Isaiah 47

Go down, sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon: sit on the ground, there is no throne for the daughter of the Chaldeans, for no more shall you be called soft and tender. Take the millstone, and grind meal: lay bare your shame, uncover your shoulder, reveal your legs, pass over the rivers. Your disgrace shall be revealed, and your reproach shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and no man shall withstand me. LXX: Go down, sit upon the ground, virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground. There is no throne for the daughter of the Chaldeans, for no more at all shall you be called soft and tender. Take the millstone, grind meal. Reveal your covering, lay bare your gray hairs, uncover your shins, pass over the rivers: your disgrace shall be revealed, your reproaches shall appear. What is just I will take from you, no more at all will I hand you over to men. As in Ezekiel the adornment of Tyre, which is given over to trading, is set forth under the figure of a ship and all its equipment (Ezek 26), and the king of Egypt, because of the abundance of waters, is called a dragon, and his scales, and the rush and papyrus and little fishes are described, and the likeness of harlots and of a brothel bears witness to Jerusalem's fornication with idols: so in the present passage the servitude of Babylon is shown under the person of a captive woman who was once a queen: and she is told to come down from the pride of her kingdom and sit in the dust. And she is called a virgin and a daughter: either because all of us men are God's creation, and Babylon is not, as the heretics hold, of a damnable nature; or because of the luxury and adornment of a city once most powerful, which, when she had grown old and was near her setting, boasted that she was a little virgin and a girl. Although from what is written according to the Seventy, daughter of Babylon, some interpret it not of Babylon itself but of the city of Rome, which in the Apocalypse of John (Rev 14) and in the Epistle of Peter (1 Pet 5) is specifically called Babylon, and they maintain that all that is now said to Babylon fits its ruin, against which the bird and the righteousness of God are to be called: so that, after Zion, that is, the Church, has been saved, she may perish for ever. It is said, then, to Babylon, queen and daughter of the Chaldeans (for she was founded by the Chaldeans), that she will no more at all be called soft and tender and overflowing with delights, she who was carried in the hands of all the nations, so that she scarcely pressed the soles of her feet to the ground: and she is commanded to take the millstone and grind meal, which is a sign of harsh captivity and the utmost servitude; so that she who was once a queen afterwards serves at the work of grinding meal.

Come down, sit. Here he foretells the degradation of the kingdom of Babylon. And concerning this, he does three things: first, he threatens the punishment of degradation; second, he shows their fault: I was angry (Isa 47:6); third, he removes their confidence of escape: let now the astrologers (Isa 47:13). Concerning the first, he does three things. First, he foretells their degradation as to the glory which they lost: come down, from the height of your power, sit in the dust, as though vile and abject; virgin, because never before laid waste, or because of the tenderness of her delicacy; throne, her royal dignity; delicate, as queens are accustomed to be: for tenderness she was not able to bear up her own body (Esth 15:6); as if to say: you shall no longer be a queen: he has put down the mighty from their seat and has exalted the humble (Luke 1:52), above: the Lord of hosts has designed it, to pull down the pride of all glory (Isa 23:9).

"Take the millstone," that is: After being deprived of the glory of your sovereignty, you will adopt the apparel of slaves. The words "cut your white hair" [in the Syriac Bible, Peshitta] mean "You have grown old and decrepit in your sovereignty."

As Fabiola was not ashamed of the Lord on earth, so he shall not be ashamed of her in heaven. She laid bare her wound to the gaze of all, and Rome beheld with tears the disfiguring scar that marred her beauty. She uncovered her limbs, bared her head and closed her mouth. She no longer entered the church of God but, like Miriam the sister of Moses, she sat apart, outside the camp, till the priest who cast her out should himself call her back. She came down like a daughter of Babylon from the throne of her daintiness, she took the millstones and ground meal, she passed barefoot through rivers of tears.

But because there follows: Lay bare your shame, the millstone too is understood figuratively by the Hebrews, namely that, after the manner of a harlot, she lies open to the lust of the victors. And what is written in the book of Judges about Samson (Judg 16), that he was condemned by the Philistines to the mill, they wish to signify this: that, being the strongest of men, he was compelled, for the sake of offspring, to do this with foreign women. In the place where we have translated, lay bare your shame, for which the Seventy translated, reveal your covering, Theodotion put the Hebrew word itself, SAMTHECH (צמתך); Aquila SEMMATHECH; Symmachus τὸ σιωπηλόν σου: which we can express as your silent part, because it ought to be kept silent for modesty. This indeed we also read in the Song of Songs, where the beauty of the bride is described: at the end he adds: Apart from your silent part (Song 4): the translators being unwilling to render a word which in holy Scripture would sound shameful. And rightly he uses immodest names against Babylon (though there is nothing shameful in calling a member of the human body by its own name), she who is commanded to bare her breasts, and to uncover her legs and thighs, and to go into captivity, and to have her disgrace seen, and to lie open to everlasting reproach. And the Lord says he has done this to take vengeance on her who oppressed his people, and that he will hear no intercessor on her behalf who might try to soften the Lord's anger by coming before him. And he means the angel who presides over the Babylonian nation, who says with the other angels: We have cared for Babylon, and she is not healed. And as for what the Seventy translated, what is just I will take from you, no more at all will I hand you over to men, Babylon is understood: or certainly, that which is just, and taken away from Babylon. The Stoics argue that many things shameful in reality are, by the depraved custom of men, decent in words, such as parricide, adultery, homicide, incest, and other things like these. And again, that things decent in reality seem shameful in their names, such as begetting children, relieving the swelling of the belly by breaking wind, easing the bowels of excrement, loosing the bladder by pouring out urine: and finally, that we cannot, as from ruta we say rutula, so make a ὑποκοριστικὸν of menta. Therefore SEMMATHEC (צמתך), which Aquila put, as we have said, is the name for the private parts of a woman. Its etymology among them sounds your thirsty one; so as to show the insatiable lust of Babylon.

Second, as to the ignominy which they incurred: take a millstone, which was the work of servant girls, as if to say: you shall be a servant girl; or it signifies sexual intercourse, as in Judges 16:21 of Samson; uncover your shame, that is, your shameful members, either to the lust of your enemies or for crossing rivers on foot: I will change their glory into shame (Hos 4:7).

"Bare your legs and cross the rivers. Your shame will be uncovered and your disgrace shown." For she was once led into captivity. She was taken from her own land into that of the victors. Being between the two rivers, they had to cross on their feet and uncover themselves. What decorum the women had was lost, and out of necessity even the private parts of their bodies were exposed to many.

"Come down, sit on the ground, virgin daughter of Babylon." Isaiah calls her "virgin" not because she was chaste—in fact she was corrupt and shameless—but because she was dressed in the manner of a virgin. "Sit down on the ground; it is not a throne." You have been deprived of royalty, he says; you have changed place with a slave. "Sink down into the shades, O daughter of the Chaldeans, for you shall no more be called tender and luxurious." You have lost your good fortune of former times; you do not revel in the misfortunes of others.… The one who has redeemed you has the name "the Lord of Hosts." If anyone wants to understand this passage as applying equally to Babylon, one should recognize that through its punishment it has been spared from sinning more. Because Babylon no longer was in power, it no longer sinned and gained the benefit of avoiding greater sins.

And he shows the author of this ignominy: I will take vengeance, however powerful you may be.

Our Redeemer, the Lord of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel. Sit silent, and go into darkness, daughter of the Chaldeans; for no more shall you be called mistress of kingdoms. I was angry with my people, I defiled my inheritance, and I gave them into your hand: you showed them no mercies. Upon the old man you made your yoke exceedingly heavy, and you said, For ever I shall be mistress: you did not lay these things to heart, nor did you remember your latter end. LXX: He who delivered you has said, the Lord Sabaoth, his name is the Holy One of Israel. Sit pierced with grief, enter into darkness, daughter of the Chaldeans: no more at all shall you be called the strength of the kingdom: I was angry against my people, I defiled my inheritance. I gave them into your hand, but you gave them no mercy: on the old man you made the yoke exceedingly heavy, and you said, For ever I shall be mistress: you did not understand these things in your heart, nor did you remember the last things. According to the Seventy, the first verse is joined to what precedes, so that the sense is: And these things will he do who delivered you, the Lord Sabaoth, his name is the Holy One of Israel. But according to the Hebrew, the Prophet speaks in the person of the people, saying that the Lord of hosts, whose name is the Holy One of Israel, has done these things against Babylon.

Our redeemer, the voice of the people liberated from servitude to Babylon, above: the Lord will bring the revenge (Isa 35:4).

These words are spoken by the Lord, our redeemer and the one who has freed us from a life of hard labor.… Or as Symmachus puts it, "You will no longer be called queenly. For I was angry with my people and harmed my inheritance." And I, for reasons of the right discipline, handed my people into your hands, as part of my taming them, but you showed fellow sufferers no kindness by treating them excessively harshly.

And again the discourse is directed to Babylon itself. Sit silent, or pierced with grief, and remember your crimes. Enter into darkness: because for confusion and disgrace you cannot bear the light: no more at all shall you be called mistress, not of one kingdom, nor even of all kingdoms.

Third, as to the shame of confusion: sit you silent, as one who is ashamed does not dare to speak or appear before men: the wicked shall be silent in darkness (1 Sam 2:9).

But when these accursed ones obtain possession of anyone, they immediately forget not only all others but even themselves. Raising their brow in great haughtiness, they neither grasp the times and seasons nor respect human nature in those whom they injure. Like the tyrant of Babylon, they attack more furiously; they show pity to none. "For they persecute him whom you have smitten, and him whom you have wounded, they afflict still more." Had they not acted in this manner, had they not driven into banishment those who spoke in my defense against their calumnies, their representations might have appeared to some persons sufficiently plausible.

Out of love God disciplines, then, those who were thoughtless.… They were made docile through their trials. He did this by delivering them into the hands of their enemies or by the affliction of other pains, just as fire and iron often heal a wound where medicine fails. In the same manner our God, a lover of virtue, when he sees a soul rushing onto the rocks with the force of vast waves and getting mixed up in the ways of wickedness, restores that person through harsh punishments.

And at the same time, because a hidden question arose, why God should be angry against the Chaldeans whom he himself had sent to take Israel, he answered that, being angry against his people, he had wished to chastise them, not to destroy them; to scourge them, not to kill them. But they had given free rein to their own cruelty, and had laid on more stripes than God's vengeance demanded: and it is a great sign of Babylonian cruelty that they did not spare even old men, whose age is venerable even among enemies. And this too is a sign of pride, that, deceived by present prosperity, she did not consider the uncertainties of the future. We ought therefore always, in prosperity, to beware of what is to come, and not to oppress those handed over to us, who are being instructed for this purpose, that they may become better.

For they have burned the temple of God, they have consecrated the sacred vessels to idols, and they have used cruelty against the prisoners. "I gave them into your hands." You would not have carried off the victory if I had not willed it. I delivered them [to you] because I wanted to correct them, not exterminate them. "But you did not extend mercy to them; you made the yoke of the aged very heavy." Even age did not seem to you worthy of respect. [Isaiah] has by this trait shown the extent of their hardness.

I was angry. Here he set out their fault, which is the cause of such a punishment. And he sets out three faults. First, the cruelty of their rule toward the Jews, setting out the power granted them: I was angry with my people, because of their sins, wishing to punish them; I have polluted, allowed to be polluted by you, my inheritance, the people of Israel, above: Israel is my inheritance (Isa 19:25); I have forsaken my house, I have left my inheritance (Jer 12:7); and he sets out their abuse of this power: you have shown no mercy to them: upon the ancient, who should be given mercy even by enemies: they did not respect the persons of the ancients (Lam 5:12).

Second, their pride of heart: and you have said, setting out their proud thinking: I shall be a lady for ever: she says in her heart: I sit a queen (Rev 18:7); he also sets out the foolishness of the proud, that they did not consider things to come: you have not laid these things, which will come upon you: in the day of good things be not unmindful of evils (Sir 11:27[25]); in all your works remember your last end (Sir 7:40[36]).

And now hear these things, you delicate one, who dwell confidently, who say in your heart: I am, and there is none besides me any more: I shall not sit as a widow, and I shall not know barrenness. And these two things shall come upon you suddenly in one day, barrenness and widowhood: all things have come upon you, because of the multitude of your sorceries, and because of the hardness of your enchanters, exceedingly. And you trusted in your wickedness, and you said: There is none who sees me: your wisdom and your knowledge, these have deceived you, and you said in your heart: I am, and besides me there is no other. Evil shall come upon you, and you shall not know its rising, and calamity shall rush upon you which you shall not be able to expiate, misery shall come upon you suddenly which you shall not know. Two things will come upon Babylon together, barrenness and widowhood, so that she has neither sons, that is, peoples subject to her, nor a husband, whom we can understand as the king: which she suddenly endured while she did not expect them. For she could not suppose that the Persians, of no strength before, would, in the reign of Cyrus, overcome her and subject her to their power.

Thinking that you would prove to be better than the Persians, you said, "I am and there is no other," and you were encouraged by the oracles of demons and astrologers. And you called on a hope that was fornication and that was far removed from God. For the association between God and all humanity by nature is very different from that between demons and humans, which provides communion through sorcery. So Paul likens idol worship to a spell when he writes of "idol worship, sorcery." But for the Babylonians and others, idolatry does not lead to pardon or deliverance but to destruction.

And he sets out the frustration of their hope: and now hear; I shall not sit as a widow, through the deprivation of my kingdom; barrenness, that is, the loss of the people who were born in me.

"Two plagues shall come to you in one day," because you were deceived by the art of the Chaldeans and ignored your doom. "The loss of children and widowhood shall come on you," that is, sterility. The loss of children indicates the destruction of the city; the widowhood, the privation of the kingdom.

And what follows describes very clearly the arrogance of the kingdom of the Chaldeans and the foolishness of their royal people, in such a way that they ascribed to themselves immortal power and an indestructible rule. However, suddenly you will experience a loss of men and the destruction of your children—that is, men to rule among you, and children meaning those to be ruled. These things will come at once upon you and reveal you abandoned and childless. This will affect you not only through these things proclaimed but also through the extent of sorceries and incantations.

What you have suffered, he says, is not only because of your pride and the abundance of all wealth and your delights, but also because of the multitude of your sorceries, and of your enchanters, in whom you trusted. And evil shall come upon you which you did not know before, and whose rising you did not know. Or, as the Seventy translated: Destruction shall come upon you, and you shall not know it: a pit, and you shall fall into it: so that you who were preparing the evil of captivity for all the nations may yourself fall into the pit that you prepared. What is plain we pass over in brief speech.

Suddenly, unexpectedly, above: the destruction thereof shall come on a sudden, when it is not looked for (Isa 30:13): give them, O Lord, a womb without children (Hos 9:14). Third, the multitude of their sorceries: all things. And he sets out three things. First, the sorceries by which they increased: the multitude of your sorceries, for they abounded in arts of this kind there: let there not be among you anyone who consults diviners (Deut 18:11).

And since Isaiah could not find one man to address, he spoke to the daughter of the Chaldeans, promising these things especially: The astrologers of heaven maintained and supported you, announcing to you what was coming to you from heaven. For in this way we are taught that what the Lord wishes to give to each nation cannot be known by the lovers of learning.… But to us each word is gathered into two principal ones, first to the human customs of every city and to their good "daimons," and second to oppose any sorcerers and deceivers and cheats, destroying and turning from the truth into the deceitfulness of human beings.

Second, the error they fell into because of these things, namely, they thought they had immunity from punishment because these things denied divine providence: and you have trusted, that you might safely sin; there is none, no God, that sees me sinning, that he might punish me: the eye of the adulterer observes darkness, saying: no eye shall see me (Job 24:15); and they thought their power was eternal because their diviners promised this: your wisdom, as to those who occupied themselves with divine things; your knowledge, as to those who occupied themselves with human things: every man is become a fool for knowledge (Jer 10:14).

Suddenly, [Isaiah] says, you will receive destruction and undergo the misfortunes that you do not expect. "[There shall be] a pit, and you shall fall into it; and grief shall come on you, and you cannot be cleared." Symmachus and Aquila have rendered the translation of this passage as follows: "And a misfortune will befall you that you will not be able to avert," that is to say, I will precipitate you into unavoidable misfortunes, and you will not obtain a pardon, for you have sinned beyond [the point] of being pardoned." "And destruction shall come suddenly on you, and you shall not know." For Babylon had not been expecting a change [of fortune] and had had no dread of seeing the situation reversed.

Third, he sets out the punishment they merited because of this: evil shall come upon you, and you shall not know the rising thereof, he says this in the manner of astrologers, who teach that we should consider the rising of kingdoms according to the rising of the planets: when they shall say: peace and security; then shall sudden destruction come upon them (1 Thess 5:3).

Stand with your enchanters, and with the multitude of your sorceries, in which you have labored from your youth, if perhaps anything may profit you, or if you can become stronger. You have failed in the multitude of your counsels: let the augurs of the heaven stand and save you, who gazed at the stars and reckoned the months, that from them they might announce to you things to come. Behold, they have become as stubble, fire has burned them: they shall not deliver their souls from the hand of the flame: there are no coals to warm them, nor a hearth to sit by: so have they become to you, all those things in which you had labored: your traders from your youth have gone astray, each in his own way: there is none to save you. LXX: Stand now in your enchantments and in your many sorceries, which you learned from your youth, if they can profit you: and you have labored in your counsels: let the astrologers of the heaven, who gaze at the stars, stand and save you: let them announce to you what is to come upon you. Behold, they shall all be burned as brushwood in the fire: and they shall not rescue their soul from the flame; because you have coals of fire, you shall sit upon them. These shall be a help to you. You have labored in your exchange from your youth: man has gone astray in himself: but for you there shall be no salvation. That Babylon and all Chaldea pursued the arts of enchanters and augurs, and soothsayers and Gazarenes, whom we call haruspices, is proved by the reading of Daniel the Prophet, who records that the kings of Babylon did everything on their counsel. And in place of what we have translated, following Symmachus and Theodotion: Let the augurs of the heaven stand and save you, the Seventy translated more plainly, Let the astrologers of the heaven stand and save you; who are commonly called mathematicians, and think that human affairs are ruled by the course of the stars and the motion of the heavenly bodies. Hence the Magi too came from the East, saying they had seen the Lord's star, either from the knowledge of their art, or from the prophecy of Balaam, their own Prophet, who had said in Numbers: A star shall rise out of Jacob, and a man from Israel (Num 24:17).

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.

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, they were full of magical arts, above: and when they shall say to you: seek of pythons, and of diviners (Isa 8:19).

Let these, then, who reckon the months and count up the years, and, weighing the moments of the hours, promise knowledge of the future, tell you what the Lord has planned against you; and, since they are silent about what is to come, the Prophet answered: Behold, they have become as stubble, fire has devoured them; so that those who promised salvation to others did not know their own punishments: and there is no doubt that, when the city was burning, the devouring flame consumed its inhabitants. And what follows: There are no coals to warm them, nor a hearth to sit by, the Hebrews explain thus: They have no knowledge of warmth, nor an enlightening sense that could dispel their darkness and drive out the cold of error. For which the Seventy, meaning I know not what, translated: You have coals of fire, you shall sit upon them: these shall be a help to you; unless perhaps we can say this, that fire and burning are much more useful to Babylon than the magi and Gazarenes, the astrologers and enchanters, were. For the one calls them to repentance through penalties and punishments; the others lead them through error to pride.

So also His Father makes great account of prophecy, when He sets Himself against the honor paid to idols: "Let them declare to you," saith He, "what shall come upon you"; and again, "I have declared, and have saved, and there was no foreign God amongst you"; and He brings this forward through all prophecy. Because prophecy is especially the work of God, which devils cannot even imitate, though they strive exceedingly. For in the case of miracles there may be delusion; but exactly to foretell the future belongs to that pure Nature alone. Or if devils ever have done so, it was by deceiving the simpler sort; whence their oracles are always easily detected.

And as to astrologers: let now the astrologers stand against their enemies, if they could, for they abounded in these arts, too: be not afraid of the signs of heaven, which the heathens fear (Jer 10:2).

Let us ask those who assert that there are different natures whether Babylon is of an evil nature or a good one. If they say of an evil one, which there is no doubt they will answer, how is she called to repentance, and told: Sit pierced with grief, enter into darkness, daughter of the Chaldeans? And then, after the enumeration of her sins and crimes: You have coals of fire, you shall sit upon them: these shall be a help to you? And what is meant by what is added according to the same Seventy: You have labored in exchange from your youth? What is this exchange? Surely from good to evil. From which it is plain that men are good by nature, and become evil by will. Finally it is added: Man has gone astray in himself, not by nature, but by the choice of the mind.

And he threatens the wise with burning: behold they are as stubble, the wise among you; there are no coals wherewith they may be warmed, but by which the whole city may be burned, or because the city was burned in wintertime, so that they were punished by cold and fire at the same time; or the coal of divine wisdom is not in you: the congregation of sinners is like tow heaped together, and the end of them is a flame of fire (Sir 21:10[9]).

It is known from the writing of Daniel in what manner certain wizards and diviners and potion makers were eminent among those Chaldeans living in Babylon. And they were highly regarded by the king since the kingdom was ordered by them. They did not only dabble with potions and incantations, but through the knowledge of mathematical theorems they thought to understand the heavens, predicting the movement of the stars, their effects on human destiny and their power on the present according to the season, so as to learn to distinguish the things to come. But no mighty person is able to know the future from pondering on these things. Rather, the reward of fire will be received by those who pay too much attention to them.

For I know a cleansing fire that Christ came to send on the earth, and he himself is anagogically called a fire. This Fire takes away whatever is material and of evil habit. This [Christ] desires to kindle with all speed, for he longs for speed in doing us good, since he gives us even coals of fire to help us.

All her labor and her traders, whom we understand as the magi, achieved this: that each went astray in his own way; and, himself lost, could not offer salvation to another.

And when God afflicts those who deserve punishment, how else is it intended except for their good? It is he who says to the Chaldaeans, "You have coals of fire; sit on them. They shall be a help to you." Further, let them hear what is related in the seventy-seventh psalm, which is ascribed to Asaph, about those who fell in the desert. It says, "When he slew them, then they sought him." It does not say that some sought him after others had been killed but that those who were slain perished in such a manner that when put to death they sought God. From all these illustrations it is plain that the just and good God of the Law and the Gospels is one and the same and that he does good with justice and punishes in kindness, since neither goodness without justice nor justice without goodness can describe the dignity of the divine nature.

In the other nations likewise, there are people who choose an iniquitous law, he says, but not all embrace this mode of conduct. For your part, you studied iniquity and you practiced the extreme of impiety as if it were the height of piety; therefore you will not enjoy salvation. As for us, instructed by their punishment, let us procure salvation, and may their destruction turn to our advantage! Seeing what payment is reserved for malice, and taking on the opposite mode of conduct and having as a holy anchor trust in the God of the universe, we will obtain his solicitude during the present life, just as we will enjoy the eternal benefits in the life to come by the grace of Christ our Savior. Glory to the Father, together with him, in the unity of the All-Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Second, he excludes hope from their merchants: merchants, in which they also abounded; or wise men (magi), who sold them lies for truth, above: every one shall be amazed at his neighbor, their countenances shall be as faces burnt (Isa 13:8).