I was angry with My people; I profaned My heritage, and I placed them under your control. You showed them no mercy; even on the elderly you laid a most heavy yoke.
Parallel translations
- WEB I was angry with my people. I profaned my inheritance, and gave them into your hand. You showed them no mercy. You laid a very heavy yoke on the aged.
- KJV 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.
- NKJV I was angry with My people; I have profaned My inheritance, And given them into your hand. You showed them no mercy; On the elderly you laid your yoke very heavily.
- NASB “I was angry with My people, I profaned My heritage And handed them over to you. You did not show mercy to them, On the aged you made your yoke very heavy.
- NLT For I was angry with my chosen people and punished them by letting them fall into your hands. But you, Babylon, showed them no mercy. You oppressed even the elderly.
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 had handed his people to Babylon for discipline, but Babylon showed no mercy, even to the aged. Instruments of judgment are still accountable for cruelty.
Overview
Yahweh explains that he gave Israel into Babylon's hand because he was angry at his people's sin. Yet Babylon overstepped, showing pitiless cruelty even to the elderly. God uses nations to chasten, but holds them responsible when they exceed his purpose with ruthlessness — a sober reminder of moral accountability.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- 2 Chr 28:9But a prophet of the LORD named Oded was there, and he went out to meet the army that returned to Samaria. “Look,” he said to them, “because of His wrath against Judah, the LORD, the God of your fathers, has delivered them into your hand. But you have slaughtered them in a rage that reaches up to heaven.
- Zech 1:15but I am fiercely angry with the nations that are at ease. For I was a little angry, but they have added to the calamity.’
- Deut 28:50a ruthless nation with no respect for the old and no pity for the young.
- Obad 1:10Because of the violence against your brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame and cut off forever.
- Jas 2:13For judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
- Ps 69:26For they persecute the one You struck and recount the pain of those You wounded.
- Isa 42:24–25Who gave Jacob up for spoil, and Israel to the plunderers? Was it not the LORD, against whom we have sinned? They were unwilling to walk in His ways, and they would not obey His law.
- Isa 14:17who turned the world into a desert and destroyed its cities, who refused to let the captives return to their homes?”
- Isa 10:6I will send him against a godless nation; I will dispatch him against a people destined for My rage, to take spoils and seize plunder, and to trample them down like clay in the streets.
- Obad 1:16For as you drank on My holy mountain, so all the nations will drink continually. They will drink and gulp it down; they will be as if they had never existed.
- Matt 7:2For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
- 2 Sam 24:14David answered Gad, “I am deeply distressed. Please, let us fall into the hand of the LORD, for His mercies are great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men.”
- Isa 13:16Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes, their houses will be looted, and their wives will be ravished.
- Isa 43:28So I will disgrace the princes of your sanctuary, and I will devote Jacob to destruction and Israel to reproach.”
- Lam 2:2Without pity the Lord has swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacob. In His wrath He has demolished the fortified cities of the Daughter of Judah. He brought to the ground and defiled her kingdom and its princes.
- Ezek 24:21Tell the house of Israel that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘I am about to desecrate My sanctuary, the pride of your power, the desire of your eyes, and the delight of your soul. And the sons and daughters you left behind will fall by the sword.’
- Ezek 28:16By the vastness of your trade, you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mountain of God, and I banished you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones.
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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 47:6 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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