Berean Standard Bible
Isaiah 47:2
2Take millstones and grind flour; remove your veil; strip off your skirt, bare your thigh, and wade through the streams.
Isaiah 47:2 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Take the millstones, and grind meal: uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers.
- New International Version (NIV)Take millstones and grind flour; take off your veil. Lift up your skirts, bare your legs, and wade through the streams.
- English Standard Version (ESV)Take the millstones and grind flour, put off your veil, strip off your robe, uncover your legs, pass through the rivers.
- New King James Version (NKJV)Take the millstones and grind meal. Remove your veil, Take off the skirt, Uncover the thigh, Pass through the rivers.
Context of Isaiah 47:2
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. Take millstones and grind flour; remove your veil; strip off your skirt, bare your thigh, and wade through the streams. 3Your nakedness will be uncovered and your shame will be exposed. I will take vengeance; I will spare no one.” 4Our Redeemer—the LORD of Hosts is His name— is the Holy One of Israel.
Read all of Isaiah 47Isaiah 47:2 word by word
קְחִ֥י רֵחַ֖יִם וְטַ֣חֲנִי קָ֑מַח גַּלִּ֨י צַמָּתֵ֧ךְ חֶשְׂפִּי־שֹׁ֛בֶל גַּלִּי־שׁ֖וֹק עִבְרִ֥י נְהָרֽוֹת׃Read the interlinear
- Takeלָקַחlâqach · to take: takeH3947
- millstonesרֵחֶהrêcheh · millstoneH7347
- and grindטָחַןţâchan · to grindH2912
- flourקֶ֫מַחqemach · flourH7058
- removeגָּלָהgâlâh · to reveal: uncoverH1540
- your veilצַמָּהtsammâh · veilH6777
- strip offחָשַׂףchâώaph · to stripH2834
- your skirtשֹׁ֫בֶלshôbel · skirtH7640
- your thighשׁוֹקshôq · legH7785
- wade throughעָבַר‛âbar · to passH5674
- the streamsנָהָרnâhâr · riverH5104
Cross-references for Isaiah 47:2
- Exodus 11:5and every firstborn son in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, to the firstborn of the servant girl behind the hand mill, as well as the firstborn of all the cattle.
- Judges 16:21Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, where he was bound with bronze shackles and forced to grind grain in the prison.
- Job 31:10then may my own wife grind grain for another, and may other men sleep with her.
- Jeremiah 27:7All nations will serve him and his son and grandson, until the time of his own land comes; then many nations and great kings will enslave him.
- Lamentations 5:13Young men toil at millstones; boys stagger under loads of wood.
- Matthew 24:41Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left.
- Luke 17:35Two women will be grinding grain together: one will be taken and the other left.”
- Isaiah 3:17the Lord will bring sores on the heads of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will make their foreheads bare.”
- Isaiah 20:4so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, young and old alike, naked and barefoot, with bared buttocks—to Egypt’s shame.
- Jeremiah 13:22And if you ask yourself, “Why has this happened to me?” It is because of the magnitude of your iniquity that your skirts have been stripped off and your body has been exposed.
- Ezekiel 16:37therefore I will surely gather all the lovers with whom you found pleasure, all those you loved and all those you hated. I will gather them against you from all around and expose you before them, and they will see you completely naked.
- Hosea 2:3Otherwise, I will strip her naked and expose her like the day of her birth. I will make her like a desert and turn her into a parched land, and I will let her die of thirst.
- Micah 1:11Depart in shameful nakedness, O dwellers of Shaphir. The dwellers of Zaanan will not come out. Beth-ezel is in mourning; its support is taken from you.
- Nahum 3:5“Behold, I am against you,” declares the LORD of Hosts. “I will lift your skirts over your face. I will show your nakedness to the nations and your shame to the kingdoms.
Commentaries on Isaiah 47:2
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 2Take the millstones, and grind meal "Take the mill, and grind corn" - It was the work of slaves to grind the corn. They used hand-mills: water-mills were not invented till a little before the time of Augustus, (see the Greek epigram of Antipater, which seems to celebrate it as a new invention, Anthol. Cephalae, 653); wind-mills, not until long after. It was not only the work of slaves, but the hardest work; and often inflicted upon them as a severe…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 2Take the millstones, and grind meal - The design of this is plain. Babylon, that had been regarded as a delicately-trained female, was to be reduced to the lowest condition of poverty and wretchedness - represented here by being compelled to perform the most menial and laborious offices, and submitting to the deepest disgrace and ignominy. There is an allusion here to the custom of grinding in the East. The mills which were there commonly used, and which…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 1-4In this taunt against Babylon, the nation is described as a proud queen. But she is brought low and humiliated. Instead of ruling, she is forced to work like a servant girl.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 22. millstones--like the querns or hand-mills, found in this country, before the invention of water mills and windmills: a convex stone, made by the hand to turn in a concave stone, fitted to receive it, the corn being ground between them: the office of a female slave in the East; most degrading (Job 31:10; Mt 24:41). uncover thy locks--rather, "take off thy veil" [Horsley]: perhaps the removal of the plaited hair worn round the women's temples is…Read the comment
Topics related to Isaiah 47:2
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Isaiah 47
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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