Season 6, Podcast 106, Isaiah 47:1-15, “The Fall of Babylon.”

Season 6, Podcast 106, Isaiah 47:1-15, “The Fall of Babylon.”

Chaldea was located in the southern part of Babylon. The two famous cities associated with Chaldea are Ur and Babylon.  Ur was the birthplace of Abraham. Nebuchadnezzar II was a Chaldean king, prominently associated with Daniel in the Old Testament. The Lord predicts their fall.

Isaiah 47:1-3

1 Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate. 

2 Take the millstones, and grind meal: uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers.

3 Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man.

In Chapter 1 of Isaiah, the Lord puts the same curse on Judah.

Isaiah 1: 7-8

7 Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

8 And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.

It is ironic that Babylon and Chaldea were used to fulfill that prophecy. Now Babylon and Chaldea are being cursed because they did not acknowledge the hand of the Lord. They boasted of their own greatness. Isaiah reminds them that Christ, not the Babylonians or Chaldeans delivered Judah into their hands because of Judah’s wickedness. 

Isaiah 47:4

4 As for our redeemer, the Lord of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel.

Furthermore, we learn in Isaiah 1 that Judah, if they repent, shall be restored.

Isaiah 1:16-19

16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;

17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:

The Lord offers the following promises to Judah.

Isaiah 1:24-27

24 Therefore saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies:

25 And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin:

26 And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city.

27 Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness.

Now the curse is falling upon Babylon and Chaldea because they showed no mercy to the Jews. Through the prophet Isaiah, the Lord reminds Babylon and Chaldea that it was he who delivered Judah into their hands. Babylon is being condemned for their pride.

Isaiah 47:5-8

5 Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called, The lady of kingdoms.

6 I was wroth with my people, I have polluted mine inheritance, and given them into thine hand: thou didst shew them no mercy; upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke.

7 And thou saidst, I shall be a lady for ever: so that thou didst not lay these things to thy heart, neither didst remember the latter end of it.

8 Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children:

or the laws of nature. That is the message of the Holy Bible.