Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 47:15
Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast labored, [even] thy merchants, from thy youth: they shall wander every one to his quarter; none shall save thee.
15. with whom thou hast laboured ] See on Isa 47:12.
thy merchants ] Cf. Nah 3:16 f., and see on ch. Isa 13:14. The abrupt introduction of merchants here is somewhat perplexing, especially after the adverb “so”; but the word never means anything else in Hebrew; and the context requires that some new persons should be understood, since the astrologers have perished in the fire, while these make their escape. It may however be used in a wide sense, of nations that trafficked with Babylon.
every one to his quarter ] Rather: each straight before him; cf. Eze 1:9 (the cherubim went “everyone straight forward.”).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
With whom thou hast labored – The multitude of diviners, astrologers, and merchants, with whom thou hast been connected and employed. The idea is, that Babylon had been the mart where all of them had been assembled.
Even thy merchants from thy youth – Babylon was favorably situated for traffic; and was distinguished for it. Foreigners and strangers had resorted there, and it was filled with those who had come there for purposes of trade. The sense here is, that the same destruction which would come upon the diviners, would come on all who had been engaged there in traffic and merchandise. It does not mean that the individuals who were thus engaged would be destroyed, but that destruction would come upon the business; it would come in spite of all the efforts of the astrologers, and in spite of all the mercantile advantages of the place. The destruction would be as entire as if a fire should pass over stubble, and leave not a coal or a spark. What a striking description of the total ruin of the commercial advantages of Babylon!
From thy youth – From the very foundation of the city.
They shall wander every one to his own quarter – All shall leave Babylon, and it shall be utterly forsaken as a place of commerce, and all who have been engaged in mercantile transactions there shall go to other places. The phrase, his own quarter ( leebero), means, to his own way; they shall be driven from Babylon, and wander to other places. They shall flee from the danger; and if they practice their arts, or engage in commerce, it shall be done in other places besides Babylon.
None shall save thee – How truly this was fulfilled need not here be stated. All its arts of astrology, its wealth, its mercantile advantages, the strength of its walls and gates, were insufficient to save it, and now it lies a wide waste – a scene of vast and doleful ruin (see the notes at Isa. 13; 14) So certainly will all the predictions of God be accomplished; so vain are the arts and devices of man, the strength of fortifications, and the advantages for commerce, when God purposes to inflict his vengeance on a guilty nation. The skill of astrology, the advantages of science, accumulated treasures, brass gates and massive walls, and commercial advantages, the influx of foreigners, and a fertile soil, cannot save it. All these things are in the hands of God; and he can withdraw them when he pleases. Babylon once had advantages for commerce equal to most of the celebrated marts now of Europe and America. So had Palmyra, and Tyre, and Baalbec, and Petra, and Alexandria, and Antioch. Babylon was in the midst of a country as fertile by nature as most parts of the United States. She had as little prospect of losing the commerce of the world, and of ceasing to be a place of wealth and power, as Paris, or London, or Liverpool, or New York. Yet how easy was it for God, in the accomplishment of his plans, to turn away the tide of her prosperity, and reduce her to ruins.
How easy, in the arrangements of his providence, to spread desolation over all the once fertile plains of Chaldea, and to make those plains pools of water. And so with equal ease, if he pleases, and by causes as little known as were those which destroyed Babylon, can he take away the commercial advantages of any city now on earth. Tyre has lost all its commercial importance; the richly-laden caravan has ceascd to pause at Petra; Tadmor lies waste. Baalbec is known only by the far-strewed ruins, and Nineveh and Babylon are stripped of all. that ever made them great, and can rise no more. God has taken away the importance and the power of Rome, once, like Babylon, the mistress of the world, by suffering the malaria to desolate all the region in her vicinity; and so with equal truth, all that contributes to the commercial importance of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, London, or Paris, are under the control of God. By some secret causes he could make these cities a wide scene of ruins; and they may be, if they are like Babylon and Tyre and Tadmor in their character, yet like them in their doom. They should feel that the sources of their prosperity and their preservation are not in themselves, but in the favor and protection of God. Virtue, justice, and piety, will better preserve them than wealth; and without these they must be, in spite of their commercial advantages, what the once celebrated cities of antiquity now are.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 15. To his quarter – “To his own business”] leebro. Expositors give no very good account of this word in this place. In a MS. it was at first leabdo, to his servant or work, which is probably the true reading. The sense however is pretty much the same with the common interpretation: “Every one shall turn aside to his own business; none shall deliver thee.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Thus, such comfortless and helpless creatures, shall they be; either,
1. Thy merchants, as it follows, with whom thou hast trafficked. Or,
2. Thy sorcerers, astrologers, &c., with whom they are said to have laboured, both here and Isa 47:12, who also may possibly be called their merchants, because they traded so much with them, and because of their deceitful practices; for which Ephraim is called a merchant, Hos 12:7. And so the following clause may be rendered, who have been
thy merchants from thy youth. Or the last clause may be understood of merchants, properly so called, who came from several countries to trade with Babylon, as is noted in Scripture, and by other authors; and the verse may be thus rendered; Thus (vain and unprofitable) shall they (thy sorcerers, &c.) with whom thou hast laboured be unto thee: (so here is only a transposition of words, than which nothing is more usual in Scripture. Then follows another matter in the next clause:) also
thy merchants, or they with whom thou hast traded from thy youth, shall wander every one to his own quarter. None shall save thee; they shall all leave thee, and flee away with all possible speed to their several countries and habitations.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15. Thus, c.Such shall be thefate of those astrologers who cost thee such an amount of trouble andmoney.
thy merchants, from thyyouththat is, with whom thou hast trafficked from thy earliesthistory, the foreigners sojourning in Babylon for the sake ofcommerce (Isa 13:14 Jer 51:6;Jer 51:9; Nah 3:16;Nah 3:17) [BARNES].Rather, the astrologers, with whom Babylon had so manydealings (Isa 47:12-14)[HORSLEY].
to his quarterliterally,”straight before him” (Eze 1:9;Eze 1:12). The foreigners,whether soothsayers or merchants, shall flee home out of Babylon (Jer50:16).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast laboured,…. In training them up in those arts, and in consulting with them in cases of difficulty; in which they were of no service, and now in time of danger as useless as stubble, or a blaze of straw:
even thy merchants from thy youth; either the above astrologers and diviners, who had been with them from the beginning of their state; and who had made merchandise of them, and were become rich as merchants by telling fortunes, and predicting things to come by the stars; which sense our version leads to by supplying the word “even”; or rather merchants in a literal sense, which Babylon abounded with from the first building of it; it being the metropolis of the empire, and the mart of nations: these, upon the destruction of the city,
shall wander everyone to his quarter, or “passage” y; to the country from whence they came, and to the passage in that part of the city which led unto it; or to the passage over the river Euphrates, which ran through the city; or to the next port, from whence they might have a passage by shipping to their own land: it denotes the fright and fugitive state in which merchants, from other countries, should be in, when this calamity should come upon Babylon; that they should leave their effects, flee for their lives, and wander about till they got a passage over to their native place, and be of no service to the Chaldeans, as follows:
none shall save thee: neither astrologers nor merchants; so the merchants of mystical Babylon will get without the city, and stand afar off, and lament her sad case, but will not be able to help her,
Re 18:15.
y “ad vel in transitum suum”, Tigurine version.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
15. So shal they be to thee. After having threatened destruction to those astronomers, he again retums to the Babylonians, and threatens that they must not look for assistance from that quarter from which they expected it, and that they ought not to rely on those vain counsels, with which they had long and eagerly vexed themselves in vain.
He calls them dealers, or, as we commonly say, traffickers; a metaphor taken from merchants, who are skilled in innumerable arts of deceiving, and in impostures of every kind; for the princes do not consult in a manner suitable to their rank, but traffic in disgraceful transactions. (232) Though we may extend this to all the allies by whom the Babylonians were aided, yet the Prophet has his eye chiefly on the diviners. When he adds, from thy youth, he aggravates the guilt of Babylon, in having been infected with this foolish belief from an ancient date, and in having held this error as if it had been born with her.
Every one to his own quarter. (233) It is supposed that the Prophet here speaks of the flight of the astrologers, that every one shall provide for his own safety; and I fully agree with this, but think that, there is also an allusion to the “quarters” of the heavens, which astrologers divide and measure, so as to deduce their prognostications from them. He therefore ridicules their vain boasting. “They shall withdraw into their quarters, but they shall go astray, and there shall be no means of protection. If any one choose to apply it to the revolt of those whose assistance Babylon thought that at any time she could easily obtain, I have no objection.
(232) “It becomes a question whether these are called traders in the literal and ordinary sense, or at least in that of national allies and negotiators; or whether the epithet is given in contempt to the astrologers and wise men of the foregoing context, as trafficking or dealing in imposture. J. D. Michaelis supposes them to be described as travelling dealers, that is, pedlars and hawkers, who removed from place to place, lest their frauds should be discovered. He even compares them with the gipsy fortune-tellers of our own day, but admits that the astrologers of Babylonia held a very different position in society.” — Alexander.
(233) “That is, wherever each person can depart, they disperse and wander, so that every person pursues his own road, for rescuing himself from danger, by fleeing to the farthest boundaries of the kingdom of Babylon. — Rosenmuller.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(15) Thy merchants, from thy youth . . .The commerce of Babylon is specially prominent in all descriptions. (Comp. Herod. i. 194-196; Eze. 17:4.) The time was coming when those who had thronged her markets would desert her and leave her to her desolation.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15. None shall save thee Babylon was well situated for traffic with the north, northwest, east, and south. But all her diviners, her arts of astrology, her science, her foreigners and commerce and fertile soil, her massive walls and brazen gates not all these combined can save her. Her cup is full, and Nemesis awaits her destruction. She never recovered her ancient greatness.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“Thus will be the things to you in which you have laboured.
Those who have traded with you from your youth,
Will wander every one to his quarter.
There will be none to save you.”
The things in which they have laboured, all their magic and sorcery, will have been burned up along with the practitioners. Those who have traded with them even from youth will wander off back to their own trading centre. So they will have no religious guides, and no trading partners. They will have no one to look to for deliverance.
Their trading partners might have been potential allies. But God will make them lose interest in the partnership so that they do nothing, simply ignoring Babylon’s need. Such is what happens to those who think and behave like Babylon. Babylon will be deserted by all. Babylon is doomed.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Isa 47:15. Thus shall they be unto thee, &c. Thus shall they serve thee, upon whom thou hast spent thy pains; thy negociators, with whom thou hast dealt from thy youth. See Bishop Lowth’s translation. See also Isa 47:12. They shall wander every one to his quarter, means, “They shall wander, by whatever ways they can, to the extreme boundaries of thy empire, to save themselves from the general calamity.”
REFLECTIONS.1st, Babylon had long sat as a queen, and seen her captives prostrate at her feet, a virgin kingdom, whom no conqueror had yet subdued; but now her doom is read: into the dust she must fall low; no more her monarchs grace the throne, seized by the Persian king; no more rioting in luxury and delicacies, her miserable inhabitants are reduced to the lowest drudgery, to grind at the mill, or driven in herds as captives before their lordly masters, stripped naked without compassion or humanity; for the vengeance is from God; and he, as Israel’s Redeemer, now returns the cruelty they had shown his people. The noise which once resounded in the streets of Babylon is silenced: and in darkness, whither they retired, or in their prison-houses, in vain they lamented the loss of their kingdom, which should be no more restored: Note; (1.) They who abuse their power, and walk in pride, God delights to abase. (2.) It is well to be inured to hardship; those who are most delicately brought up, will feel every reverse of station with deeper anguish. (3.) When God visits in vengeance, the sinner may expect judgment without mercy.
2nd, All God’s dealings are according to the strictest equity; if Babylon suffer, her sins have given abundant provocation. We have,
1. The black catalogue of her crimes.
[1.] Cruelty to God’s people, God was wroth with his people, and meant to visit their iniquities with the scourge, and therefore gave them into the hands of the Chaldeans; but they unmercifully chastised them with scorpions, paying no regard to age or station; but on the ancients, whose hoary locks, or honours, should have pleaded for compassion, making their yoke heavy. Note; They who cruelly oppress God’s people, however they may triumph for a moment, will find a day of awful reckoning at hand.
[2.] Pride and security. Because her monarchy seemed established, she promised herself that her throne should be coeval with the days of time; and neither regarding her sins nor warned by the threatnings denounced against her, sat secure in her own sufficiency, and despised her enemies. Note; They who are most self-confident and secure, are nearest the precipice of ruin.
[3.] Love of ease and pleasure: Given up to the indulgence of sensual appetite, and confident that every day should return fraught with mirth and jollity, and no sorrow interrupt the jocund hours.
[4.] Detestable sorceries, and magical arts, in which from their youth they were trained up, and wherein they placed their chief dependance: and all these are sins, which are remarked as found in Babylon mystical, and will be the causes of her destruction, Rev 7:17 to Rev 18:4.
2. The doom of Babylon is read. She trusted in her wisdom, policy, wealth, and wickedness; but deceived herself, as sinners usually do: her boasts can issue only in her confusion. Vain is her confidence; in one day the evils from which she thought herself so secured, shall overtake her, her king and nobles be slain, her people captives. So sudden and terrible the destruction, she could neither foresee nor avert it. Fruitless would be every attempt of her astrologers and diviners; wearied with disappointment, despair should seize her, when all the counsels of her magicians failed, and ruin approached. Her wise men, so far from delivering their country, should be unable to save themselves, utterly consumed by the Divine Judgment, as fuel reduced to dust by the flames. Her merchants, either those astrologers who had enriched themselves by their pretensions to science, or rather those who traded to Babylon, shall flee to secure themselves, every one to his quarter, or passage, glad to desert the devoted city, and eager to save themselves in their own land, from the impending danger. See Rev 18:15. Note; (1.) Sinners are strangely apt to promise themselves secrecy and impunity, and this hardens their hearts against the Divine admonitions. (2.) The dangers, of which the proud and secure were least apprehensive, often suddenly surprise them; and too late, to their astonishment, they discover the ruin which they cannot escape. (3.) The greatest monarch sits on a tottering throne, when wickedness loosens the pillars of it. (4.) Wisdom and wealth are no defence against the judgments of God. (5.) They who are the instruments of deceiving others, shall themselves feel the heaviest strokes of vengeance.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
REFLECTIONS
ONE of the most comprehensive improvements to be made at the close of this chapter, in the view of the very different termination set forth to the people of God, and to his enemies, may be summed up in the words of our Prophet: Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: woe unto the wicked, it shall be ill with him!
Reader! take a short view of both. Behold, in the representation of Babylon, the delicacy, splendour, pomp, and pleasure in which she rioted for a while: but behold, again, in a moment, in one day, what ruin followed! Such, but in an infinitely greater degree, is the state of all the enemies of God and of his Christ. As Jesus told some in his days, so in every age the same are discoverable: Ye are of your father the devil, and the work of your father ye will do. For the wretched wages of carnal honour, how unweariedly do they drudge in his service, wear his livery, speak his language, and promote the interests of his kingdom! And what can the end be but Death? My soul: come not thou into their secret: unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united!
Behold the people of God! How often harassed and oppressed by their foes! And when, by sin and rebellion, their Babylonish enemies bring them into subjection, how heavily do they sometimes groan, being burthened: who shall speak of their inward conflicts with sin and Satan, and an unbelieving heart? Who shall describe their outward fears? In all their pilgrimage state, what exercises do they experience from the many ups and downs through which they pass! Nevertheless, the Lord is still bringing them on, and bringing them through, and will at length make them more than conquerors, through his grace helping them. Reader! be it your portion and mine, to see that we are of this household of faith for then we shall go from strength to strength, amidst all the Babylonian conflicts of our warfare, till we come to appear before our God, our Jesus, in his Zion!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 47:15 Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast laboured, [even] thy merchants, from thy youth: they shall wander every one to his quarter; none shall save thee.
Ver. 15. Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast laboured. ] But all in vain; viz., with thy wizards and diviners, those deceivers of the people, concerning whom Cato once said, Potest Augur Augurem videre et non ridere? a Can those fellows look one on another and not laugh, when they consider how they deceive people, and cheat them of their moneys? Hence they are called merchants also in the next words, as some think, qui non tam coeli rationem quam coelati argenti ducunt. b Such money merchants hath mystical Babylon also not a few. Rev 18:11 Non desunt Antichristo sui Augures et malifici, saith Oecolampadius; Antichrist hath those abroad that trade with him and for him; these shall be “cast alive with him into the burning lake,” Rev 19:20 and though they wander, yet not so wide as to miss hell.
a Cic. De Divinat., lib. ii.
b Cic. orat. iv. in Ver.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
thy merchants. Compare Rev 18:11-19. t
hey shall wander = stagger onward.
one. Hebrew. ‘ish. App-14.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
thy merchants: Isa 56:11, Eze 27:12-25, Rev 18:11-19
they shall: Babylon was replenished from all nations, by a concourse of people, whom Jeremiah – Jer 50:37 calls “the mingled people.” All these, at the approach of Cyrus, sought to escape to their several countries. Jer 51:6-9, Rev 18:15-17
Reciprocal: Gen 8:21 – the imagination Isa 13:14 – they shall Jer 25:12 – that I Jer 51:9 – forsake Eze 17:4 – into Rev 18:3 – the merchants
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
47:15 Thus shall they be to thee with whom thou hast laboured, [even] thy merchants, from thy youth: they shall wander every one to his {n} quarter; none shall save thee.
(n) They will flee everyone to that place, which he thought by his speculations to be most sure: but that will deceive them.