2. deliver--from the enemies' hands.
burden--their images laid on the beasts ([Is 46:1]).
themselves--the gods, here also distinguished from their images.
3. in contrast to what precedes: Babylon's idols, so far from bearing its people safely are themselves borne off, a burden to the laden beast; but Jehovah bears His people in safety even from the womb to old age ([Is 63:9]; [De 32:11]; [Psa 71:6], ). God compares Himself to a nurse tenderly carrying a child; contrast Moses' language ([Nu 11:12]).
4. old age--As "your"--"you"--"you," are not in the Hebrew, the sentiment is more general than English Version, though of course it includes the Jews from the infancy to the more advanced age of their history ([Is 47:6]).
I am he--that is, the same ([Psa 102:27]; [Joh 8:24]; [He 13:8]).
I will bear ... carry--Not only do I not need to be borne and carried Myself, as the idols ([Is 46:1]).
5. ([Is 40:18], ).
6. ([Is 40:19], ; .) They lavish gold out of their purses and spare no expense for their idol. Their profuseness shames the niggardliness of professors who worship God with what cost them nothing. Sin is always a costly service.
7. cry ... can ... not ... save--([Is 45:20], with which contrast [Is 45:19]).
8. show yourselves men--Renounce the childishness of idolatry as shown in what precedes ([1Co 14:20]; ; [Ep 4:14]). In order to be manly we must be godly; for man was made "in the image of God," and only rises to his true dignity when joined to God; virtue is derived from the Latin vir, "a man."
bring ... to mind--rather, "lay it to heart."
transgressors--addressed to the idolaters among the Jews.
9. former--namely, proofs of the sole Godship of Jehovah, from predictions fulfilled, and interpositions of God in behalf of Israel ([Is 45:5]).
10. ([Is 45:21]; , ; ).
yet--not in the Hebrew. Translate, "What had not been done" [Horsley].
do all my pleasure--([Is 53:10]; [Ro 9:19]).
11. ravenous bird--Cyrus so called on account of the rapidity of his marches from the distant regions of Persia to pounce on his prey (see on [Is 41:2]; [Is 41:25]; [Jr 49:22]; [Eze 17:3]). The standard of Cyrus, too, was a golden eagle on a spear (see the heathen historian, Xenophon, 7, where almost the same word is used, aetos, as here, ayit).
executeth my counsel--([Is 44:28]; ). Babylon represents, mystically, the apostate faction: the destruction of its idols symbolizes the future general extirpation of all idolatry and unbelief.
purposed ... also do it--([Is 43:13]).
12. stout-hearted--stubborn in resisting God ([Psa 76:5]; [Ac 7:51]).
far from righteousness--([Is 59:9]; [Ha 2:4]).
13. near--antithetical to "far" ([Is 46:12]; [Is 51:5]; ; , ; [Ro 10:6-8]).
righteousness--answering to "salvation" in the parallel clause; therefore it means here, "my righteous deliverance"; righteous, because proving the truth of God's promises, and so contrived as to not compromise, but vindicate, His righteousness ([Is 42:21]; [Ro 3:26]).
Zion ... my glory--rather, "I will give salvation in Zion; to Israel (I will give) my glory" [Horsley]. ([Is 63:11]; [Psa 14:7]; [Lu 2:32]).
Chapter 47
Is 47:1-15. The Destruction of Babylon Is Represented under the Image of a Royal Virgin Brought Down in a Moment from Her Magnificent Throne to the Extreme of Degradation
1. in the dust--(See on [Is 3:26]; [Job 2:13]; [La 2:10]).
virgin--that is, heretofore uncaptured [Herodotus, 1.191].
daughter of Babylon--Babylon and its inhabitants (see on [Is 1:8]; [Is 37:22]).
no throne--The seat of empire was transferred to Shushan. Alexander intended to have made Babylon his seat of empire, but Providence defeated his design. He soon died; and Seleucia, being built near, robbed it of its inhabitants, and even of its name, which was applied to Seleucia.
delicate--alluding to the effeminate debauchery and prostitution of all classes at banquets and religious rites [Curtius, 5.1; Herodotus, 1.199; Baruch, 6.43].
2. millstones--like the querns or hand-mills, found in this country, before the invention of water mills and windmills: a convex stone, made by the hand to turn in a concave stone, fitted to receive it, the corn being ground between them: the office of a female slave in the East; most degrading ([Job 31:10]; [Mt 24:41]).
uncover thy locks--rather, "take off thy veil" [Horsley]: perhaps the removal of the plaited hair worn round the women's temples is included; it, too, is a covering ([1Co 11:15]); to remove it and the veil is the badge of the lowest female degradation; in the East the head is the seat of female modesty; the face of a woman is seldom, the whole head almost never, seen bare (see on [Is 22:8]).
make bare the leg--rather "lift up (literally, 'uncover'; as in lifting up the train the leg is uncovered) thy flowing train." In Mesopotamia, women of low rank, as occasion requires, wade across the rivers with stript legs, or else entirely put off their garments and swim across. "Exchange thy rich, loose, queenly robe, for the most abject condition, that of one going to and fro through rivers as a slave, to draw water," &c.
uncover ... thigh--gather up the robe, so as to wade across.
3. not meet ... as a man--rather, "I will not meet a man," that is, suffer man to intercede with me--give man an audience [Horsley]. Or, "I will not make peace with any man," before all are destroyed. Literally, "strike a league with"; a phrase arising from the custom of striking hands together in making a compact [Maurer], (see on [Pr 17:18]; [Pr 22:26]; , Margin). Or else from striking the victims sacrificed in making treaties.
4. As for--rather supply, "Thus saith our Redeemer" [Maurer]. Lowth supposes this verse to be the exclamation of a chorus breaking in with praises, "Our Redeemer! Jehovah of hosts," &c. ([Jr 50:34]).
5. Sit--the posture of mourning ([Ezr 9:4]; [Job 2:13]; [La 2:10]).
darkness--mourning and misery ([La 3:2]; [Mi 7:8]).
lady of kingdoms--mistress of the world ([Is 13:19]).
6. reason for God's vengeance on Babylon: in executing God's will against His people, she had done so with wanton cruelty ([Is 10:5], &c.; [Jr 50:17]; ; [Zec 1:15]).
polluted my inheritance--([Is 43:28]).
the ancient--Even old age was disregarded by the Chaldeans, who treated all alike with cruelty ([La 4:16]; ) [Rosenmuller]. Or, "the ancient" means Israel, worn out with calamities in the latter period of its history ([Is 46:4]), as its earlier stage of history is called its "youth" ([Is 54:6]; [Eze 16:60]).
7. so that--Through thy vain expectation of being a queen for ever, thou didst advance to such a pitch of insolence as not to believe "these things" (namely, as to thy overthrow, [Is 47:1-5]) possible.