“Sit in silence, and go into darkness, daughter of the Chaldeans. For you shall no longer be called the mistress of kingdoms.
Parallel Translations
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“Sit in silence, and go into darkness, daughter of the Chaldeans. For you shall no longer be called the mistress of kingdoms.
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Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called, The lady of kingdoms.
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Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans; for thou shalt no more be called the mistress of kingdoms.
Cross-references (22)
Passages linked to Isaiah 47:5 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Isaiah 47:7 You said, ‘I will be a princess forever,’ so that you didn’t lay these things to your heart, nor did you remember the results.
- Habakkuk 2:20 But Yahweh is in his holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before him!”
- Revelation 18:16-19 saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, she who was dressed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls! For in an hour such great riches are made desolate.’ Every ship master, and everyone who sails anywhere, and mariners, and as many as gain their living by sea, stood far away, and cried out as they looked at the smoke of her burning, saying, ‘What is like the great city?’ They cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and mourning, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, in which all who had their ships in the sea were made rich by reason of her great wealth!’ For she is made desolate in one hour.
- 1 Samuel 2:9 He will keep the feet of his holy ones, but the wicked will be put to silence in darkness; for no man will prevail by strength.
- Psalms 31:17 Let me not be disappointed, Yahweh, for I have called on you. Let the wicked be disappointed. Let them be silent in Sheol.
- Psalms 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.”
- Isaiah 13:10 For the stars of the sky and its constellations will not give their light. The sun will be darkened in its going out, and the moon will not cause its light to shine.
- Isaiah 13:19-20 Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, will be like when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It will never be inhabited, neither will it be lived in from generation to generation. The Arabian will not pitch a tent there, neither will shepherds make their flocks lie down there.
- Isaiah 14:4 that you will take up this parable against the king of Babylon, and say, “How the oppressor has ceased! The golden city has ceased!”
- Isaiah 14:23 “I will also make it a possession for the porcupine, and pools of water. I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” says Yahweh of Armies.
- Isaiah 47:1 “Come down and sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne, daughter of the Chaldeans. For you will no longer be called tender and delicate.
- Jeremiah 8:14 “Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves! Let’s enter into the fortified cities, and let’s be silent there; for Yahweh our God has put us to silence, and given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against Yahweh.
- Jeremiah 25:10 Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the lamp.
- Lamentations 1:1 How the city sits solitary, that was full of people! She has become as a widow, who was great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces has become a slave!
- Daniel 2:37-38 You, O king, are king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength, and the glory. Wherever the children of men dwell, he has given the animals of the field and the birds of the sky into your hand, and has made you rule over them all. You are the head of gold.
- Zechariah 2:13 Be silent, all flesh, before Yahweh; for he has roused himself from his holy habitation!”
- Matthew 22:12-13 and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here not wearing wedding clothing?’ He was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and throw him into the outer darkness. That is where the weeping and grinding of teeth will be.’
- Jude 1:13 wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever.
- Revelation 17:3-5 He carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness. I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet-colored beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of the sexual immorality of the earth. And on her forehead a name was written, “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”
- Revelation 17:18 The woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth.”
- Revelation 18:7 However much she glorified herself, and grew wanton, so much give her of torment and mourning. For she says in her heart, ‘I sit a queen, and am no widow, and will in no way see mourning.’
- Revelation 18:21-24 A mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying, “Thus with violence will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down, and will be found no more at all. The voice of harpists, minstrels, flute players, and trumpeters will be heard no more at all in you. No craftsman, of whatever craft, will be found any more at all in you. The sound of a mill will be heard no more at all in you. The light of a lamp will shine no more at all in you. The voice of the bridegroom and of the bride will be heard no more at all in you; for your merchants were the princes of the earth; for with your sorcery all the nations were deceived. In her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slain on the earth.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (12 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain For very shame, and hide thyself.
For very shame, and hide thyself.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Isa 47:5 Sit thou silent, and get thee into…
Isa 47:5 Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called, The lady of kingdoms.
Ver. 5. Sit thou silent.] Here he threateneth Babylon with loss of her former fame; she shall be buried in obscurity and oblivion, as out of sight and out of mind, no longer called the ‘lady of kingdoms,’ but a wretched drudge, ut de Hecuba tradunt tragici.
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For thou shalt no more be called.] Heb., Thou shalt not add to be called. Oecolampadius senseth it thus, Thou wast wont to be called the lady of kingdoms, now they shall call thee, Non adiecies, as desperate and irrecoverable. And why?
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Sit thou silent, through grief and shame, and as…
Sit thou silent, through grief and shame, and as mourners use to do, Job 2:13. Cease thy vaunting and insolent speeches; thou canst say nothing for thine own justification.
Get thee into darkness; thou shalt go into an obscure, disconsolate, and calamitous condition.
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Thou shalt no more be called, The lady of kingdoms; the chief and glory of all kingdoms, as Isa 13:19, the most large, and potent, and glorious empire of the world, as thou hast been.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Sit thou silent,.... Here the speech is directed again…
Sit thou silent,.... Here the speech is directed again to Babylon, which used to be a place of noise and hurry, as well as famous and much talked of all the world over; but now there should be a deep silence in it, no voice to be heard, the inhabitants being gone, and no discourse concerning it; no more talked of and celebrated for its magnificence and authority, trade and riches, but buried in oblivion. It is represented as sitting in silence, either as a mourner, or as one that is free among the dead, remembered no more:
and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans; meaning either captivity or imprisonment, prison houses being dark; or into the state of the dead, which is a state of darkness:
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for thou shall no more be called the lady of kingdoms; the mistress or governess of them, as she had been, having subdued many kingdoms and nations, and added them to her monarchy, which now would be at an end. Thus mystical Babylon, or Rome, has reigned over the kings of the earth, and has been mistress over many nations; but the time is coming when she will sit in silence, and no voice will be heard in her; and when the kingdom of the beast will be full of darkness, Rev 17:15.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Silent - Thro' grief and shame, as mourners use…
Silent - Thro' grief and shame, as mourners use to do. The lady - The chief and glory of all kingdoms.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Isa 47:5-6. Sit thou silent — Through grief and…
Isa 47:5-6. Sit thou silent — Through grief and shame, and as mourners used to do, Job 2:13. Cease thy vaunting and insolent speeches. And get thee into darkness — Thou shalt go into an obscure, disconsolate, and calamitous condition. Thou shalt no more be the lady of kingdoms — The chief and glory of all kingdoms; the most large, potent, and glorious empire of the world, as thou hast been. I was wroth with my people — “The metaphor in this verse,” says Vitringa, “is taken from a father, who, being angry with his children, delivers them up to chastisement; but his anger soon subsiding, and his affection reviving, he turns his indignation against those who had so executed his commands, as to punish immoderately and severely.” I have polluted mine inheritance — I cast them away as an unclean thing; I stained their glory; I removed them from the place of my presence and worship; I banished them into a polluted land, among unclean persons, by whom they were many ways defiled. And given them into thy hand — To punish them. Thou didst show them no mercy — Thou hast exceeded the bounds of thy commission, and, instead of that compassion which humanity teaches men to show to such as are in misery, thou didst exercise toward them the greatest cruelty. Upon the ancient — The old and feeble, whose venerable gray hairs should have been their sufficient protection; hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke — Not considering that, besides the calamity of being made captives, they were afflicted with the miseries of old age, and therefore required both thy pity and reverence. It is justly observed here by Bishop Lowth, that “God, in the course of his providence, makes use of great conquerors and tyrants, as his instruments, to execute his judgments in the earth: he employs one wicked nation to scourge another. The inflicter of the punishment may, perhaps, be as culpable as the sufferer, and may add to his guilt by indulging his cruelty in executing God’s justice. When he has fulfilled the work to which divine vengeance has ordained him, he will become himself the object of it: see Isa 10:5-12. God charges the Babylonians, though employed by himself to chastise his people, with cruelty in regard to them. They exceeded the bounds of justice and humanity in oppressing and destroying them; and though they were really executing the righteous decree of God, yet, as far as it regarded themselves, they were only indulging their own ambition and violence.”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Sit thou silent - The same general sentiment is…
Sit thou silent - The same general sentiment is expressed here as in the preceding verses, though the figure is changed. In Isa 47:1-3, Babylon is represented under the image of a frivolous and delicately-reared female, suddenly reduced from her exalted station, and compelled to engage in the most menial and laborious employment. Here she is represented as in a posture of mourning. To sit in silence is emblematic of deep sorrow, or affliction (see Lam 2:10): ‘The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground and keep silence, they have cast up dust upon their heads;’ - see the note at Isa 3:26 : ‘And she (Jerusalem) being desolate shall sit upon the ground;’ Job 2:13 : ‘So they (the three friends of Job) sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him, for they saw that his grief was very great.’ Compare Ezr 9:4.
Get thee into darkness - That is, into a place of mourning. Persons greatly afflicted, almost as a matter of course, shut out the light from their dwellings, as emblematic of their feelings. This is common even in this country - and particularly in the city in which I write where the universal custom prevails of making a house dark during the time of mourning. Nature prompts to this, for there is an obvious similarity between darkness and sorrow. That this custom also prevailed in the East is apparent (see Lam 3:2): ‘He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, and not into light;’ Mic. 8:8: ‘When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me.’ The idea is, that Babylon would be brought to desolation, and have occasion of sorrow, like a delicately-trained female suddenly deprived of children Isa 47:9, and that she would seek a place of darkness and silence where she might fully indulge her grief.
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O daughter of the Chaldeans - (See the notes at Isa 47:1).
For thou shalt no more be called The lady of kingdoms - The magnificence, splendor, beauty, and power, which have given occasion to this appellation, and which have led the nations by common consent to give it to thee, shall be entirely and forever removed. The appellation, ‘lady of kingdoms.’ is equivalent to that so often used of Rome, as ‘the mistress of the world;’ and the idea is, that Babylon sustained by its power and splendor the relation of mistress, and that all other cities were regarded as servants, or as subordinate.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Sit--the posture of mourning (Ezr 9:4; Job 2:13; Lam…
Sit--the posture of mourning (Ezr 9:4; Job 2:13; Lam 2:10).
darkness--mourning and misery (Lam 3:2; Mic 7:8).
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lady of kingdoms--mistress of the world (Isa 13:19).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 5. Sit thou silent — The prophet spoke, in…
5. Sit thou silent — The prophet spoke, in preceding verse, in his own person. He now speaks in God’s name. He uses imperatives. Hebraistically these are predictives, the same as, Sit thou silent: lady (or mistress) of kingdoms thou shalt no more be called.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 5. get thee into darkness] Darkness may be a…
5. get thee into darkness] Darkness may be a symbol either of imprisonment (ch. Isa_42:7) or, more generally, of misery; Lam_3:2.
lady of kingdoms] Lit. “mistress” (Isa_24:2). The word is used of the queen in Jer_13:18, in a connexion somewhat similar to this. Babylon is addressed as an imperial city holding the destinies of many kingdoms in her hands.
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5–7. The second strophe commences anew with an apostrophe to Babylon. The keynote is struck in the words “mistress of kingdoms.” She is threatened with the loss of her imperial power, because she has so grossly abused it by her cruelty to Israel.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness. The…
Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness. The second strophe begins, like the first, with a double imperative. The fallen people is recommended to hide its shame in silence and darkness, as disgraced persons do who shrink from being seen by their fellows. Thou shalt no more be called The lady of kingdoms. Babylon can scarcely have borne this title in Isaiah"s time, or at any earlier period, unless it were a very remote one. She had been secondary to Assyria for at least six hundred years when Isaiah wrote, and under Sennacherib was ruled by viceroys of his appointment. But Isaiah"s prophetic foresight enables him to realize the later period of Babylon"s prosperity and glory under Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar, when she became the inheritress of the greatness of Assyria, and exercised rule over a large portion of Western Asia. Nebuchadnezzar was, no doubt, as he is called by both Ezekiel (Eze_26:7) and Daniel, (Dan_2:37) a "king of kings;" and Babylon was then an empress-state, exercising authority over many minor kingdoms. It is clear that, both in the earlier and the later chapters, the prophet realizes this condition of things. (see Isa_13:19 Isa_14:4-6, Isa_14:12-17; as well as the present passage)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 47:5-11 Babylon’s confidence and arrogance were well known (see…
47:5-11 Babylon’s confidence and arrogance were well known (see 14:13-17; Dan 4:30). All of this nation’s charms, magic, and wisdom were useless against the disaster decreed for it.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.