Isaiah 47 · a question people ask
The chapter speaks to a woman. Who is she?
She is named by a place and a people: "virgin daughter of Babylon" and "daughter of the Chaldeans" (47:1), and again "daughter of the Chaldeans" (47:5). The chapter speaks to her as one woman: "tender and delicate" (47:1), "the mistress of kingdoms" (47:5), one who says, "I won’t sit as a widow, neither will I know the loss of children" (47:8). Isaiah speaks of other places in the same way: "The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you" (Isaiah 37:22), and "you oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon" (Isaiah 23:12). In Hebrew virgin daughter is the same two words, betulat bat, in all three. The chapter doesn't say whether it means the city, its people or its kingdom. These notes apply its words about a woman to no woman, and its words about Babylon to no people, city, nation or power today.
The verses
““Come down and sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne, daughter of the Chaldeans. For you will no longer be called tender and delicate.”
““Sit in silence, and go into darkness, daughter of the Chaldeans. For you shall no longer be called the mistress of kingdoms.”
““Now therefore hear this, you who are given to pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me. I won’t sit as a widow, neither will I know the loss of children.’”
“this is the word which the LORD has spoken concerning him: The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and ridiculed you. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you.”