual dominion, and in thinking that they could not fall from their elevation through any adverse event. Thus the children of this world are intoxicated by prosperity, and despise all men as compared with themselves; but Isaiah mocks at this confidence, and shews that God regards it with the greatest abhorrence. To say, means here to conclude in one’s own mind, as will be more clearly evident from what the Prophet says shortly afterwards; for proud men do not publicly speak in this manner, but entertain this conviction, though they pretend the contrary. It is intolerable madness when men, forgetting their frailty, look upon themselves as not sharing in the common lot; for in this way they forget that they are men. Believers, too, have their conviction of being safe, because, under the protecting hand of God, they are prepared boldly to encounter every danger. And yet they do not cease to consider that they are liable to many distresses, because nothing in this world is lasting. Irreligious men, therefore, mock God whenever, through a foolish imagination, they promise to themselves lasting peace amidst the constant changes of the world.

Hitherto thou hast not applied thy mind to it. 225225     “It will not be inelegant to view עד (gnad) as meaning until, or so that; and it is so rendered by Jarchi, who explains this verse thus, — “Thou thoughtest with thyself that thou wouldest perpetually be mistress, and that punishment would not be inflicted on thee; and this thought led thee astray until thou didst not recall to mind those afflictions which shall befall thee.’” — Rosenmuller. For the purpose of heightening the description of their madness, he adds that even a long course of time did not render them more moderate. To become elated immediately after having obtained a victory, is not so wonderful; but to become more fierce from day to day, and to throw out taunts against their captives, was altogether savage and intolerable. This arose, as we have said, from pride; because they did not consider that a revolution of affairs would afterwards take place, or that a condition so magnificent could be changed. Consequently, this is the second reason why the Lord overtumed the monarchy of the Babylonians.

And didst not remember her end. 226226     “The apparent solecism of remembering the future may be solved by observing that the thing forgotten was the knowledge of the future once possessed, just as in common parlance we use the word hope in reference to the past, because we hope to find it so, or hope that something now questionable will prove hereafter to be thus and thus.” — Alexander. Some think that there is a change of the person here, but I consider that to be too forced; and indeed I have no doubt that he speaks of the “end” of Jerusalem, which is the opinion most commonly received. The Lord often speaks of the Church, by way of eminence, κατ᾿ ἐξοχὴν without mentioning the name, as we do when our feelings are powerfully affected towards any person. Now, wicked men do not know the “end” of the Church, and the reason why the Lord chastises her. They mock at the calamities of good men, because they would wish them to be utterly destroyed and ruined, and do not consider that God takes care of them.

If it be objected that the Babylonians could not know this, that is nothing to the purpose; for they could not be ignorant that he was the God whom the Israelites worshipped. Consequently, when they treated the Jews with haughtiness and cruelty, they insulted God himself, as if he and the covenant which he had made with his people had been intentionally trampled under their feet.


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