9But these two things will come to you in a moment in one day, the loss of children and widowhood. They will come on you in their full measure, in the multitude of your sorceries, and the great abundance of your enchantments.
10For 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.’
11Therefore disaster will come on you. You won’t know when it dawns. Mischief will fall on you. You won’t be able to put it away. Desolation will come on you suddenly, which you don’t understand.
12“Stand now with your enchantments and with the multitude of your sorceries, in which you have labored from your youth, as if you might profit, as if you might prevail.
13You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels. Now let the astrologers, the stargazers, and the monthly prognosticators, stand up and save you from the things that will happen to you.
9 But these two things will come to you in a moment in one day, the loss of children and widowhood. They will come on you in their full measure, in the multitude of your sorceries, and the great abundance of your enchantments.
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.’
11 Therefore disaster will come on you. You won’t know when it dawns. Mischief will fall on you. You won’t be able to put it away. Desolation will come on you suddenly, which you don’t understand.
12 “Stand now with your enchantments and with the multitude of your sorceries, in which you have labored from your youth, as if you might profit, as if you might prevail.
13 You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels. Now let the astrologers, the stargazers, and the monthly prognosticators, stand up and save you from the things that will happen to you.
KJVKing James Version
9 But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments.
10 For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness: thou hast said, None seeth me. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee; and thou hast said in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me.
11 Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it riseth: and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know.
12 Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail.
13 Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.
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JPSJPS Tanakh (1917)
9 But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood; in their full measure shall they come upon thee, for the multitude of thy sorceries, and the great abundance of thine enchantments.
10 And thou hast been secure in thy wickedness, thou hast said: 'None seeth me'; thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee; and thou hast said in thy heart. 'I am, and there is none else beside me.'
11 Yet shall evil came upon thee; thou shalt not know how to charm it away; and calamity shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it away; and ruin shall come upon thee suddenly, before thou knowest.
12 Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail.
13 Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels; let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from the things that shall come upon thee.
Isaiah 5:21(v10)Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!
Isaiah 29:15(v10)Woe to those who deeply hide their counsel from Yahweh, and whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us?” and “Who knows us?”
Romans 1:22(v10)Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
Psalms 52:7(v10)“Behold, this is the man who didn’t make God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his…
Isaiah 44:25(vv12–13)who frustrates the signs of the liars, and makes diviners mad; who turns wise men backward, and makes their knowledge foolish;
Show all 72 cross-references
Ezekiel 8:12(v10)Then he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in his rooms of imagery?…
1 Thessalonians 5:3(vv9, 11)For when they are saying, “Peace and safety,” then sudden destruction will come on them, like birth pains on a pregnant woman. Then they…
Psalms 73:19(v9)How they are suddenly destroyed! They are completely swept away with terrors.
Isaiah 59:4(v10)No one sues in righteousness, and no one pleads in truth. They trust in vanity, and speak lies. They conceive mischief, and give birth to…
Nahum 3:4(vv9, 12)because of the multitude of the prostitution of the alluring prostitute, the mistress of witchcraft, who sells nations through her…
Psalms 94:7-9(v10)They say, “Yah will not see, neither will Jacob’s God consider.” Consider, you senseless among the people; you fools, when will you be…
Isaiah 47:12-13(v9)“Stand now with your enchantments and with the multitude of your sorceries, in which you have labored from your youth, as if you might…
Jeremiah 23:24(v10)Can anyone hide himself in secret places so that I can’t see him?” says Yahweh. “Don’t I fill heaven and earth?” says Yahweh.
Ezekiel 9:9(v10)Then he said to me, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full…
Acts 13:8-12(v12)But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation) withstood them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. But Saul,…
1 Corinthians 1:19-21(v10)For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise. I will bring the discernment of the discerning to nothing.” Where is the wise?…
1 Corinthians 3:19(v10)For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He has taken the wise in their craftiness.”
Revelation 18:8-10(v9)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…
Psalms 64:5(v10)They encourage themselves in evil plans. They talk about laying snares secretly. They say, “Who will see them?”
Ecclesiastes 8:8(v10)There is no man who has power over the spirit to contain the spirit; neither does he have power over the day of death. There is no…
Isaiah 44:20(v10)He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can’t deliver his soul, nor say, “Isn’t there a lie in my right hand?”
Isaiah 47:9-10(v12)But these two things will come to you in a moment in one day, the loss of children and widowhood. They will come on you in their full…
Isaiah 57:10(v13)You were wearied with the length of your ways; yet you didn’t say, ‘It is in vain.’ You found a reviving of your strength; therefore you…
Jeremiah 2:28(v12)“But where are your gods that you have made for yourselves? Let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble; for you have…
Jeremiah 51:58(v13)Yahweh of Armies says: “The wide walls of Babylon will be utterly overthrown. Her high gates will be burned with fire. The peoples will…
Ezekiel 24:12(v13)She is weary with toil; yet her great rust, rust by fire, doesn’t leave her.
Ezekiel 28:2-6(v10)“Son of man, tell the prince of Tyre, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Because your heart is lifted up, and you have said, ‘I am a god, I sit in the…
Daniel 2:2-10(v13)Then the king commanded that the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans be called to tell the king his dreams. So they…
Revelation 18:9-10(v11)The kings of the earth who committed sexual immorality and lived wantonly with her will weep and wail over her, when they look at the smoke…
Exodus 7:11(v12)Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers. They also, the magicians of Egypt, did the same thing with their enchantments.
Exodus 8:7(v12)The magicians did the same thing with their enchantments, and brought up frogs on the land of Egypt.
Exodus 8:18-19(v12)The magicians tried with their enchantments to produce lice, but they couldn’t. There were lice on man, and on animal. Then the magicians…
Exodus 9:11(v12)The magicians couldn’t stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boils were on the magicians and on all the Egyptians.
Exodus 12:29-30(v11)At midnight, Yahweh struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of…
Ruth 1:5(v9)Mahlon and Chilion both died, and the woman was bereaved of her two children and of her husband.
Ruth 1:20(v9)She said to them, “Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.
Nehemiah 4:11(v11)Our adversaries said, “They will not know or see, until we come in among them and kill them, and cause the work to cease.”
Job 22:13-14(v10)You say, ‘What does God know? Can he judge through the thick darkness? Thick clouds are a covering to him, so that he doesn’t see. He walks…
Psalms 10:11(v10)He says in his heart, “God has forgotten. He hides his face. He will never see it.”
Psalms 50:22(v11)“Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you into pieces, and there be no one to deliver.
Psalms 62:9-10(v10)Surely men of low degree are just a breath, and men of high degree are a lie. In the balances they will go up. They are together lighter…
Isaiah 8:19(v12)When they tell you, “Consult with those who have familiar spirits and with the wizards, who chirp and who mutter,” shouldn’t a people…
Isaiah 13:18-22(v9)Their bows will dash the young men in pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb. Their eyes will not spare children.…
Isaiah 14:22-23(v9)“I will rise up against them,” says Yahweh of Armies, “and cut off from Babylon name and remnant, and son and son’s son,” says Yahweh. “I…
Isaiah 19:3(v12)The spirit of Egypt will fail within it. I will destroy its counsel. They will seek the idols, the charmers, those who have familiar…
Isaiah 28:15(v10)“Because you have said, ‘We have made a covenant with death, and we are in agreement with Sheol. When the overflowing scourge passes…
Isaiah 47:15(v13)The things that you labored in will be like this: those who have trafficked with you from your youth will each wander in his own way. There…
Isaiah 51:18-19(v9)There is no one to guide her among all the sons to whom she has given birth; and there is no one who takes her by the hand among all the…
Jeremiah 51:29(v9)The land trembles and is in pain; for the purposes of Yahweh against Babylon stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without…
Jeremiah 51:39-42(v11)When they are heated, I will make their feast, and I will make them drunk, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake…
Jeremiah 51:62-64(v9)and say, ‘Yahweh, you have spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, that no one will dwell in it, neither man nor animal, but that it…
Daniel 2:2(v9)Then the king commanded that the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans be called to tell the king his dreams. So they…
Daniel 4:7(v9)Then the magicians, the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers came in; and I told the dream before them; but they didn’t make…
Daniel 5:7(v9)The king cried aloud to bring in the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. The king spoke and said to the wise men of Babylon,…
Daniel 5:7-8(v13)The king cried aloud to bring in the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. The king spoke and said to the wise men of Babylon,…
Daniel 5:7-9(v12)The king cried aloud to bring in the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. The king spoke and said to the wise men of Babylon,…
Daniel 5:15-16(v13)Now the wise men, the enchanters, have been brought in before me, that they should read this writing, and make known to me its…
Daniel 5:25-30(v11)“This is the writing that was inscribed: ‘MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.’ “This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE: God has counted…
Daniel 5:30(v13)In that night Belshazzar the Chaldean King was slain.
Habakkuk 2:13(v13)Behold, isn’t it of Yahweh of Armies that the peoples labor for the fire, and the nations weary themselves for vanity?
Luke 7:12-13(v9)Now when he came near to the gate of the city, behold, one who was dead was carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow.…
Luke 12:59(v11)I tell you, you will by no means get out of there, until you have paid the very last penny.”
Revelation 3:3(v11)Remember therefore how you have received and heard. Keep it and repent. If therefore you won’t watch, I will come as a thief, and you won’t…
Revelation 9:20-21(v9)The rest of mankind, who were not killed with these plagues, didn’t repent of the works of their hands, that they wouldn’t worship demons,…
Revelation 17:4-6(v12)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…
Revelation 18:21-23(v9)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,…
Revelation 21:8(v9)But for the cowardly, unbelieving, sinners, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their part is in…
Revelation 22:15(v9)Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
Isaiah 37:36(v11)Then Yahweh’s angel went out and struck one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the camp of the Assyrians. When men arose early in the…
Matthew 18:34(v11)His lord was angry, and delivered him to the tormentors, until he should pay all that was due to him.
2 Thessalonians 2:9-10(v9)even he whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deception of wickedness…
2 Thessalonians 2:9-12(v12)even he whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deception of wickedness…
72 distinct cross-references across this passage (75 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (19 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv9, 10, 12So that thy punishment shall be so great, as…
So that thy punishment shall be so great, as is possible to be imagined.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv9–13Isa 47:9 But these two [things] shall come to…
Isa 47:9 But these two [things] shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, [and] for the great abundance of thine enchantments.
Ver. 9. But these two things shall come upon thee in a moment.] Accidit in puncto, &c. Babylon was suddenly taken in one night, as the prophet had foretold, {Isa 21:9} and as the history testifieth {Dan 5:30} Periit inter pocula.
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For the multitude of thy sorceries.] Thy taking upon thee to divine of each man’s life and fortune by the stars and horoscope, for which profession the Chaldeans were famous. But what a madness was it in Cardanus, who by the like skill went about to demonstrate that it was fatal to our Saviour Christ to die the death of the cross. {a}
{a} Alsted. Encycl., lib. xxx. cap. 10.
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 Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv9–13In their perfection; in the highest degree. Thy king…
In their perfection; in the highest degree. Thy king and kingdom shall be utterly and eternally destroyed.
For the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments; for thy superstitious and magical practices, which were very frequent there, as we see Isa 47:12,13, and as was observed before. Or, as it is in the Hebrew, in the multitude of thy sorceries, &c.; in the midst of and notwithstanding all thy diabolical artifices, whereby thou thinkest to foresee any dangers, and to secure thyself from them.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv9–13But these two things shall come to thee in…
But these two things shall come to thee in a moment on one day,.... Suddenly, at once, at one and the same time. The destruction of Babylon was very sudden; the city was taken by surprise, before the inhabitants were aware of it, while the king and his nobles were regaling themselves at a feast; that very night Belshazzar was slain, and Darius the Mede took the kingdom, Dan 5:30 and so those two things she boasted of would never be her lot came upon her together and at once: "the loss of children, and widowhood"; bereaved of her king, and the whole royal family, and of her people in great numbers, who were either slain, or carried captive; or, however, the kingdom was transferred from them to another people. When Babylon was taken by Cyrus, according to Xenophon (k), not only the king was slain, but those that were about him; and orders were presently given to the inhabitants to keep within doors, and to slay all that were found without. Though Dr. Prideaux (l) thinks this prophecy had its accomplishment when Babylon was besieged by Darius, who, to save provisions, slew all their own women, wives, sisters, daughters, and all their children, reserving only one wife and maidservant to a man; and when it was taken, Darius ordered three thousand of the principal inhabitants to be crucified. And in much such language is the destruction of mystical Babylon expressed, when God shall "kill her children with death; her plagues shall come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine", Rev 2:23,
they shall come upon thee in their perfection; those evils and calamities shall be fully accomplished, not in part only, but in whole; she should have no king to govern, nor anything like one; should have no share of government; and her children or subjects should be entirely destroyed:
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for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments; which the Chaldeans were very famous for; this is another reason given for their destruction; see Dan 2:2, or, "in the multitude of thy sorceries" (m), &c.; notwithstanding these, her destruction should come upon her, which her sorcerers and enchanters could neither foresee nor prevent. Sorceries are ascribed to mystical Babylon, and as the cause of her ruin, Rev 9:21.
(k) Cyropaedia, 1. 7. sect. 23. (l) Connexion, &c. part 1. B. 3. p. 188, 189. (m) "in multitudine maleficiorum tuorum", Munster, Montanus; "in multitudine praestigiarum", Cocceius.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv9–13Perfection - In the highest degree.
Perfection - In the highest degree.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv9, 11, 13Verse 9. These two things shall come to thee…
Verse 9. These two things shall come to thee in. a moment] That is, suddenly. Belshazzar was slain; thus the city became metaphorically a widow, the husband - the governor of it, being slain. In the time in which the king was slain, the Medes and Persians took the city, and slew many of its inhabitants, see Da 5:30-:31. When Darius took the city, he is said to have crucified three thousand of its principal inhabitants.
In their perfection - "On a sudden"] Instead of בתמם bethummam, "in their perfection," as our translation renders it, the Septuagint and Syriac read, in the copies from which they translated, פתאם pithom, suddenly; parallel to רגע rega, in a moment, in the preceding alternate member of the sentence. The concurrent testimony of the Septuagint and Syriac, favoured by the context, may be safely opposed to the authority of the present text.
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For the multitude - "Notwithstanding the multitude"] ברב berob. For this sense of the particle ב beth, see Nu 14:11.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv9, 10, 12Isa 47:9. These two things shall come to thee…
Isa 47:9. These two things shall come to thee — The very two things that thou didst set at defiance; loss of children and widowhood — Both thy princes and thy people shall be cut off, so that thou shalt be no more a government, and no more a nation. They shall come in their perfection — In the highest degree: thy king and kingdom shall be utterly and irretrievably destroyed. This prophecy was twice fulfilled; “having been accomplished the very night that Babylon was taken, when the Persians slew the king himself and a great number of the Babylonians: it was fulfilled a second time, when that city was besieged by Darius. Being determined to hold out to the last extremity, they took all their women, and each man choosing one of them, whom he liked best, out of his own family, they strangled all the rest, that unnecessary mouths might not consume their provision. By means of this shocking expedient they sustained a siege and all the efforts of Darius for twenty months, and the city was at last taken by stratagem. As soon as Darius made himself master of the place, he ordered three thousand of the principal men to be crucified; and thus this prophecy was signally fulfilled, both by the hands of the Babylonians themselves, and by the cruelties exercised upon them by their conquerors.” — Bishop Newton. For the multitude of thy sorceries — For thy superstitious and magical practices, which were very frequent in Babylon, as we see below, (Isa 47:12-13,) and as has been observed before. Hebrew, in the multitude, &c., or, as Dr. Waterland renders it, “Notwithstanding the multitude of thy sorceries, and the force of thy enchantments;” notwithstanding all thy diabolical artifices, whereby thou thinkest to foresee all dangers, and to secure thyself from them.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv9–13In a moment, in one day - This is…
In a moment, in one day - This is designed, undoubtedly, to describe the suddenness with which Babylon would be destroyed. It would not decay slowly, and by natural causes, but it would not decay slowly, and by natural causes, but it would be suddenly and unexpectedly destroyed. How strikingly this was fulfilled, it is not needful to pause to state (see Isa. 13, note; Isa 14:1, note) In the single night in which Babylon was taken by Cyrus, a death-blow was given to all her greatness and power, and at that moment a train of causes was originated which did not cease to operate until it became a pile of ruins.
The loss of children, and widowhood - Babylon would be in the situation of a wife and a mother who is instantaneously deprived of her husband, and bereft of all her children.
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They shall come upon thee in their perfection - In full measure; completely; entirely. You shall know all that is meant by this condition. The state referred to is that of a wife who is suddenly deprived of her husband, and who, at the same time, and by the same stroke, is bereft of all her children. And the sense is, that Babylon would know all that was meant by such a condition, and would experience the utmost extremity of grief which such a condition involved.
For the multitude of thy sorceries - This was one of the reasons why God would thus destroy her, that sorceries and enchantments abounded there. Lowth, however, renders this, ‘Notwithstanding the multitude of thy sorceries.’ So Noyes, ‘In spite of thy sorceries.’ The Hebrew is, ‘in the multitude (ברב berôb) of thy sorceries.’ Jerome renders it, ‘On account of (“propter”) the multitude of thy sorceries.’ The Septuagint: ‘In (ἐν en) thy sorcery.’ Perhaps the idea is, that sorcery and enchantment abounded, and that these calamities would come notwithstanding all that they could do. They would come in the very midst of the abounding necromancy and enchantments, while the people practiced these arts, and while they depended on them. That this trust in sorcery was one cause why these judgments would come upon them, is apparent from Isa 47:10-11. And that they would not be able to protect the city, or that these judgments would come in spite of all their efforts, is apparent from Isa 47:13. The idea is exactly expressed by a literal translation of the Hebrew. They would come upon her in, that is, “in the very midst” of the multitude of sorceries and enchantments. The word rendered here ‘sorceries,’ means magic, incantation, and is applied to the work of magicians (2Ki 9:22; Neh 3:4; Mic 5:11; compare Exo 7:2; Deu 18:10; Dan 2:2; Mal 3:5). Magic, it is well known, abounded in the East, and indeed this may be regarded as the birthplace of the art (see the note at Isa 2:6).
And for the great abundance of thine enchantments - Hebrew, ‘And in the strength;’ that is, in the full vigor of thine enchantments. While they would abound, and while they would exert their utmost power to preserve the city. The word rendered ‘enchantments,’ means properly society, company, community - from being associated, or bound together; and then spells, or enchantments, from the notion that they bound or confined the object that was the subject of the charm. The idea was that of controlling, binding, or restraining anyone whom they pleased, by the power of a spell.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn vv9, 11, 12, 13Two. The empire and the people shall be removed…
Two. The empire and the people shall be removed at once. --- Enchanters; princes or magicians, who gave them evil counsel, ver. 12.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv9–13in a moment--It should not decay slowly, but be…
in a moment--It should not decay slowly, but be suddenly and unexpectedly destroyed; in a single night it was taken by Cyrus. The prophecy was again literally fulfilled when Babylon revolted against Darius; and, in order to hold out to the last, each man chose one woman of his family, and strangled the rest, to save provisions. Darius impaled three thousand of the revolters.
in . . . perfection--that is, "in full measure."
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for . . . for--rather, "notwithstanding the . . . notwithstanding"; "in spite of" [LOWTH]. So "for" (Num 14:11). Babylon was famous for "expiations or sacrifices, and other incantations, whereby they tried to avert evil and obtain good" [DIODORUS SICULUS].
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. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv10, 12, 1310, 11. Fancying thyself secure in thy wickedness, thou…
10, 11. Fancying thyself secure in thy wickedness, thou sayest,
None seeth me. Therefore — As a reason for the chastisement about to fall on thee.
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Not know… whence it riseth — That day of thy woe shall come unexpectedly; because of thy untiring defiance, thou shalt not know how or whence it so suddenly comes. It hath no dawn to thee. In astrological divining the Chaldeans were expert, but it had no availing power in their extremity. When the morn appeared the Egyptians were destroyed; at sunrise Sodom and Gomorrah were overwhelmed; so, also, Babylon had no warning of coming evil.
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 Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv9–139. widowhood] is simply a figure for desolation, which…
9. widowhood] is simply a figure for desolation, which is not to be pressed by asking the question, Who was the husband? The reference could hardly be to the king (for which there are no analogies), still less to the foreign nations with whom she trafficked.
in their perfection] i.e. in their full measure (R.V.).
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for the multitude] Better: in spite of, &c. (as in ch. Isa_5:25 &c., “for all this”). Strict rhythm would here be restored by transposing the two clauses: “for the great abundance …—for the multitude …”
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.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv9–13(9) In their perfection.—Better, in their completeness. She should…
(9) In their perfection.—Better, in their completeness. She should taste the full bitterness of widowhood and bereavement.
For the multitude of thy sorceries.—Better, in spite of . . .
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv9–13In a moment in one day. The day of…
In a moment in one day. The day of the capture of the city by Cyrus, which was the third of Marchesvan, B.C. 539. Then, "in a moment," Babylon lost the whole of her prestige, ceased to reign, ceased to be an independent power, became a "widow," had a portion of her population turn from her, was brought down to the dust. Loss of children, and widowhood came upon her in their perfection; i.e. "in the full extent of their bitterness" (Cheyne). Not that Cyrus imitated her common practice by carrying off her entire population; on the contrary, she continued for more than two centuries to be a flourishing and populous town. Twice she revolted from Darius Hystaspis ("Beh. Ins.," col. 1. par. 16; col 3, par. 13), once, perhaps, from Xerxes (Ctes., "Ext. Pers," Alexander the Great found her walls and her great buildings in ruins, but still she was a considerable place. Cyrus, however, no doubt, carried off a portion of her population, which thenceforth begun to dwindle, and continually became less and less as time went on, until she sank into a solitude. That extreme desolation which the prophets paint in such vivid colours (Isa_14:22, 23 Jer_50:10, Jer_50:15, Jer_50:38-40) was potentially contained in the capture by Cyrus, which was the work of a single day. For the multitude of thy sorceries... of thine enchantments. (comp. ver. 13; and see also Dan_2:2 Dan_5:7) The word here translated "sorceries" probably means "incantations" or "enchantments," while that translated "enchantments" means "spells." The addiction of the Babylonians to marc is largely attested by the classical writers, and has been proved beyond a doubt by the lately discovered native remains. By these it appears that their magic fell under three principal heads:
(1) the preparation and use of spells and talismans, which were written forms engraved on stone or impressed on clay, and worn on the person or attached to the object on which their influence was to be exerted;
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(2) the composition and recitation of formulae of incantation, which were supposed to act as charms, and to drive away demons and diseases; and
(3) the taking of observations and framing of tables of prognostics and of omens for general use, together with the casting of horoscopes for the special advantage of individuals (see Rawlinson"s "Egypt and Babylon," p. 58; and comp. Lenor, mant, "La Magic chez les Chaldaens," and Professor Sayce"s papers in the "Transactions of the Society of Bibl. Archaeol.," vol. 3:p. 145, et seqq.; vol. 4:p. 302, et seqq. ). The first and second forms of marc are glanced at in the present passage; the third is noticed in ver. 13.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn vv10–11Thou hast said, None seeth me
Isa_47:10
Thou hast said, None seeth me
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Omniscience ignored
I.
THIS NOTION HAS GREAT INFLUENCE UPON THE CONDUCT OF MAN. Such a notion is convenient. Concealment is the helpmeet of wrong. It is not necessary that this be formulated. It is sufficient if the mind accustoms itself to question whether God sees. The sinner will take advantage of a doubt.
II. THIS NOTION IS UTTERLY UNTRUTHFUL AND DELUSIVE.
III. GOD HAS OFTEN, IN HUMAN EXPERIENCE, SHOWN THE DELUSIVENESS OF THIS NOTION, AND THE TIME IS FIXED FOR THE COMPLETE DEMONSTRATION OF ITS DELUSIVENESS.
1. Character is often seen through by man.
2. Retribution often follows mans deeds in the present world.
3. The future state will show what God saw. (Pulpit Analyst.)
Practical atheism and genuine piety
(with Gen_16:13):--
I. PRACTICAL ATHEISM. Thou hast said, None seeth me, i.e. God is indifferent to our conduct. This is the practical denial of Divine omniscience. This haughty language suggests a sad tendency in human nature. The causes of this tendency are--
1. Dislike of God.
2. Dread of God.
II. GENUINE PIETY. Thou God seest me.
1. The very nature of God implies this.
2. The Bible teaches it.
III. GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS which this subject conveys.
1. It warns the wicked.
2. It should restrain from evil.
3. It should incite to a beautiful and useful life.
4. It should comfort and strengthen the people of God amid the duties and conflicts and trials of life. (A. Tucker.)
None seeth me
Graceless men, having hid God from themselves, think also to hide themselves from God. (J. Trapp.)
Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee
Pernicious knowledge
I. EXAMINE AND VINDICATE THIS DECLARATION.
1. Of what wisdom and knowledge does Isaiah thus speak? It was human wisdom and science in the highest perfection! To this Babylon even the sages of Greece came as learners.
2. Against this wisdom and knowledge the Scriptures bring the charge of perverting mens minds in morals and religion (text; Eze_28:3-7; 1Co_1:21-27; 1Co_3:18-20; Rom_1:22-23).
3. That this testimony is not overcharged, all history proclaims.
4. All this is accounted for by the Scriptural account of the fall of man. Intellectual blindness is upon the heart of man; all his rational faculties are incapable of just conclusions on any religious subject, except they be assisted by a supernatural power.
5. Hence it inevitably follows that the cultivation of the intellectual parts of man can of itself have no tendency towards moral or spiritual good. If all the mental powers of man be in themselves depraved, the increase of his intelligence can only increase his faculty of evil; so that secular education, apart from religious and moral control, must be in itself a curse and not a blessing. It may create a generation of philosophic sceptics and apologists for vice, or even praters about virtue, but a moral and religious people it never has produced, and never can.
II. THE REMEDY WHICH GOD HATH PROVIDED AGAINST ALL THESE INTELLECTUAL EVILS.
1. The supreme need is instruction in the wisdom and knowledge which are of God, above those which are of men.
2. This wisdom and knowledge must be imparted by those means which God has appointed. The Bible. Preaching. The instruction of children in Divine truth. (F. Close, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary1892 · Public DomainOn vv10–12Isa_47:10. Thou hast said, None seeth me.
PRACTICAL ATHEISM AND GENUINE PIETY
Isa_47:10. Thou hast said, None seeth me.
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Gen_16:13. And she called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, Thou God seest me.
Here is—
I. PRACTICAL ATHEISM. “Thou hast said, None seeth me,” i.e., God is indifferent to our conduct. This is the practical denial of Divine Omniscience (Psa_10:11; Psa_94:7). That the self-existent and eternal God should not see is a palpable absurdity (Psa_94:8-10). This haughty language suggests a sad tendency in human nature.
“This practical atheism is very prevalent and pernicious at the present time. Immense numbers utter the ‘Apostles’ Creed’ regularly, who exclude God from almost every province of their life. In the formation of their plans, in the management of their business, in their relations to society, &c., ‘God is not in all their thoughts.’ ” They act as if God did not see them. They are no more restrained in their conduct than they would be if this was their deliberate conviction, or than if they had settled it in their minds that God is regardless of human actions. “The causes of this tendency are not inherent in human nature, but are
(1.) Dislike of God.
(2.) Dread of God.”
II. GENUINE PIETY. “Thou God seest me.” Heb.: “Thou (art a) God of seeing—of vision.” God sees as well as hears (Jacobus). This pious utterance suggests a solemn fact in human history—that God sees us.
1. The very nature of God implies this. The supposition that there is anything that God does not see involves a contradiction.
2. The Bible teaches this (Job_34:21-22; Psa_139:1-4; Psa_139:11-12; Psa_139:15-16; Jer_23:24; Amo_9:2-3; Act_17:27-28; Heb_4:13). The case of Hagar is a remarkable illustration—a sudden and surprising conviction that God sees and knows all (Gen_16:13-14).
III. GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS WHICH THIS SUBJECT CONVEYS.
Such as these:—
1. It warns the wicked. Secret as their sins may seem, they are all discerned and known by Him who is their Judge (Job_34:21-22).
2. It should restrain us from evil. “The eye of a child will effectually check the execution of some evil purposes; more the eye of man or woman; yet more the eye of a holy man or woman. But God’s eye sees all things everywhere. And He is perfectly holy!”
3. It should incite us to a beautiful and useful life—beautiful in its spirit, and useful in its moral influence. “The athletes of Greece and Rome were inspired to run or wrestle by the knowledge of the fact that they were surrounded by a vast assembly of spectators (Heb_12:1). Oh! if we but, realised God’s presence, our life would become brave and beautiful and holy. God is not only present everywhere, but everywhere present to inspire, and aid, and bless.”
4. It should comfort and strengthen the people of God amid the duties and conflicts and trials of life. There is One who knows all things that relate to them, and who can with the utmost ease adapt all circumstances and events to their good. They are always under their great Master’s eye.—Alfred Tucker.
OMNISCIENCE IGNORED
Isa_47:10. Thou hast said, None seeth me.
I. This notion has great influence upon the conduct of man. Such a notion is convenient. Offenders against man retire to the dark when they mean to perpetrate their evil deeds. Concealment is the helpmeet of wrong. Because they sometimes, perhaps often, escape the most watchful human eyes, they fancy it possible to escape the eye of God. They would have no interest whatever in reaching this conclusion, if they never wished to do anything wrong. The sinner persuades himself of two or three things: he has gained his end; he has escaped observation; he has avoided the punishment. It is not necessary that all this be formulated. It is sufficient if the mind accustoms itself to question whether God sees. The sinner will take advantage of a doubt.
II. This notion is utterly untruthful and delusive. Whether our sinful deeds are seen by man or not, there is One to whom they are open as the day. If there is a God at all, this must be so. If you persuade yourself that God does not see, you persuade yourself that God is not. That part of the universe which God does not know, has no God. He who does not know everything is limited; therefore he is not God. But you cannot see Him. When you cannot see a man, you infer that he is not present. So with God. Thus you require that which would argue Him nothing more than a man after all. The spirituality of the Divine nature makes it possible for Him to be everywhere and see everything.
III. God has often, in human experiences, shown the delusiveness of this notion, and the time is fixed for the complete demonstration of its delusiveness.
1. Character is often seen through by man.
2. Retribution often follows man’s deeds in the present world. Joseph’s brethren, Achan, and Saul.
3. The future state will show that God saw. At the judgment day the books will be opened. What is written there will prove that sin was seen. Hell will be an everlasting proof.
CONCLUSION.—Sinner, God sees you; has seen you all along. Be warned, Christian!
1. Be encouraged and comforted by the thought that God sees. He sees the good and their goodness. Be more constantly influenced by this thought.
(1.) Let it restrain from sin.
(2.) Let it stimulate to holy obedience and earnest work (H. E. I. 2257–2267).—J. R., in the Pulpit Analyst.
It would probably be an aid to excellence of life, if we would suppose some distinguished person always looking upon us. We are often deterred from evil by fear of the disapproval of some one whose good opinion we value. The thought of the Divine observation exerts an important influence on the conduct of such as believe it. It is unspeakably pleasant to those who regard Him as an ever-present friend, with whom they are in full sympathy, whom they desire to please. To those who do not regard Him as their friend, who are not in sympathy with Him, and who pursue a course of conduct contrary to His nature, it is repugnant. Hence men who desire to live in sin persuade themselves that He does not see their actions. This persuasion of sinners is convenient to them, but it is delusive and mischievous.
I. IT IS A CONVENIENT PERSUASION.
1. It is adopted because of its convenience. It is on that account open to suspicion. The mind, in taking it, was not in the most favourable condition for the ascertainment of truth. Why is it convenient to say God does not see? Because there is a desire to do what He does not approve. When the fraudulent merchant remains alone in his office, manipulating his accounts so as to defraud his creditors; when the impure retire behind the curtains of the night and of the chamber; when the burglar disguises himself, and in darkness plies his nefarious occupation; when the murderer watches for his victim in the depths of the forest, it is for the same reason.
2. It rests on an insecure negation. In its most pronounced form, it amounts to a denial of the Divine existence. We will not say that all Atheists are persons whose immoral lives have rendered it impossible to retain comfort along with belief in God (H. E. I. 369); but it is certain that a large proportion of the Atheism around us has no better ground than this. A man in conflict with God’s character takes refuge in the denial of His existence. Or, while not formally denying it, he persuades himself that the Divine Being is too great to concern Himself with the small affairs and acts of mortals. Or, perhaps more frequently in the strong confidence that no human eye is upon him, the sinner crowds out of his mind the fact that the Divine Eye is upon him. He does not distinctly deny it, but he practically ignores it; and, hurried on by the strength of passion, forgets that he should have taken more than his fellow-men into consideration. Hence—
3. It becomes a welcome encouragement to sin. The heart is inclined to sin, and only restrained by the fear of punishment. Then if the fear of punishment is removed by the persuasion that there is no witness, the barrier is thrown down, the sinful inclination will be indulged. Gehazi never thought that the watchful eye of God had been upon his proceedings. Beware upon what grounds you release yourself from the restraint imposed by the recognition of God’s personal presence everywhere.
II. IT IS A DELUSIVE PERSUASION.
The sinner says none sees him. But there are moments when he suspects that he may have deceived himself. Conscience will sometimes whisper the question, “What if God, after all, has been observant of the sin?”
How frequently do transgressors find that they have not been so secluded from man as they supposed! Some unclosed crevice through which the deed has been seen. Subtle links of evidence are discovered and placed together so as to make a chain by which the most hidden crimes are dragged to light.
And it is unquestionably a delusion that GOD does not see. The sinner forgets the immense difficulties in the way of his convenient persuasion. He forgets that before he is in a position to say there is no God to see, he must know everything in the universe. Because the thing beyond his present knowledge may be this—that there is a God. Or if he supposes that, a God existing, He does not concern Himself with men, he forgets that the idea of a personal God carries with it this notion of His intimate acquaintance with everything about His creatures.—(H. E. I. 4015.)
What does He say about Himself in this respect? Does not the idea that He sees man’s acts run through His Word? (Psa_94:9; Psa_139:1-12). In other words, God’s acquaintance with our life and ways comprehends everything, however minute. Men practise a delusion on themselves when they imagine He does not see them.
III. IT IS A MISCHIEVOUS PERSUASION.
Inasmuch as human nature is so largely influenced by the fact that there are witnesses of our conduct, it is a mischievous withdrawment of influence for good when the witness whose approbation is the most important is supposed to be withdrawn. From those who are only deterred from evil by the consciousness of being seen or the fear of punishment, it is like the withdrawment of the master’s eye from the unfaithful servant. It opens the way to the commission and multiplication of sin. It increases the danger and the measure of punishment. Sin is the material out of which punishment is made. It sometimes overtakes sinners in the present world. For the most part it is deferred to the future state, perhaps to afford time and opportunity for the sinner’s repentance. It only falls in its full weight when the sinner has finally rejected the overtures of God’s grace. However secretly sin may have been committed, the judgment-day will reveal it (Matthew 25.; H. E. I. 3055). The conduct we are building up in our daily life is preparing the sentence of the Judge. Beware of the deceitfulness of sin. It fascinates with its eye, but it destroys with its sting. It will find out the sinner, though he retire to the deepest darkness or the remotest corner of the earth.
Cherish the belief in God’s constant presence and inspection. The very fact of unwillingness to be seen by Him shows a consciousness of something that dare not meet His eye. But is it not better to abandon that something, whatever it is, than delude ourselves with the persuasion that God does not see? Drusus would have all the city see his manner of life. Oh that we all so lived that the thought of God’s constant supervision could be a joy! The eye of His infinite holiness is upon us. With infinite approbation He sees the struggle against evil. With sorrowful condemnation He sees the sin. Fear to sin. Cultivate the disposition to please God. Suppress the inclination to the thing that would wish to elude His eye (H. E. I. 2257–2261).—J. Rawlinson.
PERNICIOUS KNOWLEDGE
(Sunday School Sermon.)
Isa_47:10. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee.
Heavy are the charges laid against the great and guilty city of Babylon. Not only had she dealt unmercifully with God’s people (Isa_47:6), but her profligacy, luxury, pride, effeminacy, and wickedness were excessive (Isa_47:7-8; Isa_47:10). she was withal superstitious and idolatrous in the highest degree (Isa_47:9; Isa_47:12-13). What was the fruitful cause of all these abominations? Was it brutal ignorance, or barbarous uncultivation? No: it was just the reverse. Alas for the philosophers and wise men of this world! all the abominations of Babylon are here traced to human wisdom and science: “Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee.” A proposition which runs counter to many prevalent opinions and prejudices. Let us, then,
I. EXAMINE AND VINDICATE THIS DECLARATION.
1. Of what wisdom and knowledge does Isaiah thus speak? It was human wisdom and science in the highest perfection! The same which opposed Moses in Egypt, Daniel in Babylon, Paul at Athens: secular learning, the cultivation of the intellect, philosophy in its deepest and most subtle forms; for to this Babylon even the sages of Greece came as learners! in a word, it was all that the mind of man could attain without revelation.
2. Against this wisdom and knowledge the Scriptures bring the charge of perverting men’s minds in morals and religion. This is expressly done in this chapter. Ezekiel affirms the same of the great mercantile city of Tyre (Eze_28:3-6). St. Paul came more into contact with this worldly wisdom than any of the Apostles, and he was perhaps more capable of appreciating its true character; and he uniformly condemns it (1Co_1:21-27; 1Co_3:18-20; Rom_1:22-23).
3. That this testimony is not overcharged, all history proclaims. Superstitions, vices, and infidelity have prevailed in those countries where, and exactly at those times when, carnal wisdom has been most highly cultivated. Egypt was the birthplace and cradle of science; and in no country was idolatry more degrading. The scriptural account of the state of Babylon, where science was nurtured and developed, is corroborated by profane history. Its abominable vices could not be here detailed. The greatest sages of Greece are all chargeable with either practising or inculcating the grossest vices. The moral atrocities of the French Revolution, when Reason was deified in the person of an infamous woman, prove that time cannot alter the deteriorating tendency of unassisted human intellect.
4. All this is accounted for by the Scripture account of the fall of man. If that account is correct, no other results can follow (Job_14:4). Equally with his other powers, the intellect of man was impaired by the fall of Adam, and became the ally of his polluted heart. The first example of its exercise was an instance of false reasoning against God Himself (Gen_3:12). See also Gen_6:5; Gen_8:21; Eph_4:18. Hence it follows that intellectual blindness is upon the heart of man; all his rational faculties are incapable of just conclusions on any religious subject, except they be assisted by a supernatural power.
5. Hence it inevitably follows that the cultivation of the intellectual parts of man can of itself have no tendency towards moral or spiritual good. If all the mental powers of man be in themselves depraved, the increase of his intelligence can only increase his faculty of evil; so that secular education, apart from religious and moral control, must be in itself a curse and not a blessing. It may create a generation of philosophic sceptics and apologists for vice, or even praters about virtue; but a moral and religious people it never has produced, and never can. Let us therefore consider—
II. THE REMEDY WHICH GOD HATH PROVIDED AGAINST ALL THESE INTELLECTUAL EVILS.
Because we declare the moral powerlessness of merely human knowledge, our enemies affirm that we are the patrons of ignorance and bigotry, wish the mind to stagnate, and desire to repress scientific inquiries. Groundless charges. We fear not the progress of philosophy, if she be guided by religion; nor the wisdom of man, if it be in subordination to the wisdom of God. This is the remedy of the intellectual and moral evils of our time.
1. The supreme need of this generation is instruction in the wisdom and knowledge which are of God, above those which are of men (see vol. i. pp. 373–378).
2. This wisdom and knowledge must be imparted to mankind by those means which God has appointed. The Bible. The preaching of the Gospel. The instruction of children in Divine truth (H. E. I. 793, 794, 803–806, 1751, 1771).
CONCLUDING REMARKS.—
1. Let us beware of the pride of mental cultivation.
2. Let all our knowledge, and all our mental powers, be consecrated to the service of God.
3. Let the poor and simple rejoice that moral and spiritual excellence are attainable by them.—F. Close, A. M.: Fifty-Two Sketches of Sermons, pp. 177–183.
THE SECURITY OF PROUD SINNERS
Isa_47:10-11. For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness, &c.
In the Babylonians we have types of proud sinners in every age—both in regard to their fancied security and the end of it.
I. THEIR FANCIED SECURITY. “I shall be a lady for ever. I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children” (Isa_47:7-8). The calamities that might come upon other men would not touch them! They were vainly confident of the perpetuity of their pomps and pleasures. Observe—
1. The cause of their fancied security. They thought themselves safe and out of danger, not because they were ignorant of the uncertainty of all earthly enjoyments, and the inevitable fate that attends states and kingdoms as well as particular persons, but because they did not lay this to heart (Isa_47:7), did not apply it to themselves, nor give it a due consideration. They lulled themselves asleep in ease and pleasure (chap. Isa_56:12). They did not remember the latter end (Isa_47:7) of their prosperity, that it is a fading flower, and will wither; of their iniquity, that it will be bitterness; and that the day will come when their injustice and oppression must be reckoned for and punished. To-day ungodly men are easy in their sinful ways, because they never think of death, and judgment, and their future state.
2. The ground of their fancied security.
(1.) Their power and wealth, which they had gotten by fraud and oppression, were their confidence (Isa_47:10). Like Doeg (Psa_52:7). Many have so debauched their own consciences, and are got to such a daring pitch of wickedness, that they stick at nothing; and this they trust to, to carry them through those difficulties which embarrass men who make conscience of what they say and do.
(2.) Their policy and craft, which they called their wisdom, were their confidence. They thought they could out-wit all mankind, and therefore might set their enemies at defiance; but their wisdom and knowledge perverted them—made them forget themselves and the preparation necessary to be made for hereafter.
3. The foolish boastings into which their fancied security betrayed them.
(1.) “I shall be a lady for ever” (Isa_47:7). Babylon looked upon the patent of her honour to be not merely during the pleasure of the sovereign Lord, the fountain of honour, or during her own good behaviour, but to be perpetual (cf. Rev_18:7). Those great ones mistake themselves who think they shall be exalted for ever; death will shortly lay them and their honour in the dust. Saints shall be saints for ever, but those who are merely this world’s great ones will be what they are only for a little while (H. E. I. 1537).
(2.) “I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children” (Isa_47:8), i.e., she would never lack a monarch to espouse and protect her, nor would there be any diminution in the numbers of her people. Those that are in the height of prosperity are apt to fancy themselves out of the reach of adverse fate (Psa_10:4-6).
(3.) “None seeth me” (Isa_47:10), i.e., “No one sees me when I do amiss, and therefore there will be none to call me to an account.” It is common for sinners to trust to their wicked arts and designs to stand them in stead, because they think they have carried them on so plausibly that none can discern the wickedness and deceit of them. How foolish are they in their wickedness! (Psa_139:11-12.)
II. ITS END. It will be ruin (Isa_47:11)
1. It will be a complete ruin—the ruin of all their comforts and confidences. “These two things shall come upon thee (the very two things thou didst set at defiance), loss of children and widowhood. Both thy princes and thy people shall be cut off, so that thou shalt be no more a government, no more a nation.” Note, God often brings upon secure sinners those very mischiefs which they thought themselves least in danger of; “they shall come upon thee in their perfection, with all their aggravating circumstances, and without anything to allay or mitigate them.” What a contrast between the afflictions of the godly and of the godless!
2. It will be a sudden and surprising ruin. The evil shall come in one day, nay in a moment (Isa_47:9), which will make it much the more terrible, especially to those who were so very secure. “Evil shall come upon thee, and thou shalt have neither time nor way to provide against it, or to prepare for it; for ‘thou shalt not know from whence it rises,’ and therefore shalt not know where to stand upon thy guard.” “Thou shalt not know the morning thereof;” so the Hebrew phrase is. We know just when and where the day will break and the sun rise, but we know not what the day, when it is come, will bring forth, nor when or where trouble will arise; perhaps the storm may come from that point of the compass which we little thought of. Babylon pretended to great wisdom and knowledge (Isa_47:10), but with all her wisdom cannot foresee, nor with all her wisdom prevent, the ruin threatened (Isa_47:11). Fair warning of this desolation was indeed given them by the prophets of the Lord; but they slighted that notice, and therefore justly is it so ordered that they should have no other notice of it, but that, partly through their own security, and partly through the swiftness and subtility of the enemy, when it came it should be a perfect surprise to them. Those that slight the warnings of the written Word, let them not expect any other premonition.
3. It will be an irresistible ruin (Isa_47:11). There is no opposing the judgments of God when they come with commission. Babylon herself, with all her wealth, power, and multitude, is not able to put off the mischief that comes.—Matthew Henry: Commentary, in loco.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield1917 · Public DomainOn v10(See Scofield "Psa 2:12")
trusted
(See Scofield "Psa 2:12")
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv10, 12Connecting 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 say in your heart
Here the word "heart" refers to the inner person. AT: "you say to yourself" (See: Metonymy)
Disaster will overcome you
Yahweh speaks of disaster as if it were a person who captures Babylon. AT: "You will experience disaster" (See: Metaphor)
Destruction will fall on you
Yahweh speaks Babylon being destroyed as if destruction were an object that falls upon the city. AT: "You will experience destruction" or "Others will destroy you" (See: Metaphor)
Calamity will strike you
Yahweh speaks of Babylon experiencing calamity as if calamity were a person who strikes Babylon. AT: "You will experience calamity" (See: Metaphor)
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv9, 10, 12 So that thy punishment shall be so great, as…
So that thy punishment shall be so great, as is possible to be imagined.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv9–13 Isa 47:9 But these two [things] shall come to…
Isa 47:9 But these two [things] shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, [and] for the great abundance of thine enchantments.
Ver. 9. But these two things shall come upon thee in a moment.] Accidit in puncto, &c. Babylon was suddenly taken in one night, as the prophet had foretold, {Isa 21:9} and as the history testifieth {Dan 5:30} Periit inter pocula.
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For the multitude of thy sorceries.] Thy taking upon thee to divine of each man’s life and fortune by the stars and horoscope, for which profession the Chaldeans were famous. But what a madness was it in Cardanus, who by the like skill went about to demonstrate that it was fatal to our Saviour Christ to die the death of the cross. {a}
{a} Alsted. Encycl., lib. xxx. cap. 10.
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 On vv9–13 In their perfection; in the highest degree. Thy king…
In their perfection; in the highest degree. Thy king and kingdom shall be utterly and eternally destroyed.
For the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments; for thy superstitious and magical practices, which were very frequent there, as we see Isa 47:12,13, and as was observed before. Or, as it is in the Hebrew, in the multitude of thy sorceries, &c.; in the midst of and notwithstanding all thy diabolical artifices, whereby thou thinkest to foresee any dangers, and to secure thyself from them.
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 On vv9–13 But these two things shall come to thee in…
But these two things shall come to thee in a moment on one day,.... Suddenly, at once, at one and the same time. The destruction of Babylon was very sudden; the city was taken by surprise, before the inhabitants were aware of it, while the king and his nobles were regaling themselves at a feast; that very night Belshazzar was slain, and Darius the Mede took the kingdom, Dan 5:30 and so those two things she boasted of would never be her lot came upon her together and at once: "the loss of children, and widowhood"; bereaved of her king, and the whole royal family, and of her people in great numbers, who were either slain, or carried captive; or, however, the kingdom was transferred from them to another people. When Babylon was taken by Cyrus, according to Xenophon (k), not only the king was slain, but those that were about him; and orders were presently given to the inhabitants to keep within doors, and to slay all that were found without. Though Dr. Prideaux (l) thinks this prophecy had its accomplishment when Babylon was besieged by Darius, who, to save provisions, slew all their own women, wives, sisters, daughters, and all their children, reserving only one wife and maidservant to a man; and when it was taken, Darius ordered three thousand of the principal inhabitants to be crucified. And in much such language is the destruction of mystical Babylon expressed, when God shall "kill her children with death; her plagues shall come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine", Rev 2:23,
they shall come upon thee in their perfection; those evils and calamities shall be fully accomplished, not in part only, but in whole; she should have no king to govern, nor anything like one; should have no share of government; and her children or subjects should be entirely destroyed:
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for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments; which the Chaldeans were very famous for; this is another reason given for their destruction; see Dan 2:2, or, "in the multitude of thy sorceries" (m), &c.; notwithstanding these, her destruction should come upon her, which her sorcerers and enchanters could neither foresee nor prevent. Sorceries are ascribed to mystical Babylon, and as the cause of her ruin, Rev 9:21.
(k) Cyropaedia, 1. 7. sect. 23. (l) Connexion, &c. part 1. B. 3. p. 188, 189. (m) "in multitudine maleficiorum tuorum", Munster, Montanus; "in multitudine praestigiarum", Cocceius.
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 On vv9–13 Perfection - In the highest degree.
Perfection - In the highest degree.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv9, 11, 13 Verse 9. These two things shall come to thee…
Verse 9. These two things shall come to thee in. a moment] That is, suddenly. Belshazzar was slain; thus the city became metaphorically a widow, the husband - the governor of it, being slain. In the time in which the king was slain, the Medes and Persians took the city, and slew many of its inhabitants, see Da 5:30-:31. When Darius took the city, he is said to have crucified three thousand of its principal inhabitants.
In their perfection - "On a sudden"] Instead of בתמם bethummam, "in their perfection," as our translation renders it, the Septuagint and Syriac read, in the copies from which they translated, פתאם pithom, suddenly; parallel to רגע rega, in a moment, in the preceding alternate member of the sentence. The concurrent testimony of the Septuagint and Syriac, favoured by the context, may be safely opposed to the authority of the present text.
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For the multitude - "Notwithstanding the multitude"] ברב berob. For this sense of the particle ב beth, see Nu 14:11.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv9, 10, 12 Isa 47:9. These two things shall come to thee…
Isa 47:9. These two things shall come to thee — The very two things that thou didst set at defiance; loss of children and widowhood — Both thy princes and thy people shall be cut off, so that thou shalt be no more a government, and no more a nation. They shall come in their perfection — In the highest degree: thy king and kingdom shall be utterly and irretrievably destroyed. This prophecy was twice fulfilled; “having been accomplished the very night that Babylon was taken, when the Persians slew the king himself and a great number of the Babylonians: it was fulfilled a second time, when that city was besieged by Darius. Being determined to hold out to the last extremity, they took all their women, and each man choosing one of them, whom he liked best, out of his own family, they strangled all the rest, that unnecessary mouths might not consume their provision. By means of this shocking expedient they sustained a siege and all the efforts of Darius for twenty months, and the city was at last taken by stratagem. As soon as Darius made himself master of the place, he ordered three thousand of the principal men to be crucified; and thus this prophecy was signally fulfilled, both by the hands of the Babylonians themselves, and by the cruelties exercised upon them by their conquerors.” — Bishop Newton. For the multitude of thy sorceries — For thy superstitious and magical practices, which were very frequent in Babylon, as we see below, (Isa 47:12-13,) and as has been observed before. Hebrew, in the multitude, &c., or, as Dr. Waterland renders it, “Notwithstanding the multitude of thy sorceries, and the force of thy enchantments;” notwithstanding all thy diabolical artifices, whereby thou thinkest to foresee all dangers, and to secure thyself from them.
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 On vv9–13 In a moment, in one day - This is…
In a moment, in one day - This is designed, undoubtedly, to describe the suddenness with which Babylon would be destroyed. It would not decay slowly, and by natural causes, but it would not decay slowly, and by natural causes, but it would be suddenly and unexpectedly destroyed. How strikingly this was fulfilled, it is not needful to pause to state (see Isa. 13, note; Isa 14:1, note) In the single night in which Babylon was taken by Cyrus, a death-blow was given to all her greatness and power, and at that moment a train of causes was originated which did not cease to operate until it became a pile of ruins.
The loss of children, and widowhood - Babylon would be in the situation of a wife and a mother who is instantaneously deprived of her husband, and bereft of all her children.
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They shall come upon thee in their perfection - In full measure; completely; entirely. You shall know all that is meant by this condition. The state referred to is that of a wife who is suddenly deprived of her husband, and who, at the same time, and by the same stroke, is bereft of all her children. And the sense is, that Babylon would know all that was meant by such a condition, and would experience the utmost extremity of grief which such a condition involved.
For the multitude of thy sorceries - This was one of the reasons why God would thus destroy her, that sorceries and enchantments abounded there. Lowth, however, renders this, ‘Notwithstanding the multitude of thy sorceries.’ So Noyes, ‘In spite of thy sorceries.’ The Hebrew is, ‘in the multitude (ברב berôb) of thy sorceries.’ Jerome renders it, ‘On account of (“propter”) the multitude of thy sorceries.’ The Septuagint: ‘In (ἐν en) thy sorcery.’ Perhaps the idea is, that sorcery and enchantment abounded, and that these calamities would come notwithstanding all that they could do. They would come in the very midst of the abounding necromancy and enchantments, while the people practiced these arts, and while they depended on them. That this trust in sorcery was one cause why these judgments would come upon them, is apparent from Isa 47:10-11. And that they would not be able to protect the city, or that these judgments would come in spite of all their efforts, is apparent from Isa 47:13. The idea is exactly expressed by a literal translation of the Hebrew. They would come upon her in, that is, “in the very midst” of the multitude of sorceries and enchantments. The word rendered here ‘sorceries,’ means magic, incantation, and is applied to the work of magicians (2Ki 9:22; Neh 3:4; Mic 5:11; compare Exo 7:2; Deu 18:10; Dan 2:2; Mal 3:5). Magic, it is well known, abounded in the East, and indeed this may be regarded as the birthplace of the art (see the note at Isa 2:6).
And for the great abundance of thine enchantments - Hebrew, ‘And in the strength;’ that is, in the full vigor of thine enchantments. While they would abound, and while they would exert their utmost power to preserve the city. The word rendered ‘enchantments,’ means properly society, company, community - from being associated, or bound together; and then spells, or enchantments, from the notion that they bound or confined the object that was the subject of the charm. The idea was that of controlling, binding, or restraining anyone whom they pleased, by the power of a spell.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv9, 11, 12, 13 Two. The empire and the people shall be removed…
Two. The empire and the people shall be removed at once. --- Enchanters; princes or magicians, who gave them evil counsel, ver. 12.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv9–13 in a moment--It should not decay slowly, but be…
in a moment--It should not decay slowly, but be suddenly and unexpectedly destroyed; in a single night it was taken by Cyrus. The prophecy was again literally fulfilled when Babylon revolted against Darius; and, in order to hold out to the last, each man chose one woman of his family, and strangled the rest, to save provisions. Darius impaled three thousand of the revolters.
in . . . perfection--that is, "in full measure."
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for . . . for--rather, "notwithstanding the . . . notwithstanding"; "in spite of" [LOWTH]. So "for" (Num 14:11). Babylon was famous for "expiations or sacrifices, and other incantations, whereby they tried to avert evil and obtain good" [DIODORUS SICULUS].
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 On vv10, 12, 13 10, 11. Fancying thyself secure in thy wickedness, thou…
10, 11. Fancying thyself secure in thy wickedness, thou sayest,
None seeth me. Therefore — As a reason for the chastisement about to fall on thee.
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Not know… whence it riseth — That day of thy woe shall come unexpectedly; because of thy untiring defiance, thou shalt not know how or whence it so suddenly comes. It hath no dawn to thee. In astrological divining the Chaldeans were expert, but it had no availing power in their extremity. When the morn appeared the Egyptians were destroyed; at sunrise Sodom and Gomorrah were overwhelmed; so, also, Babylon had no warning of coming evil.
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 On vv9–13 9. widowhood] is simply a figure for desolation, which…
9. widowhood] is simply a figure for desolation, which is not to be pressed by asking the question, Who was the husband? The reference could hardly be to the king (for which there are no analogies), still less to the foreign nations with whom she trafficked.
in their perfection] i.e. in their full measure (R.V.).
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for the multitude] Better: in spite of, &c. (as in ch. Isa_5:25 &c., “for all this”). Strict rhythm would here be restored by transposing the two clauses: “for the great abundance …—for the multitude …”
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.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv9–13 (9) In their perfection.—Better, in their completeness. She should…
(9) In their perfection.—Better, in their completeness. She should taste the full bitterness of widowhood and bereavement.
For the multitude of thy sorceries.—Better, in spite of . . .
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 On vv9–13 In a moment in one day. The day of…
In a moment in one day. The day of the capture of the city by Cyrus, which was the third of Marchesvan, B.C. 539. Then, "in a moment," Babylon lost the whole of her prestige, ceased to reign, ceased to be an independent power, became a "widow," had a portion of her population turn from her, was brought down to the dust. Loss of children, and widowhood came upon her in their perfection; i.e. "in the full extent of their bitterness" (Cheyne). Not that Cyrus imitated her common practice by carrying off her entire population; on the contrary, she continued for more than two centuries to be a flourishing and populous town. Twice she revolted from Darius Hystaspis ("Beh. Ins.," col. 1. par. 16; col 3, par. 13), once, perhaps, from Xerxes (Ctes., "Ext. Pers," Alexander the Great found her walls and her great buildings in ruins, but still she was a considerable place. Cyrus, however, no doubt, carried off a portion of her population, which thenceforth begun to dwindle, and continually became less and less as time went on, until she sank into a solitude. That extreme desolation which the prophets paint in such vivid colours (Isa_14:22, 23 Jer_50:10, Jer_50:15, Jer_50:38-40) was potentially contained in the capture by Cyrus, which was the work of a single day. For the multitude of thy sorceries... of thine enchantments. (comp. ver. 13; and see also Dan_2:2 Dan_5:7) The word here translated "sorceries" probably means "incantations" or "enchantments," while that translated "enchantments" means "spells." The addiction of the Babylonians to marc is largely attested by the classical writers, and has been proved beyond a doubt by the lately discovered native remains. By these it appears that their magic fell under three principal heads:
(1) the preparation and use of spells and talismans, which were written forms engraved on stone or impressed on clay, and worn on the person or attached to the object on which their influence was to be exerted;
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(2) the composition and recitation of formulae of incantation, which were supposed to act as charms, and to drive away demons and diseases; and
(3) the taking of observations and framing of tables of prognostics and of omens for general use, together with the casting of horoscopes for the special advantage of individuals (see Rawlinson"s "Egypt and Babylon," p. 58; and comp. Lenor, mant, "La Magic chez les Chaldaens," and Professor Sayce"s papers in the "Transactions of the Society of Bibl. Archaeol.," vol. 3:p. 145, et seqq.; vol. 4:p. 302, et seqq. ). The first and second forms of marc are glanced at in the present passage; the third is noticed in ver. 13.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv10–11 Thou hast said, None seeth me
Isa_47:10
Thou hast said, None seeth me
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Omniscience ignored
I.
THIS NOTION HAS GREAT INFLUENCE UPON THE CONDUCT OF MAN. Such a notion is convenient. Concealment is the helpmeet of wrong. It is not necessary that this be formulated. It is sufficient if the mind accustoms itself to question whether God sees. The sinner will take advantage of a doubt.
II. THIS NOTION IS UTTERLY UNTRUTHFUL AND DELUSIVE.
III. GOD HAS OFTEN, IN HUMAN EXPERIENCE, SHOWN THE DELUSIVENESS OF THIS NOTION, AND THE TIME IS FIXED FOR THE COMPLETE DEMONSTRATION OF ITS DELUSIVENESS.
1. Character is often seen through by man.
2. Retribution often follows mans deeds in the present world.
3. The future state will show what God saw. (Pulpit Analyst.)
Practical atheism and genuine piety
(with Gen_16:13):--
I. PRACTICAL ATHEISM. Thou hast said, None seeth me, i.e. God is indifferent to our conduct. This is the practical denial of Divine omniscience. This haughty language suggests a sad tendency in human nature. The causes of this tendency are--
1. Dislike of God.
2. Dread of God.
II. GENUINE PIETY. Thou God seest me.
1. The very nature of God implies this.
2. The Bible teaches it.
III. GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS which this subject conveys.
1. It warns the wicked.
2. It should restrain from evil.
3. It should incite to a beautiful and useful life.
4. It should comfort and strengthen the people of God amid the duties and conflicts and trials of life. (A. Tucker.)
None seeth me
Graceless men, having hid God from themselves, think also to hide themselves from God. (J. Trapp.)
Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee
Pernicious knowledge
I. EXAMINE AND VINDICATE THIS DECLARATION.
1. Of what wisdom and knowledge does Isaiah thus speak? It was human wisdom and science in the highest perfection! To this Babylon even the sages of Greece came as learners.
2. Against this wisdom and knowledge the Scriptures bring the charge of perverting mens minds in morals and religion (text; Eze_28:3-7; 1Co_1:21-27; 1Co_3:18-20; Rom_1:22-23).
3. That this testimony is not overcharged, all history proclaims.
4. All this is accounted for by the Scriptural account of the fall of man. Intellectual blindness is upon the heart of man; all his rational faculties are incapable of just conclusions on any religious subject, except they be assisted by a supernatural power.
5. Hence it inevitably follows that the cultivation of the intellectual parts of man can of itself have no tendency towards moral or spiritual good. If all the mental powers of man be in themselves depraved, the increase of his intelligence can only increase his faculty of evil; so that secular education, apart from religious and moral control, must be in itself a curse and not a blessing. It may create a generation of philosophic sceptics and apologists for vice, or even praters about virtue, but a moral and religious people it never has produced, and never can.
II. THE REMEDY WHICH GOD HATH PROVIDED AGAINST ALL THESE INTELLECTUAL EVILS.
1. The supreme need is instruction in the wisdom and knowledge which are of God, above those which are of men.
2. This wisdom and knowledge must be imparted by those means which God has appointed. The Bible. Preaching. The instruction of children in Divine truth. (F. Close, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv10–12 Isa_47:10. Thou hast said, None seeth me.
PRACTICAL ATHEISM AND GENUINE PIETY
Isa_47:10. Thou hast said, None seeth me.
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Gen_16:13. And she called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, Thou God seest me.
Here is—
I. PRACTICAL ATHEISM. “Thou hast said, None seeth me,” i.e., God is indifferent to our conduct. This is the practical denial of Divine Omniscience (Psa_10:11; Psa_94:7). That the self-existent and eternal God should not see is a palpable absurdity (Psa_94:8-10). This haughty language suggests a sad tendency in human nature.
“This practical atheism is very prevalent and pernicious at the present time. Immense numbers utter the ‘Apostles’ Creed’ regularly, who exclude God from almost every province of their life. In the formation of their plans, in the management of their business, in their relations to society, &c., ‘God is not in all their thoughts.’ ” They act as if God did not see them. They are no more restrained in their conduct than they would be if this was their deliberate conviction, or than if they had settled it in their minds that God is regardless of human actions. “The causes of this tendency are not inherent in human nature, but are
(1.) Dislike of God.
(2.) Dread of God.”
II. GENUINE PIETY. “Thou God seest me.” Heb.: “Thou (art a) God of seeing—of vision.” God sees as well as hears (Jacobus). This pious utterance suggests a solemn fact in human history—that God sees us.
1. The very nature of God implies this. The supposition that there is anything that God does not see involves a contradiction.
2. The Bible teaches this (Job_34:21-22; Psa_139:1-4; Psa_139:11-12; Psa_139:15-16; Jer_23:24; Amo_9:2-3; Act_17:27-28; Heb_4:13). The case of Hagar is a remarkable illustration—a sudden and surprising conviction that God sees and knows all (Gen_16:13-14).
III. GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS WHICH THIS SUBJECT CONVEYS.
Such as these:—
1. It warns the wicked. Secret as their sins may seem, they are all discerned and known by Him who is their Judge (Job_34:21-22).
2. It should restrain us from evil. “The eye of a child will effectually check the execution of some evil purposes; more the eye of man or woman; yet more the eye of a holy man or woman. But God’s eye sees all things everywhere. And He is perfectly holy!”
3. It should incite us to a beautiful and useful life—beautiful in its spirit, and useful in its moral influence. “The athletes of Greece and Rome were inspired to run or wrestle by the knowledge of the fact that they were surrounded by a vast assembly of spectators (Heb_12:1). Oh! if we but, realised God’s presence, our life would become brave and beautiful and holy. God is not only present everywhere, but everywhere present to inspire, and aid, and bless.”
4. It should comfort and strengthen the people of God amid the duties and conflicts and trials of life. There is One who knows all things that relate to them, and who can with the utmost ease adapt all circumstances and events to their good. They are always under their great Master’s eye.—Alfred Tucker.
OMNISCIENCE IGNORED
Isa_47:10. Thou hast said, None seeth me.
I. This notion has great influence upon the conduct of man. Such a notion is convenient. Offenders against man retire to the dark when they mean to perpetrate their evil deeds. Concealment is the helpmeet of wrong. Because they sometimes, perhaps often, escape the most watchful human eyes, they fancy it possible to escape the eye of God. They would have no interest whatever in reaching this conclusion, if they never wished to do anything wrong. The sinner persuades himself of two or three things: he has gained his end; he has escaped observation; he has avoided the punishment. It is not necessary that all this be formulated. It is sufficient if the mind accustoms itself to question whether God sees. The sinner will take advantage of a doubt.
II. This notion is utterly untruthful and delusive. Whether our sinful deeds are seen by man or not, there is One to whom they are open as the day. If there is a God at all, this must be so. If you persuade yourself that God does not see, you persuade yourself that God is not. That part of the universe which God does not know, has no God. He who does not know everything is limited; therefore he is not God. But you cannot see Him. When you cannot see a man, you infer that he is not present. So with God. Thus you require that which would argue Him nothing more than a man after all. The spirituality of the Divine nature makes it possible for Him to be everywhere and see everything.
III. God has often, in human experiences, shown the delusiveness of this notion, and the time is fixed for the complete demonstration of its delusiveness.
1. Character is often seen through by man.
2. Retribution often follows man’s deeds in the present world. Joseph’s brethren, Achan, and Saul.
3. The future state will show that God saw. At the judgment day the books will be opened. What is written there will prove that sin was seen. Hell will be an everlasting proof.
CONCLUSION.—Sinner, God sees you; has seen you all along. Be warned, Christian!
1. Be encouraged and comforted by the thought that God sees. He sees the good and their goodness. Be more constantly influenced by this thought.
(1.) Let it restrain from sin.
(2.) Let it stimulate to holy obedience and earnest work (H. E. I. 2257–2267).—J. R., in the Pulpit Analyst.
It would probably be an aid to excellence of life, if we would suppose some distinguished person always looking upon us. We are often deterred from evil by fear of the disapproval of some one whose good opinion we value. The thought of the Divine observation exerts an important influence on the conduct of such as believe it. It is unspeakably pleasant to those who regard Him as an ever-present friend, with whom they are in full sympathy, whom they desire to please. To those who do not regard Him as their friend, who are not in sympathy with Him, and who pursue a course of conduct contrary to His nature, it is repugnant. Hence men who desire to live in sin persuade themselves that He does not see their actions. This persuasion of sinners is convenient to them, but it is delusive and mischievous.
I. IT IS A CONVENIENT PERSUASION.
1. It is adopted because of its convenience. It is on that account open to suspicion. The mind, in taking it, was not in the most favourable condition for the ascertainment of truth. Why is it convenient to say God does not see? Because there is a desire to do what He does not approve. When the fraudulent merchant remains alone in his office, manipulating his accounts so as to defraud his creditors; when the impure retire behind the curtains of the night and of the chamber; when the burglar disguises himself, and in darkness plies his nefarious occupation; when the murderer watches for his victim in the depths of the forest, it is for the same reason.
2. It rests on an insecure negation. In its most pronounced form, it amounts to a denial of the Divine existence. We will not say that all Atheists are persons whose immoral lives have rendered it impossible to retain comfort along with belief in God (H. E. I. 369); but it is certain that a large proportion of the Atheism around us has no better ground than this. A man in conflict with God’s character takes refuge in the denial of His existence. Or, while not formally denying it, he persuades himself that the Divine Being is too great to concern Himself with the small affairs and acts of mortals. Or, perhaps more frequently in the strong confidence that no human eye is upon him, the sinner crowds out of his mind the fact that the Divine Eye is upon him. He does not distinctly deny it, but he practically ignores it; and, hurried on by the strength of passion, forgets that he should have taken more than his fellow-men into consideration. Hence—
3. It becomes a welcome encouragement to sin. The heart is inclined to sin, and only restrained by the fear of punishment. Then if the fear of punishment is removed by the persuasion that there is no witness, the barrier is thrown down, the sinful inclination will be indulged. Gehazi never thought that the watchful eye of God had been upon his proceedings. Beware upon what grounds you release yourself from the restraint imposed by the recognition of God’s personal presence everywhere.
II. IT IS A DELUSIVE PERSUASION.
The sinner says none sees him. But there are moments when he suspects that he may have deceived himself. Conscience will sometimes whisper the question, “What if God, after all, has been observant of the sin?”
How frequently do transgressors find that they have not been so secluded from man as they supposed! Some unclosed crevice through which the deed has been seen. Subtle links of evidence are discovered and placed together so as to make a chain by which the most hidden crimes are dragged to light.
And it is unquestionably a delusion that GOD does not see. The sinner forgets the immense difficulties in the way of his convenient persuasion. He forgets that before he is in a position to say there is no God to see, he must know everything in the universe. Because the thing beyond his present knowledge may be this—that there is a God. Or if he supposes that, a God existing, He does not concern Himself with men, he forgets that the idea of a personal God carries with it this notion of His intimate acquaintance with everything about His creatures.—(H. E. I. 4015.)
What does He say about Himself in this respect? Does not the idea that He sees man’s acts run through His Word? (Psa_94:9; Psa_139:1-12). In other words, God’s acquaintance with our life and ways comprehends everything, however minute. Men practise a delusion on themselves when they imagine He does not see them.
III. IT IS A MISCHIEVOUS PERSUASION.
Inasmuch as human nature is so largely influenced by the fact that there are witnesses of our conduct, it is a mischievous withdrawment of influence for good when the witness whose approbation is the most important is supposed to be withdrawn. From those who are only deterred from evil by the consciousness of being seen or the fear of punishment, it is like the withdrawment of the master’s eye from the unfaithful servant. It opens the way to the commission and multiplication of sin. It increases the danger and the measure of punishment. Sin is the material out of which punishment is made. It sometimes overtakes sinners in the present world. For the most part it is deferred to the future state, perhaps to afford time and opportunity for the sinner’s repentance. It only falls in its full weight when the sinner has finally rejected the overtures of God’s grace. However secretly sin may have been committed, the judgment-day will reveal it (Matthew 25.; H. E. I. 3055). The conduct we are building up in our daily life is preparing the sentence of the Judge. Beware of the deceitfulness of sin. It fascinates with its eye, but it destroys with its sting. It will find out the sinner, though he retire to the deepest darkness or the remotest corner of the earth.
Cherish the belief in God’s constant presence and inspection. The very fact of unwillingness to be seen by Him shows a consciousness of something that dare not meet His eye. But is it not better to abandon that something, whatever it is, than delude ourselves with the persuasion that God does not see? Drusus would have all the city see his manner of life. Oh that we all so lived that the thought of God’s constant supervision could be a joy! The eye of His infinite holiness is upon us. With infinite approbation He sees the struggle against evil. With sorrowful condemnation He sees the sin. Fear to sin. Cultivate the disposition to please God. Suppress the inclination to the thing that would wish to elude His eye (H. E. I. 2257–2261).—J. Rawlinson.
PERNICIOUS KNOWLEDGE
(Sunday School Sermon.)
Isa_47:10. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee.
Heavy are the charges laid against the great and guilty city of Babylon. Not only had she dealt unmercifully with God’s people (Isa_47:6), but her profligacy, luxury, pride, effeminacy, and wickedness were excessive (Isa_47:7-8; Isa_47:10). she was withal superstitious and idolatrous in the highest degree (Isa_47:9; Isa_47:12-13). What was the fruitful cause of all these abominations? Was it brutal ignorance, or barbarous uncultivation? No: it was just the reverse. Alas for the philosophers and wise men of this world! all the abominations of Babylon are here traced to human wisdom and science: “Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee.” A proposition which runs counter to many prevalent opinions and prejudices. Let us, then,
I. EXAMINE AND VINDICATE THIS DECLARATION.
1. Of what wisdom and knowledge does Isaiah thus speak? It was human wisdom and science in the highest perfection! The same which opposed Moses in Egypt, Daniel in Babylon, Paul at Athens: secular learning, the cultivation of the intellect, philosophy in its deepest and most subtle forms; for to this Babylon even the sages of Greece came as learners! in a word, it was all that the mind of man could attain without revelation.
2. Against this wisdom and knowledge the Scriptures bring the charge of perverting men’s minds in morals and religion. This is expressly done in this chapter. Ezekiel affirms the same of the great mercantile city of Tyre (Eze_28:3-6). St. Paul came more into contact with this worldly wisdom than any of the Apostles, and he was perhaps more capable of appreciating its true character; and he uniformly condemns it (1Co_1:21-27; 1Co_3:18-20; Rom_1:22-23).
3. That this testimony is not overcharged, all history proclaims. Superstitions, vices, and infidelity have prevailed in those countries where, and exactly at those times when, carnal wisdom has been most highly cultivated. Egypt was the birthplace and cradle of science; and in no country was idolatry more degrading. The scriptural account of the state of Babylon, where science was nurtured and developed, is corroborated by profane history. Its abominable vices could not be here detailed. The greatest sages of Greece are all chargeable with either practising or inculcating the grossest vices. The moral atrocities of the French Revolution, when Reason was deified in the person of an infamous woman, prove that time cannot alter the deteriorating tendency of unassisted human intellect.
4. All this is accounted for by the Scripture account of the fall of man. If that account is correct, no other results can follow (Job_14:4). Equally with his other powers, the intellect of man was impaired by the fall of Adam, and became the ally of his polluted heart. The first example of its exercise was an instance of false reasoning against God Himself (Gen_3:12). See also Gen_6:5; Gen_8:21; Eph_4:18. Hence it follows that intellectual blindness is upon the heart of man; all his rational faculties are incapable of just conclusions on any religious subject, except they be assisted by a supernatural power.
5. Hence it inevitably follows that the cultivation of the intellectual parts of man can of itself have no tendency towards moral or spiritual good. If all the mental powers of man be in themselves depraved, the increase of his intelligence can only increase his faculty of evil; so that secular education, apart from religious and moral control, must be in itself a curse and not a blessing. It may create a generation of philosophic sceptics and apologists for vice, or even praters about virtue; but a moral and religious people it never has produced, and never can. Let us therefore consider—
II. THE REMEDY WHICH GOD HATH PROVIDED AGAINST ALL THESE INTELLECTUAL EVILS.
Because we declare the moral powerlessness of merely human knowledge, our enemies affirm that we are the patrons of ignorance and bigotry, wish the mind to stagnate, and desire to repress scientific inquiries. Groundless charges. We fear not the progress of philosophy, if she be guided by religion; nor the wisdom of man, if it be in subordination to the wisdom of God. This is the remedy of the intellectual and moral evils of our time.
1. The supreme need of this generation is instruction in the wisdom and knowledge which are of God, above those which are of men (see vol. i. pp. 373–378).
2. This wisdom and knowledge must be imparted to mankind by those means which God has appointed. The Bible. The preaching of the Gospel. The instruction of children in Divine truth (H. E. I. 793, 794, 803–806, 1751, 1771).
CONCLUDING REMARKS.—
1. Let us beware of the pride of mental cultivation.
2. Let all our knowledge, and all our mental powers, be consecrated to the service of God.
3. Let the poor and simple rejoice that moral and spiritual excellence are attainable by them.—F. Close, A. M.: Fifty-Two Sketches of Sermons, pp. 177–183.
THE SECURITY OF PROUD SINNERS
Isa_47:10-11. For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness, &c.
In the Babylonians we have types of proud sinners in every age—both in regard to their fancied security and the end of it.
I. THEIR FANCIED SECURITY. “I shall be a lady for ever. I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children” (Isa_47:7-8). The calamities that might come upon other men would not touch them! They were vainly confident of the perpetuity of their pomps and pleasures. Observe—
1. The cause of their fancied security. They thought themselves safe and out of danger, not because they were ignorant of the uncertainty of all earthly enjoyments, and the inevitable fate that attends states and kingdoms as well as particular persons, but because they did not lay this to heart (Isa_47:7), did not apply it to themselves, nor give it a due consideration. They lulled themselves asleep in ease and pleasure (chap. Isa_56:12). They did not remember the latter end (Isa_47:7) of their prosperity, that it is a fading flower, and will wither; of their iniquity, that it will be bitterness; and that the day will come when their injustice and oppression must be reckoned for and punished. To-day ungodly men are easy in their sinful ways, because they never think of death, and judgment, and their future state.
2. The ground of their fancied security.
(1.) Their power and wealth, which they had gotten by fraud and oppression, were their confidence (Isa_47:10). Like Doeg (Psa_52:7). Many have so debauched their own consciences, and are got to such a daring pitch of wickedness, that they stick at nothing; and this they trust to, to carry them through those difficulties which embarrass men who make conscience of what they say and do.
(2.) Their policy and craft, which they called their wisdom, were their confidence. They thought they could out-wit all mankind, and therefore might set their enemies at defiance; but their wisdom and knowledge perverted them—made them forget themselves and the preparation necessary to be made for hereafter.
3. The foolish boastings into which their fancied security betrayed them.
(1.) “I shall be a lady for ever” (Isa_47:7). Babylon looked upon the patent of her honour to be not merely during the pleasure of the sovereign Lord, the fountain of honour, or during her own good behaviour, but to be perpetual (cf. Rev_18:7). Those great ones mistake themselves who think they shall be exalted for ever; death will shortly lay them and their honour in the dust. Saints shall be saints for ever, but those who are merely this world’s great ones will be what they are only for a little while (H. E. I. 1537).
(2.) “I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children” (Isa_47:8), i.e., she would never lack a monarch to espouse and protect her, nor would there be any diminution in the numbers of her people. Those that are in the height of prosperity are apt to fancy themselves out of the reach of adverse fate (Psa_10:4-6).
(3.) “None seeth me” (Isa_47:10), i.e., “No one sees me when I do amiss, and therefore there will be none to call me to an account.” It is common for sinners to trust to their wicked arts and designs to stand them in stead, because they think they have carried them on so plausibly that none can discern the wickedness and deceit of them. How foolish are they in their wickedness! (Psa_139:11-12.)
II. ITS END. It will be ruin (Isa_47:11)
1. It will be a complete ruin—the ruin of all their comforts and confidences. “These two things shall come upon thee (the very two things thou didst set at defiance), loss of children and widowhood. Both thy princes and thy people shall be cut off, so that thou shalt be no more a government, no more a nation.” Note, God often brings upon secure sinners those very mischiefs which they thought themselves least in danger of; “they shall come upon thee in their perfection, with all their aggravating circumstances, and without anything to allay or mitigate them.” What a contrast between the afflictions of the godly and of the godless!
2. It will be a sudden and surprising ruin. The evil shall come in one day, nay in a moment (Isa_47:9), which will make it much the more terrible, especially to those who were so very secure. “Evil shall come upon thee, and thou shalt have neither time nor way to provide against it, or to prepare for it; for ‘thou shalt not know from whence it rises,’ and therefore shalt not know where to stand upon thy guard.” “Thou shalt not know the morning thereof;” so the Hebrew phrase is. We know just when and where the day will break and the sun rise, but we know not what the day, when it is come, will bring forth, nor when or where trouble will arise; perhaps the storm may come from that point of the compass which we little thought of. Babylon pretended to great wisdom and knowledge (Isa_47:10), but with all her wisdom cannot foresee, nor with all her wisdom prevent, the ruin threatened (Isa_47:11). Fair warning of this desolation was indeed given them by the prophets of the Lord; but they slighted that notice, and therefore justly is it so ordered that they should have no other notice of it, but that, partly through their own security, and partly through the swiftness and subtility of the enemy, when it came it should be a perfect surprise to them. Those that slight the warnings of the written Word, let them not expect any other premonition.
3. It will be an irresistible ruin (Isa_47:11). There is no opposing the judgments of God when they come with commission. Babylon herself, with all her wealth, power, and multitude, is not able to put off the mischief that comes.—Matthew Henry: Commentary, in loco.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v10 (See Scofield "Psa 2:12")
trusted
(See Scofield "Psa 2:12")
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv10, 12 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 say in your heart
Here the word "heart" refers to the inner person. AT: "you say to yourself" (See: Metonymy)
Disaster will overcome you
Yahweh speaks of disaster as if it were a person who captures Babylon. AT: "You will experience disaster" (See: Metaphor)
Destruction will fall on you
Yahweh speaks Babylon being destroyed as if destruction were an object that falls upon the city. AT: "You will experience destruction" or "Others will destroy you" (See: Metaphor)
Calamity will strike you
Yahweh speaks of Babylon experiencing calamity as if calamity were a person who strikes Babylon. AT: "You will experience calamity" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
trust
evil
wise
know
astray
heart
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 On vv9, 10, 12, 13 47:9 Witchcraft and magic were commonly used in an…
47:9 Witchcraft and magic were commonly used in an attempt to ward off evil and to secure a happy future.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.