Isaiah 47 · Verse 2

Isaiah 47:2

Take the millstones, and grind meal: uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers.
Isaiah 47:2, King James Version

Isaiah 47:2 in other translations

BSBTake millstones and grind flour; remove your veil; strip off your skirt, bare your thigh, and wade through the streams.
WEBTake the millstones and grind flour. Remove your veil, lift up your skirt, uncover your legs, and wade through the rivers.
ASVTake the millstones, and grind meal; remove thy veil, strip off the train, uncover the leg, pass through the rivers.
YLTTake millstones, and grind flour, Remove thy veil, draw up the skirt, Uncover the leg, pass over the floods.
DARBYTake the millstones, and grind meal; remove thy veil, lift up the train, uncover the leg, pass over rivers:
BBETake the crushing-stones and get the meal crushed: take off your veil, put away your robe, let your legs be uncovered, go through the rivers.
WebsterTake the millstones, and grind meal: uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers.

What does Isaiah 47:2 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
2. 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 included; it, too, is a covering (1Co 11:15); to remove it and the veil is the badge of the lowest female degradation; in the East the head is the seat of female modesty; the face of a woman is seldom, the whole head almost never, seen bare (see on Is 22:8). make bare the leg--rather "lift up (literally, 'uncover'; as in lifting up the train the leg is uncovered) thy flowing train." In Mesopotamia, women of low rank, as occasion requires, wade across the rivers with stript legs, or else entirely put off their garments and swim across. "Exchange thy rich, loose, queenly robe, for the most abject condition, that of one going to and fro through rivers as a slave, to draw water," &c. uncover ... thigh--gather up the robe, so as to wade across.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 2 Take 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 punishment: - Molendum in pistrino; vapulandum; habendae compedes. Terent. Phorm. 2:1. 19. Hominem pistrino dignum. Id. Heaut. 3:2. 19. To grind in the mill, to be scourged, to be put in the stocks, were punishments for slaves. Hence a delinquent was said to be a man worthy of the mill. The tread-mill, now in use in England, is a revival of this ancient usage. But in the east grinding was the work of the female slaves. See Exo 11:5; Exo 12:29, (in the version of the Septuagint;) Mat 24:41; Homer, Odyss. 20:105-108. And it is the same to this day. "Women alone are employed to grind their corn;" Shaw's Algiers and Tunis, p. 287. "They are the female slaves, that are generally employed in the east at those hand-mills for grinding corn; it is extremely laborious, and esteemed the lowest employment in the house;" Sir J. Chardin, Harmer's Observ. i., p. 153. The words denote that state of captivity to which the Babylonians should be reduced. Make bare the leg, uncover the thigh - This is repeatedly seen in Bengal, where there are few bridges, and both sexes, having neither shoes nor stockings, truss up their loose garments, and walk across, where the waters are not deep. In the deeper water they are obliged to truss very high, to which there seems a reference in the third verse: Thy nakedness shall be uncovered.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Isaiah 47:1-6

God's judgments on Babylon. (Is. 47:1-6) Carelessness and confidence shall not prevent the evil. (Is. 47:7-15) Verses 1-6 Babylon is represented under the emblem of a female in deep distress. She was to be degraded and endure sufferings; and is represented sitting on the ground, grinding at the handmill, the lowest and most laborious service. God was righteous in his vengeance, and none should interpose. The prophet…

Read the full comment on Isaiah 47:1-6 →

Isaiah 47:2 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

קְחִ֥יke.ChitakeH3947
רֵחַ֖יִםre.Cha.yima hand-millH7347
וְטַ֣חֲנִיve.Ta.cha.niand grindH2912
קָ֑מַחKa.machflourH7058
גַּלִּ֨יga.LiuncoverH1540
צַמָּתֵ֧ךְtza.ma.Tekhveil yourH6777
חֶשְׂפִּי\־ches.pi-strip offH2834
שֹׁ֛בֶלShoela skirtH7640
גַּלִּי\־ga.li-uncoverH1540
שׁ֖וֹקShoka legH7785
עִבְרִ֥י'iv.Ripass throughH5674
נְהָרֽוֹת\׃ne.ha.RotriversH5104

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Isaiah 47:2

  • Judges 16:21

    But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house.

  • Isaiah 20:4

    So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.

  • Exodus 11:5

    And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts.

  • Matthew 24:41

    Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

  • Genesis 24:65

    For she had said unto the servant, What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And the servant had said, It is my master: therefore she took a vail, and covered herself.

  • Hosea 2:3

    Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.

  • Nahum 3:5-6

    Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts; and I will discover thy skirts upon thy face, and I will shew the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame. And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazingstock.

  • Ezekiel 16:37-39

    Behold, therefore I will gather all thy lovers, with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all them that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated; I will even gather them round about against thee, and will discover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness. And I will judge thee, as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will give thee blood in fury and jealousy. And I will also give thee into their hand, and they shall throw down thine eminent place, and shall break down thy high places: they shall strip thee also of thy clothes, and shall take thy fair jewels, and leave thee naked and bare.

  • Isaiah 32:11

    Tremble, ye women that are at ease; be troubled, ye careless ones: strip you, and make you bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins.

  • Job 31:10

    Then let my wife grind unto another, and let others bow down upon her.

  • Luke 17:35

    Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

  • Isaiah 3:17

    Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will discover their secret parts.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
the millstones.
Ex 11:5; Jud 16:21; Job 31:10; Jer 27:7; La 5:13; Mt 24:41
Lu 17:35
make bare.
3:17; 20:4; Jer 13:22,26; Eze 16:37-39; Ho 2:3; Mic 1:11; Na 3:5,6

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Isaiah 47:1

    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.

  • Isaiah 47:2

    Take the millstones, and grind meal: uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers.

  • Isaiah 47:3

    Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man.

Read all of Isaiah 47

Isaiah 47:2 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		Toma el molino, y muele harina: descubre tus guedejas, descalza los pies, descubre las piernas, pasa los ríos.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		Prends les meules et mouds de la farine; ôte ton voile, relève ta robe, découvre ta jambe, traverse les fleuves:
German
Elberfelder 1871		Nimm die Mühle und mahle Mehl; schlage deinen Schleier zurück, ziehe die Schleppe herauf, entblöße die Schenkel, wate durch Ströme;
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		Tolle molam, et mole farinam; denuda turpitudinem tuam; discooperi humerum, revela crura, transi flumina.