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Your nakedness will be uncovered and your shame will be exposed. I will take vengeance; I will spare no one.”
Isaiah 47:3 · Berean Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB Your nakedness will be uncovered. Yes, your shame will be seen. I will take vengeance, and will spare no one.”
  • KJV Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man.
  • NKJV Your nakedness shall be uncovered, Yes, your shame will be seen; I will take vengeance, And I will not arbitrate with a man.”
  • NASB “Your nakedness will be uncovered, Your shame will also be exposed; I will take vengeance and will not spare anyone.”
  • NLT You will be naked and burdened with shame. I will take vengeance against you without pity.”

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

Babylon's shame will be fully exposed; God will take vengeance and spare no one. His judgment on oppressors is thorough.

Overview

The humiliation reaches its climax: Babylon's nakedness uncovered, her shame seen, as God executes vengeance. This is judicial, not arbitrary — Babylon had cruelly oppressed God's people. The verse affirms that God will finally repay all injustice, a justice perfectly satisfied at the cross and consummated at Christ's return.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 23

  • Nah 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.
  • Jer 51:20–24“You are My war club, My weapon for battle. With you I shatter nations; with you I bring kingdoms to ruin.
  • Jer 50:27–28Kill all her young bulls; let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them, for their day has come—the time of their punishment.
  • Rev 16:19The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. And God remembered Babylon the great and gave her the cup of the wine of the fury of His wrath.
  • Ps 94:1–2O LORD, God of vengeance, O God of vengeance, shine forth.
  • Rom 12:19Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but leave room for God’s wrath. For it is written: “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, says the Lord.”
  • Jer 13:26So I will pull your skirts up over your face, that your shame may be seen.
  • Ps 137:8–9O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, blessed is he who repays you as you have done to us.
  • Deut 32:41–43when I sharpen My flashing sword, and My hand grasps it in judgment, I will take vengeance on My adversaries and repay those who hate Me.
  • Isa 59:17–18He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on His head; He put on garments of vengeance and wrapped Himself in a cloak of zeal.
  • Isa 34:1–8Come near, O nations, to listen; pay attention, O peoples. Let the earth hear, and all that fills it, the world and all that springs from it.
  • Jer 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.
  • Deut 32:35Vengeance is Mine; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; for their day of disaster is near, and their doom is coming quickly.”
  • Jer 51:56For a destroyer is coming against her—against Babylon. Her warriors will be captured, and their bows will be broken, for the LORD is a God of retribution; He will repay in full.
  • Heb 10:30–31For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge His people.”
  • Rev 18:5–8For her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.
  • Rev 6:9–10And when the Lamb opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony they had upheld.
  • Isa 63:4–6For the day of vengeance was in My heart, and the year of My redemption had come.
  • Ezek 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.
  • Jer 51:11Sharpen the arrows! Fill the quivers! The LORD has aroused the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because His plan is aimed at Babylon to destroy her, for it is the vengeance of the LORD—vengeance for His temple.
  • Jer 51:4And they will fall slain in the land of the Chaldeans, and pierced through in her streets.
  • Jer 51:34–36“Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured me; he has crushed me. He has set me aside like an empty vessel; he has swallowed me like a monster; he filled his belly with my delicacies and vomited me out.
  • Rev 18:20Rejoice over her, O heaven, O saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced for you His judgment against her.

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Isaiah videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Isaiah 47:3YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on IsaiahMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

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 47:3 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

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.