your heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me; I shall not
sit as a widow or know the loss of children”: 9 These two
things shall come to you in a moment, in one day; the loss of
children and widowhood shall come upon you in full measure,
in spite of your many sorceries and the great power of your
enchantments. 10 You felt secure in your wickedness; you said,
“No one sees me”; your wisdom and your knowledge led you
astray, and you said in your heart, “I am, and there is no one
besides me.” 11 But evil shall come upon you, which you will
not know how to charm away; disaster shall fall upon you, for
which you will not be able to atone; and ruin shall come upon
you suddenly, of which you know nothing. (Isaiah 47)
Isaiah predicted that two things would happen to Babylon. First, she would
lose her children and become a widow (verse 9), and second, ruin would
come suddenly upon her (verse 11).
Isaiah describes Babylon here as a “lover of pleasure” (verse 8). She felt
she could indulge in the sinful pleasures of this world, and no one would
see her (verse 10). She could not hide her evil from the God of Israel. The
day would come when disaster would fall upon her. On that day, she would
not be able to charm her way out of her punishment, nor would she be able
to pay for a more lenient sentence (verse 11), for the God of Israel was not
tempted by these things and would judge her according to her ways.
Babylon ravaged God’s people. She had stripped them of their wealth. She
forced them into exile to work for her and entertain her in her pursuit of
wealth, power, and pleasure. Isaiah’s reminds Israel of the blessing she had
lost to this greedy and pleasure-loving nation:
17 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the
LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you
should go. 18 Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments!
Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like
the waves of the sea; 19 your offspring would have been like the sand, and
your descendants like its grains; their name would never be cut off or
destroyed from before me.” 20 Go out from Babylon, flee from Chaldea,