Bible Strands
Isaiah 47:1
“Go down and sit in the dust, O Virgin Daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne, O Daughter of the Chaldeans! For you will no longer be called tender or delicate.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The oracle addresses the personified "Virgin Daughter of Babylon" and "Daughter of the Chaldeans" as a declaration of imminent political collapse. It marks the moment when a ruling power loses its sovereign dignity and is reduced to a defeated captive.
The words — רְדִי (re.Di) = go down and עָפָר ('a.Far) = [the] dust denote the forced descent from royal elevation to a state of utter degradation. The text places these commands sequentially to emphasize the complete stripping of status.
The thread — The personification "Daughter of Babylon" reappears in Psalms 137:8 and Jeremiah 51:33 as a target of divine retribution. The title "Virgin Daughter" is also applied to Egypt in Jeremiah 46:11 to signal futile resistance against judgment.
Why it lands — The text demands acknowledgment that national pride and perceived invincibility are temporary. It asks the reader to recognize that political power is subject to reversal and that loss of status is the inevitable outcome of overreach.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate.
Cross-references
- Psalms 137:8 O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, blessed is he who repays you as you have done to us.
- Jeremiah 51:33 For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “The Daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is trampled. In just a little while her harvest time will come.”
- Jeremiah 46:11 Go up to Gilead for balm, O Virgin Daughter of Egypt! In vain you try many remedies, but for you there is no healing.
- Jeremiah 50:42 They grasp the bow and spear; they are cruel and merciless. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride upon horses, lined up like men in formation against you, O Daughter of Babylon.
- Zechariah 2:7 “Get up, O Zion! Escape, you who dwell with the Daughter of Babylon!”
- Isaiah 3:26 And the gates of Zion will lament and mourn; destitute, she will sit on the ground.
- Psalms 18:27 For You save an afflicted people, but You humble those with haughty eyes.
- Isaiah 14:13 You said in your heart: “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of assembly, in the far reaches of the north.
- Isaiah 37:22 this is the word that the LORD has spoken against him: ‘The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises you and mocks you; the Daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head behind you.
- Jeremiah 48:18 Come down from your glory; sit on parched ground, O daughter dwelling in Dibon, for the destroyer of Moab has come against you; he has destroyed your fortresses.