“Now therefore hear this, you who are given to pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me. I won’t sit as a widow, neither will I know the loss of children.’
Parallel Translations
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“Now therefore hear this, you who are given to pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me. I won’t sit as a widow, neither will I know the loss of children.’
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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:
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Now therefore hear this, thou that art given to pleasures, that sittest securely, that sayest in thy heart: 'I am, and there is none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children';
Cross-references (25)
Passages linked to Isaiah 47:8 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Zephaniah 2:15 This is the joyous city that lived carelessly, that said in her heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me.” How she has become a desolation, a place for animals to lie down in! Everyone who passes by her will hiss, and shake their fists.
- Isaiah 32:9 Rise up, you women who are at ease! Hear my voice! You careless daughters, give ear to my speech!
- Isaiah 45:6 that they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is no one besides me. I am Yahweh, and there is no one else.
- Isaiah 47:10 For you have trusted in your wickedness. You have said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and your knowledge has perverted you. You have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me.’
- Jeremiah 50:11 “Because you are glad, because you rejoice, O you who plunder my heritage, because you are wanton as a heifer that treads out the grain, and neigh as strong horses;
- Revelation 18:3-8 For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her sexual immorality, the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from the abundance of her luxury.” I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, that you have no participation in her sins, and that you don’t receive of her plagues, for her sins have reached to the sky, and God has remembered her iniquities. Return to her just as she returned, and repay her double as she did, and according to her works. In the cup which she mixed, mix to her double. 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.’ Therefore in one day her plagues will come: death, mourning, and famine; and she will be utterly burned with fire; for the Lord God who has judged her is strong.
- Judges 18:7 Then the five men departed and came to Laish and saw the people who were there, how they lived in safety, in the way of the Sidonians, quiet and secure; for there was no one in the land possessing authority, that might put them to shame in anything, and they were far from the Sidonians, and had no dealings with anyone else.
- Judges 18:27 They took that which Micah had made, and the priest whom he had, and came to Laish, to a people quiet and unsuspecting, and struck them with the edge of the sword; then they burned the city with fire.
- Psalms 10:5-6 His ways are prosperous at all times. He is arrogant, and your laws are far from his sight. As for all his adversaries, he sneers at them. He says in his heart, “I shall not be shaken. For generations I shall have no trouble.”
- Isaiah 21:4-5 My heart flutters. Horror has frightened me. The twilight that I desired has been turned into trembling for me. They prepare the table. They set the watch. They eat. They drink. Rise up, you princes, oil the shield!
- Isaiah 22:12-13 In that day, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, called to weeping, to mourning, to baldness, and to dressing in sackcloth; and behold, joy and gladness, killing cattle and killing sheep, eating meat and drinking wine: “Let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die.”
- Isaiah 45:18 For Yahweh who created the heavens, the God who formed the earth and made it, who established it and didn’t create it a waste, who formed it to be inhabited says: “I am Yahweh. There is no other.
- Jeremiah 50:31-32 “Behold, I am against you, you proud one,” says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies; “for your day has come, the time that I will visit you. The proud one will stumble and fall, and no one will raise him up. I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it will devour all who are around him.”
- Jeremiah 51:53 Though Babylon should mount up to the sky, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet destroyers will come to her from me,” says Yahweh.
- Daniel 4:22 it is you, O king, that have grown and become strong; for your greatness has grown, and reaches to the sky, and your dominion to the end of the earth.
- Daniel 4:30 The king spoke and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built for the royal dwelling place, by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?”
- Daniel 5:1-4 Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand. Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded that the golden and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem be brought to him; that the king and his lords, his wives and his concubines, might drink from them. Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of God’s house which was at Jerusalem; and the king and his lords, his wives and his concubines, drank from them. They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of bronze, of iron, of wood, and of stone.
- Daniel 5:23 but have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines, have drunk wine from them. You have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which don’t see, or hear, or know; and you have not glorified the God in whose hand your breath is, and whose are all your ways.
- Daniel 5:30 In that night Belshazzar the Chaldean King was slain.
- Daniel 11:36 “The king will do according to his will. He will exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and will speak marvelous things against the God of gods. He will prosper until the indignation is accomplished; for that which is determined will be done.
- Nahum 1:10 For entangled like thorns, and drunken as with their drink, they are consumed utterly like dry stubble.
- Habakkuk 2:5-8 Yes, moreover, wine is treacherous. An arrogant man who doesn’t stay at home, who enlarges his desire as Sheol, and he is like death, and can’t be satisfied, but gathers to himself all nations, and heaps to himself all peoples. Won’t all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, ‘Woe to him who increases that which is not his, and who enriches himself by extortion! How long?’ Won’t your debtors rise up suddenly, and wake up those who make you tremble, and you will be their victim? Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples will plunder you, because of men’s blood, and for the violence done to the land, to the city and to all who dwell in it.
- Luke 12:18-20 He said, ‘This is what I will do. I will pull down my barns, build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. I will tell my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry.” ’ “But God said to him, ‘You foolish one, tonight your soul is required of you. The things which you have prepared—whose will they be?’
- 2 Thessalonians 2:4 he who opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, setting himself up as God.
- Luke 17:27-29 They ate, they drank, they married, and they were given in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ship, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, even as it was in the days of Lot: they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but in the day that Lot went out from Sodom, it rained fire and sulfur from the sky and destroyed them all.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (12 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Isa 47:8 Therefore hear now this, [thou that art]…
Isa 47:8 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:
Ver. 8. Thou that art given to pleasure.] Delisatula; It is not good to take pleasure in pleasure; no, not to go as far here as we may. Verecunda sunt omnia initia peecati, Sin seemeth modest at first, &c.
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Thou sayest in thine heart, I am,] sc., The lady of the world. Heathen Rome was called by the heathens, Terrarum dea gentiumque. Rome Papal saith as much. {Rev 17:4}
And none else besides me,] i.e., None worth speaking of. The Jesuits brag in like sort of their transcendent learning, and profess skill beyond the periphery of possible knowledge.
I shall not sit as a widow,] i.e., Be bereft of my monarchy, which is, as it were, my husband.
Neither shall I know the loss of children.] I shall not cease to subdue countries and kingdoms, which are added unto me as so many children.
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 I am; I am independent, and self-sufficient, and unchangeable,…
I am; I am independent, and self-sufficient, and unchangeable, as that phrase implies, which therefore is appropriated to God, Isa 41:4; 43:10, and elsewhere. The prophet doth not here use the very phrase which the Babylonians used, but expresseth their sense in a Scripture phrase.
None else beside me; which is not either subject to me, or far inferior to me in power and glory; so that in comparison of me it may be said not to be, because it disappears like stars at the presence of the sun.
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I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children; I shall never want either a king or people to defend me from all dangers.
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 Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to…
Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures,.... To carnal lusts and pleasures; gratifying her sensual appetite; indulging herself in everything that was agreeable to the senses; abounding in delicacies, and living deliciously; as is said of mystical Babylon, Rev 18:4, particularly given to venereal pleasures. Curtius says (g),
"no city was more corrupt in its manners, or furnished to irritate or allure to immoderate pleasures. Parents and husbands suffered their children and wives to prostitute themselves to strangers, so that they had but a price.''
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Yea, every woman was obliged by a law to do this once in life, and that in a public manner, in the temple of Venus; the impurities of which are at large described by Herodotus (h) and Strabo (i):
that dwelleth carelessly; in great confidence and security, being fearless of danger, and insensible of any:
that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else besides me: sole monarch of the world, empress of the whole universe; no competitor with me, none that can rival me. These words are sometimes used by the eternal and unchangeable Jehovah of himself, and indeed they suit with none but him; and it is the height of insolence and blasphemy in a creature to use them of itself; they fitly express that sovereignty, supremacy, infallibility, and even deity, which mystical Babylon assumes and ascribes to her head:
I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children; not be without a head, king, or monarch, which is as a husband to the state; nor without numerous subjects, which are as children. The like mystical Babylon says, "I sit a queen, and am no widow", Rev 18:7.
(g) Hist. l. 5. c. 1. sect. 1. (h) Clio, sive l. 1. c. 199. (i) Geograph. l. 16. p. 513.
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 I am - Independent, and self-sufficient. None - Which…
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.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Therefore hear now this - The prophet proceeds, in…
Therefore hear now this - The prophet proceeds, in this verse and the following, to detail more particularly the sins of Babylon, and to state the certainty of the punishment which would come upon her. In the previous verses, the denunciation of punishment had been figurative. It had been represented under the image of a lady delicately trained and nurtured, doomed to the lowest condition of life, and compelled to stoop to the most menial offices. Here the prophet uses language without figure, and states directly her crimes, and her doom.
That art given to pleasures - Devoted to dissipation, and to the effeminate pleasures which luxury engenders (see the notes at Isa 47:1). Curtius, in his History of Babylon as it was in the times of Alexander (v. 5. 36), Herodotus (i. 198), and Strabo Georg. xvi.), have given a description of it, all representing it as corrupt, licentious, and dissipated in the extreme. Curtius, in the passage quoted on Isa 47:1, says, among other things, that no city was more corrupt in its morals; nowhere were there so many excitements to licentious and guilty pleasures.
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That dwellest carelessly - In vain security; without any consciousness of danger, and without alarm (compare Zep 2:15).
I am, and none else besides me - The language of pride. She regarded herself as the principal city of the world, and all others as unworthy to be named in comparison with her (compare the note at Isa 45:6). Language remarkably similar to this occurs in Martial’s description of Rome (xii. 8):
Terrarum dea gentiumque, Roma,
Cui par est nihil, et nihil secundum -
Rome, goddess of the earth and of nations, to whom nothing is equal, nothing second.’
I shall not sit as a widow - On the word ‘sit,’ see the note at Isa 47:1. The sense is, that she would never be lonely, sad, and afflicted, like a wife deprived of her husband, and a mother of her children. The figure is changed from Isa 47:1, where she is represented as a virgin; but the same idea is presented under another form (compare the note at Isa 23:4).
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 given to pleasures--(See on Isa 47:1). In no city…
given to pleasures--(See on Isa 47:1). In no city were there so many incentives to licentiousness.
I am . . . none . . . beside me-- (Isa 47:10). Language of arrogance in man's mouth; fitting for God alone (Isa 45:6). See Isa 5:8, latter part.
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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 (Isa 23:4; Isa 54:1, Isa 54:4-5; Rev 18:7-8).
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 8. Carelessly — In no anxiety about efforts of…
8. Carelessly — In no anxiety about efforts of Cyrus to take the city. According to Xenophon, the princes and whole court at Babylon looked with contempt on Cyrus. She said,
I am, and none else besides me — Literally, I am, and the absence of me there is none. Profanely she parodies the divine saying, “I am Jehovah, and besides me there is none else.” This strain of defiance and of self-security continues to Isa_47:11.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (8) I am, and none else beside me .…
(8) I am, and none else beside me . . .—The boasts of Babylon are purposely embodied by the prophet in praises that recall Jehovah’s assertion of His own eternity. She practically deified herself. So a like boast is put into the mouth of Nineveh in Zep_2:15, and was repeated almost verbally by the poets of Rome: Terrarum dea gentiumque Roma, cui par est nihil, et nihil secundum (Martial).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Therefore; rather, and now. The third strophe begins here,…
Therefore; rather, and now. The third strophe begins here, but with a single, instead of a double, imperative. So also the fourth strophe in ver. 12. Thou that art given to pleasures (see the comment on ver. 1, sub fin.). That dwellest carelessly; or, that sittest securely; i.e. in an imagined security. Herodotus says that, when Cyrus invested the city, the inhabitants "made light of his siege" (1:190), and occupied themselves "in dancing and revelry" (1:191). The Nabonidus Tablet seems to show that very slight and insufficient preparations for defence were made.! am, and none else Beside me. This is not self-deification, but only a boast of superiority to all other earthly powers. Zephaniah expresses in exactly similar terms the pride and arrogance of Assyria. (Zep_2:15) I shall not sit as a widow; i.e. in solitude and desolation, (Lam_1:1) deserted by the crowds who had sought her marts and delighted in her luxury. This result, which now impended, had never been anticipated by the "careless" one, who had expected to be for ever "the lady of kingdoms." The loss of children; i.e. diminution of population.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain Babylon’s Vain Attempt to Avert the Threatened Destruction
Babylon’s Vain Attempt to Avert the Threatened Destruction
v. 8. Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures, living in wantonness, luxury, and licentiousness, that dwellest carelessly, the feeling of false security being characteristic of the people of Babylon in that day, that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me, an expression of unbounded haughtiness; I shall not sit as a widow, believing that the Babylonian men, the soldiers of its army, could never be overcome, neither shall I know the loss of children, by being bereaved of her inhabitants in the war;
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v. 9. but these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, with frightful suddenness, the loss of children and widowhood, a total bereavement; they, these two great trials, shall come upon thee in their perfection, in full measure, for the multitude of thy sorceries and for the great abundance of thine enchantments, witchcraft in its various forms being one of the outstanding features in many of the ancient nations, as recent excavations also show, for magicians and astrologers are frequently mentioned, and formulas of magic were in general use.
v. 10. For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness, deeming herself secure in spite of her cruelty and tyranny; thou hast said, None seeth me. Thy wisdom, particularly that of various magical arts, and thy knowledge, especially the science of mathematics, which was pretty well developed in Babylon, it hath perverted thee, turned the heads of the Chaldeans; and thou hast said in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me, imagining herself the mistress of the earth, indulging in self-deification.
v. 11. Therefore shall evil come upon thee, in the Lord’s punishment, thou shalt not know from whence it riseth, not being able to banish it; and mischief, misfortune, destruction, shall fall upon thee, thou shalt not be able to put it off, to lay down ransom-money to be delivered from it; and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, as when a destructive storm comes rushing headlong, which thou shalt not know, against which all Babylon’s might and wisdom would be powerless.
v. 12. Stand now with thine enchantments, the various magical formulas employed, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast labored from thy youth, this having ever been a characteristic of Babylon, as far as its history goes back; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail! It is a bitterly sarcastic challenge: Apply all your magical arts; maybe they will help, they may even instill fear and terror in the heart of Jehovah!
v. 13. Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels, driven to despair by the fruitless quest for means and methods to meet the threatened punishment and to avert it. Let now the astrologers, those versed in astronomy, but connecting with their activity that of fortune-telling, the star-gazers, the professional observers of the movements of the sidereal bodies, the monthly prognosticators, men who determined the time of the new moon and gave advice concerning lucky days, stand up and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee, rather, those who at new moons make known, by means of them, the things that shall come upon thee. The challenge is held in an even more sarcastic vein than in the foregoing verse.
v. 14. Behold, they, all the wizards and necromancers and astrologers, shall be as stubble, the fire shall burn them, so that they will be totally destroyed; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame, as the wrath of God comes upon them to their destruction; there shall not be a coal to warm at, the stubble burning down to dead ashes, nor fire to sit before it, total destruction having come upon Babylon.
v. 15. Thus shall they, these men upon whom the Babylonians depended, be unto thee with whom thou hast labored, even thy merchants, from thy youth, for the astrologers and wizards and magicians did a flourishing business at the expense of the citizens of Babylonia; they shall wander every one to his quarter, reeling to and fro in the effort to save his life, if possible; none shall save thee. Such would be the fate of proud Babylon, as it usually is the fate of all those who place their trust in witchcraft and necromancy in its various forms. The warning may be fitly appended also here: "Be not deceived, God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. "
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Yahweh continues to speak to Babylon about her downfall as if she were a queen who is humiliated. (See: Metaphor and Personification)
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you who love pleasure
"you luxurious one." This refers to the many luxuries that Babylon enjoyed.
sit securely
This refers to Babylon's false sense of security in thinking that she will never lose her position of wealth and honor. AT: "who think you are safe" (See: Idiom)
I will never sit as a widow ... loss of children
Babylon believing that other nations will never be able to conquer her is spoken of as if she will never become a widow or never have children die. (See: Metaphor)
I will never sit as a widow
"I will never become a widow"
in a moment in one day
"suddenly at the same time"
translationWords
heart
children
sorcerer
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 47:8 I am the only one, and there is…
47:8 I am the only one, and there is no other: This was a claim to divinity (cp. 45:5; 47:10). Only the Lord can make such a claim. For any created thing, including a nation, to utter this is the height of hubris. • To be a widow or to lose one’s children was a disgrace.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.