Isaiah 47:2 Made Simple

KJV ORIGINAL

Take the millstones, and grind meal: uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers.

Close to the original. Clear modern English.

✦ MADE SIMPLE

Take the millstones and grind grain into flour. Remove your veil and let down your hair, lift up your skirts to wade through the rivers.

⚡ THE BOTTOM LINE

God is telling Babylon that she will be stripped of her royal dignity and forced to do the hard work of a common servant.

📚 Historical Context

In the book of Isaiah, chapter 47, the prophet is delivering God's judgment against the Babylonian empire for its pride, oppression, and mistreatment of Israel, foretelling its humiliating downfall. This verse uses vivid imagery of a once-powerful nation being reduced to the status of a slave woman, forced to perform menial tasks like grinding grain and uncovering her body, which symbolized shame and degradation in ancient Near Eastern culture. Historically, this prophecy was fulfilled when Babylon was conquered by the Persians in 539 BC, marking the end of its dominance.

Explore Similar Verses

Isaiah 27:9

This is how Jacob's wrongdoing will be cleansed, and this is the complete result of removing his sin: when he crushes all the altar stones like chalk that's been smashed to pieces, the sacred groves and idols will no longer remain standing.

Jeremiah 25:10

I will take away from them the sounds of joy and celebration, the happy voices of couples getting married, the sound of grain being ground into flour, and even the light from their lamps.

Deuteronomy 24:6

No one should take a person's millstone (either the upper or lower grinding stone) as collateral for a loan, because that would be taking away their means of survival.

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