The image of perishing Babylon at the end of the exile was very relevant. Indeed, the fall of Babylonia and its capital was unexpected and very impressive. It was all the more unexpected because Babylon was a first-class fortress prepared for a long siege...
The image of perishing Babylon at the end of the exile was very relevant. Indeed, the fall of Babylonia and its capital was unexpected and very impressive. It was all the more unexpected because Babylon was a first-class fortress prepared for a long siege. Historians still debate the reasons for so rapid an end to this city, suggesting betrayal among its defenders. But in the postexilic period Babylon became a symbol of opposition to God, and it appears in precisely this sense both in the prophecies of Babylonian Isaiah and in the New Testament books, in particular in the Book of Revelation.
Of course, the Babylonian captivity contributed greatly to this reinterpretation of the image of Babylon. But the matter is not only that. It is also the imperial spirit that permeated the life of the Neo-Babylonian Kingdom. And it is the spirit of modern civilization as such. Of course, Babylonian civilization is hard for us today to consider modern; for us it is antiquity. But it already bore within itself that spirit of self-assertion that is equally characteristic of all civilizations, ancient and modern. The point here is not even awareness of technical power or a sense of security, but the feeling of self-sufficiency. A person saturated with the spirit of civilization is convinced that he is protected from surprises and has the situation under control.
Of course, any technologies in any age can fail, but such a failure is perceived as an anomaly, as an emergency that can and must be eliminated, removed, and, as far as possible, prevented in the future. A person of civilization usually has no experience of his own dependence on higher powers. And if such an experience appears, it means the person has ceased to be a bearer of its spirit. This is why, and not because of any depravity or maliciousness of technologies in themselves, all great civilizations are doomed. God does not abandon the person, and sooner or later a moment inevitably comes when that person grows weary of civilization.
Historians have long noticed the phenomenon of a kind of fatigue of civilizations, psychological and social fatigue that accumulates in them over time, in much the same way that fatigue can accumulate in metal structures over time. But almost none of them has considered the spiritual causes of this fatigue of civilizations. Yet spiritual fatigue turns out to be the main cause of their fall: resistance to God, attempts to wall oneself off from Him, never end in anything good. This is always a road to nowhere. To historical nonbeing.
47 God's judgments upon Babylon and Chaldea, for their cruelty towards God's people, Isa 47:1-6.
Their pride and other sins, Isa 47:7-10.
Their enchantments shall not deliver them, Isa 47:11-15.
47:1 Down - From thy throne. Virgin - So, called, because she was tender and delicate. No throne - For thee. The empire is taken from thee, and translated to the Persians. Called - Be so.
47:2 Millstones - Thou shalt be brought to the basest slavery, which grinding at the mill was esteemed. For this work was not performed by horses, as now it is, but by the labour of slaves and captives.Grind - Grind bread - corn into meal for thy master's use. Uncover - Take off the ornaments wherewith such women as were of good quality, used to cover and dress their heads. These are predictions of what they should be forced to do or suffer. Thigh - Gird up thy garments close and short about thee, that thou mayest be fit for travelling on foot, and for passing over those rivers, through which thou wilt be constrained to wade, in the way to the land of thy captivity.
47:3 Uncovered - Either for want of raiment to cover it; or rather, by thine enemies in way of scorn and contumely. As a man - With moderation and gentleness, as those men who have not quite put off humanity use to do.
47:5 Silent - Thro' grief and shame, as mourners use to do.The lady - The chief and glory of all kingdoms.
47:6 Polluted - I cast them away as an unclean thing. Into thine hand - To punish them. No mercy - Thou hast exceeded the bounds of thy commission. The ancient - Who besides their common calamity were afflicted with the miseries of old age, and therefore did require both pity and reverence.
47:7 These things - Thy cruel usages of my people, and the heavy judgments which thou hadst reason to expect for them. Nor remember - Thou didst not consider what might and was likely to befal thee afterward.
47:8 I am - Independent, and self - sufficient. None - Which is not either subject to me, or far inferior to me in power and glory.Shall not sit - I shall never want either a king or people to defend me.
47:9 Perfection - In the highest degree.
47:10 Trusted - Confidently expecting to preserve thyself by these and other wicked arts. None seeth - My counsels are so deeply laid.Perverted - Hath misled thee into the way of perdition.None seeth - Which is repeated, to denote their intolerable self - confidence.
47:11 Therefore - This agrees with the history. Babylon being surprized by Cyrus, when they were in deep security.
47:12 Stand - Persist in these practices. Laboured - From the beginning of thy kingdom. For the Chaldeans in all ages were famous for the practice of these arts.
47:13 Wearied - Thou hast spent thy time and strength in going from one to another, and all to no purpose.
47:15 Thus - Such comfortless and helpless creatures.They - Merchants who came from several countries to trade with Babylon.And the verse may be thus rendered; Thus (vain and unprofitable) shall they (thy sorcerers) with whom thou hast laboured be unto thee: (So here is only a transposition of words, than which nothing ismore usual in scripture. Then follows another matter:) also thy merchants, or they with whom thou hast traded from thy youth, shall wander every one to his own quarter.