Isaiah 47:5-11

47:5 “Sit silently! Go to a hiding place, ¹ 

O daughter of the Babylonians!

Indeed, ²  you will no longer be called ‘Queen of kingdoms.’

47:6 I was angry at my people;

I defiled my special possession

and handed them over to you.

You showed them no mercy; ³ 

you even placed a very heavy burden on old people. ⁴ 

47:7 You said,

‘I will rule forever as permanent queen!’ ⁵ 

You did not think about these things; ⁶ 

you did not consider how it would turn out. ⁷ 

47:8 So now, listen to this,

O one who lives so lavishly, ⁸ 

who lives securely,

who says to herself, ⁹ 

‘I am unique! No one can compare to me! ¹⁰ 

I will never have to live as a widow;

I will never lose my children.’ ¹¹ 

47:9 Both of these will come upon you

suddenly, in one day!

You will lose your children and be widowed. ¹² 

You will be overwhelmed by these tragedies, ¹³ 

despite ¹⁴  your many incantations

and your numerous amulets. ¹⁵ 

47:10 You were complacent in your evil deeds; ¹⁶ 

you thought, ¹⁷  ‘No one sees me.’

Your self-professed ¹⁸  wisdom and knowledge lead you astray,

when you say, ‘I am unique! No one can compare to me!’ ¹⁹ 

47:11 Disaster will overtake you;

you will not know how to charm it away. ²⁰ 

Destruction will fall on you;

you will not be able to appease it.

Calamity will strike you suddenly,

before you recognize it. ²¹ 

[47:5]  ¹ tn Heb “darkness,” which may indicate a place of hiding where a fugitive would seek shelter and protection.

[47:5]  ² tn Or “For” (NASB, NRSV).

[47:6]  ³ tn Or “compassion.”

[47:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “on the old you made very heavy your yoke.”

[47:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “Forever I [will be] permanent queen”; NIV “the eternal queen”; CEV “queen forever.”

[47:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “you did not set these things upon your heart [or “mind”].”

[47:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “you did not remember its outcome”; NAB “you disregarded their outcome.”

[47:8]  ⁸ tn Or perhaps, “voluptuous one” (NAB); NAB “you sensual one”; NLT “You are a pleasure-crazy kingdom.”

[47:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “the one who says in her heart.”

[47:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “I [am], and besides me there is no other.” See Zeph 2:15.

[47:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “I will not live [as] a widow, and I will not know loss of children.”

[47:9]  ¹² tn Heb “loss of children and widowhood.” In the Hebrew text the phrase is in apposition to “both of these” in line 1.

[47:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “according to their fullness, they will come upon you.”

[47:9]  ¹⁴ tn For other examples of the preposition bet (בְּ) having the sense of “although, despite,” see BDB 90 s.v. III.7.

[47:9]  ¹⁵ sn Reference is made to incantations and amulets, both of which were important in Mesopotamian religion. They were used to ward off danger and demons.

[47:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “you trusted in your evil”; KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “wickedness.”

[47:10]  ¹⁷ tn Or “said”; NAB “said to yourself”’ NASB “said in your heart.”

[47:10]  ¹⁸ tn The words “self-professed” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[47:10]  ¹⁹ tn See the note at v. 8.

[47:11]  ²⁰ tc The Hebrew text has שַׁחְרָהּ (shakhrah), which is either a suffixed noun (“its dawning,” i.e., origin) or infinitive (“to look early for it”). Some have suggested an emendation to שַׁחֲדָהּ (shakhadah), a suffixed infinitive from שָׁחַד (shakhad, “[how] to buy it off”; see BDB 1005 s.v. שָׁחַד). This forms a nice parallel with the following couplet. The above translation is based on a different etymology of the verb in question. HALOT 1466 s.v. III שׁחר references a verbal root with these letters (שׁחד) that refers to magical activity.

[47:11]  ²¹ tn Heb “you will not know”; NIV “you cannot foresee.”