 |  |
The Judgment of Babylon
(47:).
A | 1-7. Babylon debased. |
a | 1. | m | Sit in dust.
n | Daughter.
m | Sit on ground.
n | Daughter.
b | 2-4. No more Tender. |
Reproach--Avenging--No acceptance.
a | 5. | m | Sit silent--get into darkness.
n | Daughter.
b | 6, 7. No more Mistress. |
Provoked--Profaned--The Issue.
A | 8-15. False Trust. |
c | 8, 9-. | o | Lady of pleasure.
p | thou sayest in thine heart, I am.
q | These shall come on thee.
d | -9. spite of incantations.
spite of spells.
c | 10, 11-. | o | Lady of pleasure.
p | thou hast said in thine heart, I am.
q | These shall come on thee.
d | 12-15. Thy spells.
Thy incantations.
Rotherham's translation is so suggestive of the truth underlying the language of Isaiah
in this chapter that where we quote from this passage here, it will be from his version that
excerpts will be made.
"Down--and sit in the dust, O virgin,
Daughter of Babylon.
Sit on the ground--throneless
Daughter of the Chaldeans;
For thou shalt no more be called
Tender and Dainty."
Babylon is probably styled the virgin daughter because hitherto the city had not been
taken by enemies previous to the capture by Cyrus. The humiliation associated with
sitting in the dust is a figure with which every reader is acquainted. To take the millstone
and to grind meal, is to undertake the most menial of tasks, and as none but the lowest
class of women in Eastern lands ever go uncovered, or ever travel on foot, but are
completely veiled from head to foot, the reference to `putting back the locks' (or the veil)
lifting up the skirt and uncovering the thigh and wading through rivers, would indicate to
the Eastern mind how low this great kingdom was to fall.
"I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man" (Isa. 47: 3).
Rotherham's version reads: "An avenging will I take, And will accept no son of earth."