‘Go down, sit in the dust,
    Virgin Daughter Babylon;
sit on the ground without a throne,
    queen city of the Babylonians.
No more will you be called
    tender or delicate.
2 Take millstones and grind flour;
    take off your veil.
Lift up your skirts, bare your legs,
    and wade through the streams.
3 Your nakedness will be exposed
    and your shame uncovered.
I will take vengeance;
    I will spare no one.’

4 Our Redeemer – the Lord Almighty is his name –
    is the Holy One of Israel.

5 ‘Sit in silence, go into darkness,
    queen city of the Babylonians;
no more will you be called
    queen of kingdoms.
6 I was angry with my people
    and desecrated my inheritance;
I gave them into your hand,
    and you showed them no mercy.
Even on the aged
    you laid a very heavy yoke.
7 You said, “I am for ever –
    the eternal queen!”
But you did not consider these things
    or reflect on what might happen.

The world’s greatest powers and super-powers (Babylon was one such in the ancient world) have a limited shelf-life. No political leaders rule the world, even if they think they do. God is on the throne. Babylon thought of herself as a ”queen” but she was to become like a skivvy. This comes out clearly in ‘The Message’:

1-3 “Get off your high horse and sit in the dirt,
    virgin daughter of Babylon.
No more throne for you—sit on the ground,
    daughter of the Chaldeans.
Nobody will be calling you ‘charming’
    and ‘alluring’ anymore. Get used to it.
Get a job, any old job:
    Clean gutters, scrub toilets.
Pawn your gowns and scarves,
    put on your working pants—the party’s over.
Your nude body will be on public display,
    exposed to vulgar taunts.
It’s vengeance time, and I’m taking vengeance.
    No one gets let off the hook.”

 Our Redeemer speaks,
    named God-of-the-Angel-Armies, The Holy of Israel:
“Shut up and get out of the way,
    daughter of Chaldeans.
You’ll no longer be called
    ‘First Lady of the Kingdoms.’
I was fed up with my people,
    thoroughly disgusted with my progeny.
I turned them over to you,
    but you had no compassion.
You put old men and women
    to cruel, hard labour.
You said, ‘I’m the First Lady.
    I’ll always be the pampered darling.’
You took nothing seriously, took nothing to heart,
    never gave tomorrow a thought.

Although God used the Babylonians to punish His own sinful people, they were harsh, callous and cruel in their treatment of them. ”The Holy One of Israel” saw what they did and held them accountable.

But in their sin they were deluded and complacent. They thought they were untouchable. However they were like the foolish man who built his house on sand (Mt.7:26,27) and the rich farmer who thought he had it made (Luke 12;20). As Barry Webb puts it, the sense of ‘impregnability’ was a ‘complete illusion’.

‘The portrait of Babylon in chapter 47 is a classic study in worldly power and arrogance…She has an utterly false sense of security, which leads her into self-indulgence and complete indifference to the needs of the weak and vulnerable in her midst…She considers herself so self-sufficient that all notions of accountability are excluded’ (Isaiah: p.189).

‘She is the complete symbol of worldly success. But the message of this chapter is that she stands under the judgment of God, and is about to suffer a complete change of fortune’ (Isaiah: p.190).