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Isaiah 47 · a question people ask

Who is speaking to the daughter of Babylon?

In the text

The words spoken to her don't name their speaker. The WEB puts 47:1-3 in quotation marks, and again from 47:5 to the chapter's end. The one who speaks says, "I will take vengeance, and will spare no one" (47:3), and "I was angry with my people. I profaned my inheritance and gave them into your hand" (47:6). One line stands outside the quotation marks, and it is spoken by a we: "Our Redeemer, the LORD of Armies is his name, is the Holy One of Israel" (47:4) (tap Redeemer). It is the only verse of the chapter with the divine name. The chapter doesn't say who the we are, and these notes don't either. In Isaiah the WEB has our Redeemer twice, here and in "Our Redeemer from everlasting is your name" (Isaiah 63:16).

The verses

“For you are our Father, though Abraham doesn’t know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us. You, LORD, are our Father. Our Redeemer from everlasting is your name.”
Isaiah 63:16 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Isaiah 47

Isaiah 47: Come down and sit in the dust

The one who says "I won’t sit as a widow" (47:8) is told first to sit in the dust (47:1): sit comes six times. Her "I am, and there is no one else besides me" (47:8) has three Hebrew words that are all in the LORD's own "there is no one besides me. I am the LORD, and there is no one else" (Isaiah 45:6). And the chapter ends, "There will be no one to save you" (47:15).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions