Introduction
This study of the 47th chapter of Isaiah is complimentary to my article, A Combined Interpretive Scenario of Revelation 17 & 18, which can be found here: https://www.raptureready.com/2020/08/05/a-combined-interpretive-scenario-of-revelation-17-18-by-mark-a-becker/ or https://www.faithwriters.com/article-details.php?id=204830
I highly recommend reading A Combined Interpretive Scenario of Revelation 17 & 18 before this article, if you haven’t already, for the maximum achievement of continuity and understanding.
The following is from that article and must be said concerning the content of this article:
“As a disclosure, I was born, christened, and nominally raised in the Catholic church. I haven’t been a member of the Catholic church since I was a youth and am now a Bible-believing Christian who lives by grace through faith and not by works (Ephesians 2:8-9). I have many wonderful Catholic family members and friends and love them dearly. This article’s emphasis is primarily on the leadership, history, and the prophetic role of the Roman Catholic church and is in no way an indictment of the Catholic laity.”
We will be showing that the ecumenical “whore” of Revelation 17 & 18 and the city where she sits is, in fact, the entity to which God is prophetically judging here in Isaiah.
The Daughter of Babylon is just that, the offspring of the first anti-God religious system set up by Nimrod at the Tower of Babel. When God dispersed the nations after dividing their tongues, this false religious system went with them, and a “Daughter” was eventually born. Where she sits now has been revealed to us in Revelation chapters 17 and 18, and it is this religious entity, and the city where she resides, that is the topic of Isaiah 47.
We will be taking this chapter and studying it in sections, with commentary and corroborating passages of Scripture from Revelation 17 and 18, to assist us in our search for the connection to “The Daughter of Babylon.”
“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. Take the millstones, and grind meal: uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers. Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man.” (Isaiah 47:1-3). (Emphasis mine)
Here we are introduced to the “virgin daughter of Babylon.”
The “millstones” bring to mind the angel’s symbolic judgment, as well as one of the many delicacies of Rome/Vatican City, described in Revelation 18:
“And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all. And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee” (Revelation 18:21-22). (Emphasis mine)
The phrase “pass over the rivers” reminds one of the opening statement of the angel to John, saying, “… Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters” (Revelation 17:1). (Emphasis mine)
God will “take [His] vengeance, and [He] will not meet [her] as a man.” He will use the 10 kings as His agents of punishment and judgment when they…
“… shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled” (Revelation 17:16b-17). (Emphasis mine)
“As for our redeemer, the Lord of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel. Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called, The lady of kingdoms” (Isaiah 47:4-5). (Emphasis mine)
The “daughter of Babylon,” or “daughter of the Chaldeans,” is also known as “The lady of kingdoms.” We see this very description of the city where the woman sits in Revelation 17, as…
“… the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth” (Revelation 17:18). (Emphasis mine)
And, “the lady of kingdoms” has committed fornication with the kings of the earth:
“For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her” (Revelation 18:3). (Emphasis mine)
“With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication” (Revelation 7:2). (Emphasis mine)
“I was wroth with my people, I have polluted mine inheritance, and given them into thine hand: thou didst shew them no mercy; upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke” (Isaiah 47:6). (Emphasis mine)
Revelation elaborates even further on what the “daughter of Babylon” and the city where she sits had done to God’s people.
The Roman Empire, under the rule of the Caesars, ultimately destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD under Titus, a destruction ordained of God for his people rejecting their Messiah. The apostles, who were also prophets, and the early true church of Christ were among those killed. Peter was said to be crucified upside down, and Paul was martyred, both of them in Rome.
“And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth” (Revelation 18:24). (Emphasis mine)
The Roman Catholic church has been responsible for more murders of true Christians than any other entity in history:
“And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration” (Revelation 17:6). (Emphasis mine)
“And thou saidst, I shall be a lady for ever: so that thou didst not lay these things to thy heart, neither didst remember the latter end of it. Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children” (Isaiah 47:7-8). (Emphasis mine)
The daughter of Babylon, and the city where she sits, has reigned for over 1,700 years (not including the Roman Empire under the Caesars) and has yet to be conquered. Her power has ebbed and flowed, but her influence has never waned.
“How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow” (Revelation 18:7). (Emphasis mine)
“But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments. For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness: thou hast said, None seeth me. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee; and thou hast said in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me” (Isaiah 47:9-10). (Emphasis mine)
“In a moment in one day” will come her “widowhood,” in conjunction with the loss of her “children,” with absolute destruction:
“Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her. And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come” (Revelation 18:8-10). (Emphasis mine)
“Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it riseth: and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know” (Isaiah 47:11). (Emphasis mine)
The 10 kings, as noted above, in an attack she does not foresee, shall…
“… hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled” (Revelation 17:16b-17). (Emphasis mine)
This attack will be an utter surprise to her.
“Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail. Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee” (Isaiah 47:12-13). (Emphasis mine)
We should find it interesting that the Roman Catholic church has had at least 21 major meetings to discuss “doctrine, reaffirm truths of the faith, and extirpate heresy,” and that these meetings are referred to as “councils.” This lady, according to God, is “wearied in the multitude of [her] counsels.”
The Vatican Observatory has its headquarters in Italy and has one of the most powerful telescopes in the world at Mount Graham in southeast Arizona.
The Vatican is essentially obsessed with the stars and is eagerly searching for life in outer space. The Roman Catholic church even has what one might consider an unhealthy desire to meet aliens.
Pope Francis, in 2014, even stated that he would be willing to baptize aliens from other worlds, should they ever manifest themselves to us, saying, “If then God gave them the same gift He gave to us when we came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to be able to hinder God?… Who are we to close doors?”
Most concerning is that – and many books and clergy have documented these facts – the Roman Catholic church has for centuries indulged in the practices of paganism, witchcraft, the occult, and Luciferianism.
“And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived” (Revelation 18:23). (Emphasis mine)
As most know, “sorceries” in the Greek is 5331 “pharmakeia” and means: sorcery, witchcraft. From pharmakeus; medication (“pharmacy”), i.e. (by extension) magic (literally or figuratively) — sorcery, witchcraft.
“Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it. Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast laboured, even thy merchants, from thy youth: they shall wander every one to his quarter; none shall save thee” (Isaiah 47:14-15). (Emphasis mine)
Revelation 18 provides us with “the rest of the story,” matching up with Isaiah 47:14-15, and leaves us no doubt that the Whore of Babylon and the city where she sits is none other than The Daughter of Babylon.
“For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies” (Revelation 18:3). (Emphasis mine)
“And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
“And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more: The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.
“And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all. The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, And saying, Alas, alas that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls! For in one hour so great riches is come to nought.
“And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off, And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city! And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate” (Revelation 18:9-19). (Emphasis mine)
Love, grace, mercy, and shalom in Messiah Yeshua, and Maranatha!
Email: mab10666@yahoo.com
The original article can be found here: Isaiah 47 The Daughter of Babylon | FaithWriters