end of it--namely, of thy insolence, implied in her words, "I shall be a lady for ever."
8. given to pleasures--(See on [Is 47:1]). In no city were there so many incentives to licentiousness.
I am ... none ... beside me--([Is 47:10]). Language of arrogance in man's mouth; fitting for God alone ([Is 45:6]). See [Is 5:8], latter part.
widow ... loss of children--A state, represented as a female, when it has fallen is called a widow, because its king is no more; and childless, because it has no inhabitants; they having been carried off as captives ([Is 23:4]; , [4, 5]; [Re 18:7], ).
9. in a moment--It should not decay slowly, but be suddenly and unexpectedly destroyed; in a single night it was taken by Cyrus. The prophecy was again literally fulfilled when Babylon revolted against Darius; and, in order to hold out to the last, each man chose one woman of his family, and strangled the rest, to save provisions. Darius impaled three thousand of the revolters.
in ... perfection--that is, "in full measure."
for ... for--rather, "notwithstanding the ... notwithstanding"; "in spite of" [Lowth]. So "for" ([Nu 14:11]). Babylon was famous for "expiations or sacrifices, and other incantations, whereby they tried to avert evil and obtain good" [Diodorus Siculus].
10. wickedness--as in [Is 13:11], the cruelty with which Babylon treated its subject states.
None seeth me--([Psa 10:11]; ). "There is none to exact punishment from me." Sinners are not safe, though seeming secret.
Thy wisdom--astrological and political ([Is 19:11], &c., as to Egypt).
perverted--turns thee aside from the right and safe path.
11. from whence it riseth--Hebrew, "the dawn thereof," that is, its first rising. Evil shall come on thee without the least previous intimation [Rosenmuller]. But dawn is not applied to "evil," but to prosperity shining out after misery ([Is 21:12]). Translate, "Thou shall not see any dawn" (of alleviation) [Maurer].
put ... off--rather, as Margin, "remove by expiation"; it shall be never ending.
not know--unawares: which thou dost not apprehend. Proving the fallacy of thy divinations and astrology ([Job 9:5]; [Psa 35:8]).
12. Stand--forth: a scornful challenge to Babylon's magicians to show whether they can defend their city.
laboured--The devil's service is a laborious yet fruitless one ([Is 55:2]).
13. wearied--(compare [Is 57:10]; [Eze 24:12]).
astrologers--literally, those who form combinations of the heavens; who watch conjunctions and oppositions of the stars. "Casters of the configurations of the sky" [Horsley]. Gesenius explains it: the dividers of the heavens. In casting a nativity they observed four signs:--the horoscope, or sign which arose at the time one was born; the mid-heaven; the sign opposite the horoscope towards the west; and the hypogee.
monthly prognosticators--those who at each new moon profess to tell thereby what is about to happen. Join, not as English Version, "save ... from those things," &c.; but, "They that at new moons make known from (by means of) them the things that shall come upon thee" [Maurer].
14. ([Is 29:6]; ).
not ... a coal--Like stubble, they shall burn to a dead ash, without leaving a live coal or cinder (compare [Is 30:14]), so utterly shall they be destroyed.
15. Thus, &c.--Such shall be the fate of those astrologers who cost thee such an amount of trouble and money.
thy merchants, from thy youth--that is, with whom thou hast trafficked from thy earliest history, the foreigners sojourning in Babylon for the sake of commerce ([Is 13:14]; [Jr 51:6], ; [Na 3:16], ) [Barnes]. Rather, the astrologers, with whom Babylon had so many dealings ([Is 47:12-14]) [Horsley].
to his quarter--literally, "straight before him" ([Eze 1:9], ). The foreigners, whether soothsayers or merchants, shall flee home out of Babylon ([Jr 50:16]).
Chapter 48
Is 48:1-22. The Things That Befall Babylon Jehovah Predicted Long before, lest Israel Should Attribute Them, in Its "Obstinate" Perversity, to Strange Gods (Is 48:1-5)
1. the waters of Judah--spring from the fountain of Judah ([Nu 24:7]; [De 33:28]; [Psa 68:26]; Margin). Judah has the "fountain" attributed to it, because it survived the ten tribes, and from it Messiah was to spring.
swear by ... Lord--([Is 19:18]; ; ).
mention--in prayers and praises.
not in truth--([Jr 5:2]; [Joh 4:24]).
2. For--Ye deserve these reproofs; "for" ye call yourselves citizens of "the holy city" ([Is 52:1]), but not in truth ([Is 48:1]; [Ne 11:1]; [Da 9:24]); so the inscription on their coins of the time of the Maccabees. "Jerusalem the Holy."
3. former--things which have happened in time past to Israel ([Is 42:9]; , ; ; ).
suddenly--They came to pass so unexpectedly that the prophecy could not have resulted from mere human sagacity.
4. obstinate--Hebrew, "hard" ([De 9:27]; [Eze 3:7], Margin).
iron sinew--inflexible ([Ac 7:51]).
brow brass--shameless as a harlot (see [Jr 6:28]; ; [Eze 3:7], Margin).
5. (See on [Is 48:1]; [Is 48:3]).
6. Thou, &c.--So "ye are my witnesses" ([Is 43:10]). Thou canst testify the prediction was uttered long before the fulfilment: "see all this," namely, that the event answers to the prophecy.
declare--make the fact known as a proof that Jehovah alone is God ([Is 44:8]).
new things--namely, the deliverance from Babylon by Cyrus, new in contradistinction from former predictions that had been fulfilled ([Is 42:9]; ). Antitypically, the prophecy has in view the "new things" of the gospel treasury ([So 7:13]; [Mt 13:52]; [2Co 5:17]; [Re 21:5]). From this point forward, the prophecies as to Messiah's first and second advents and the restoration of Israel, have a new circumstantial distinctness, such as did not characterize the previous ones, even of Isaiah. Babylon, in this view, answers to the mystical Babylon of Revelation.
hidden--which could not have been guessed by political sagacity ([Da 2:22], 29; [1Co 2:9], ).
7. Not like natural results from existing causes, the events when they took place were like acts of creative power, such as had never before been "from the beginning."
even before the day when--rather [Maurer], "And before the day (of their occurrence) thou hast not heard of them"; that is, by any human acuteness; they are only heard of by the present inspired announcement.
8. heardest not--repeated, as also "knewest not," from [Is 48:7].
from that time--Omit "that." "Yea, from the first thine ear did not open itself," namely, to obey them [Rosenmuller]. "To open the ear" denotes obedient attention ([Is 50:5]); or, "was not opened" to receive them; that is, they were not declared by Me to thee previously, since, if thou hadst been informed of them, such is thy perversity, thou couldst not have been kept in check [Maurer]. In the former view, the sense of the words following is, "For I knew that, if I had not foretold the destruction of Babylon so plainly that there could be no perverting of it, thou wouldst have perversely ascribed it to idols, or something else than to Me" ([Is 48:5]). Thus they would have relapsed into idolatry, to cure them of which the Babylonian captivity was sent: so they had done ([Ex 32:4]). After the return, and ever since, they have utterly forsaken idols.