Isaiah 47:11

Translations

King James Version (KJV)

Therefore shall evil come on you; you shall not know from where it rises: and mischief shall fall on you; you shall not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come on you suddenly, which you shall not know.

American King James Version (AKJV)

American Standard Version (ASV)

Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know the dawning thereof: and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it away: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou knowest not.

Basic English Translation (BBE)

Because of this evil will come on you, which may not be turned away for any price: and trouble will overtake you, from which no money will give salvation: destruction will come on you suddenly, without your knowledge.

Webster's Revision

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.

World English Bible

Therefore evil will come on you; you won't know when it dawns: and mischief will fall on you; you will not be able to put it away: and desolation shall come on you suddenly, which you don't know.

English Revised Version (ERV)

Definitions for Isaiah 47:11

Whence - From where.

Clarke's Isaiah 47:11 Bible Commentary

Thou shalt not know from whence it riseth "Thou shalt not know how to deprecate" - שחרה shachrah; so the Chaldee renders it, which is approved by Jarchi on the place; and Michaelis Epim. in Praelect. xix.; see Psalm 78:34.

Videtur in fine hujus commatis deese verbum, ut hoc membrum prioribus respondeat. "A word appears to be wanting at the end of this clause to connect it properly with the two preceding." - Secker.

In order to set in a proper light this judicious remark, it is necessary to give the reader an exact verbal translation of the whole verse: -

"And evil shall come upon thee, thou shalt not know how to deprecate it;

And mischief shall fall upon thee, thou shalt not be able to expiate it;

And destruction shall come suddenly upon thee, thou shalt not know" -

What? how to escape, to avoid it, to be delivered from it? perhaps צאת ממנה tseth mimmennah, "they could not go out from it, "Jer 11:11. I am persuaded that a phrase is here lost out of the text. But as the ancient versions retain no traces of it, and a wide field lies open to uncertain conjecture, I have not attempted to fill up the chasm, but have in the translation, as others have done before me, palliated and disguised the defect, which I cannot with any assurance pretend to supply. - L.

Barnes's Isaiah 47:11 Bible Commentary

Therefore shall evil come upon thee - In consequence of thy pride and self-confidence; of the prevalence of corruption, licentiousness, and sin; of the prevalence of the arts of magic and of divination abounding there; and of the cruel and unfeeling oppression of the people of God; for all these crimes ruin shall come certainly and suddenly upon thee.

Thou shalt not know from whence it cometh - Margin, 'The morning thereof.' The margin expresses the true sense of the phrase. The word used here (שׁחר shachar) means "the aurora," the dawn, the morning (see the notes at Isaiah 14:12). Lowth has strangely rendered it, 'Evil shall come upon thee, which thou shalt not know how to deprecate.' But the word properly means the dawning of the morning, the aurora; and the sense is, that calamity should befall them whose rising or dawning they did not see, or anticipate. It would come unexpectedly and suddenly, like the first rays of the morning. It would spring up as if from no antecedent cause which would seem to lead to it, as the light comes suddenly out of the darkness.

And mischief - Destruction; ruin.

Thou shalt not be able to put it off - Margin, 'Expiate.' This is the sense of the Hebrew (see the notes at Isaiah 43:3). The meaning is, that they could not then avert these calamities by any sacrifices, deprecations, or prayers. Ruin would suddenly and certainly come; and they had nothing which they could offer to God as an expiation by which it could then be prevented. We need not say how strikingly descriptive this is of the destruction of Babylon. Her ruin came silently and suddenly upon her, as the first rays of morning light steal upon the world, and in such a way that she could not meet it, or turn it away.

Wesley's Isaiah 47:11 Bible Commentary

47:11 Therefore - This agrees with the history. Babylon being surprized by Cyrus, when they were in deep security.

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