“Stand now with your enchantments And the multitude of your sorceries, In which you have labored from your youth— Perhaps you will be able to profit, Perhaps you will prevail.
Parallel translations
- WEB “Stand now with your enchantments, and with the multitude of your sorceries, in which you have labored from your youth; as if you might profit; as if you might prevail.
- KJV 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.
- BSB So take your stand with your spells and with your many sorceries, with which you have wearied yourself from your youth. Perhaps you will succeed; perhaps you will inspire terror!
- NASB ¶“Persist now in your spells And in your many sorceries With which you have labored from your youth; Perhaps you will be able to benefit, Perhaps you may cause trembling.
- NLT “Now use your magical charms! Use the spells you have worked at all these years! Maybe they will do you some good. Maybe they can make someone afraid of you.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God sarcastically tells Babylon to rely on the enchantments she has practiced from youth — perhaps they will help. Occult arts are exposed as useless.
Overview
In biting irony, Yahweh invites Babylon to stand on her lifelong sorceries and see whether they can profit or save. The challenge is meant to expose their utter impotence. Scripture's consistent verdict is that divination and magic are empty before the God who alone governs the future.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Acts 13:8–12But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation) withstood them, seeking to turn aside the proconsul from the faith.
- Jer 2:28“But where are your gods that you have made for yourselves? Let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble: for you have as many gods as you have towns, O Judah.
- Isa 47:9–10But these two things shall come to you in a moment in one day, the loss of children and widowhood. They will come on you in their full measure, in the multitude of your sorceries, and the great abundance of your enchantments.
- Nah 3:4because of the multitude of the prostitution of the alluring prostitute, the mistress of witchcraft, who sells nations through her prostitution, and families through her witchcraft.
- Isa 44:25who frustrates the signs of the liars, and makes diviners mad; who turns wise men backward, and makes their knowledge foolish;
- Isa 8:19When they tell you, “Consult with those who have familiar spirits and with the wizards, who chirp and who mutter:” shouldn’t a people consult with their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living?
- Isa 19:3The spirit of Egypt will fail within it. I will destroy its counsel. They will seek the idols, the charmers, those who have familiar spirits, and the wizards.
- Dan 5:7–9The king cried aloud to bring in the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. The king spoke and said to the wise men of Babylon, Whoever shall read this writing, and show me its interpretation, shall be clothed with purple, and have a chain of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.
- Rev 17:4–6The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of the sexual immorality of the earth.
- Exod 7:11Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers. They also, the magicians of Egypt, did the same thing with their enchantments.
- Exod 8:7The magicians did the same thing with their enchantments, and brought up frogs on the land of Egypt.
- Exod 8:18–19The magicians tried with their enchantments to produce lice, but they couldn’t. There were lice on man, and on animal.
- Exod 9:11The magicians couldn’t stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boils were on the magicians, and on all the Egyptians.
- 2 Th 2:9–12even he whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 47:12 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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