Isaiah 47:12
◄  Isaiah 47:12  ►
New International Version (©2011)
"Keep on, then, with your magic spells and with your many sorceries, which you have labored at since childhood. Perhaps you will succeed, perhaps you will cause terror.

New Living Translation (©2007)
"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.

English Standard Version (©2001)
Stand fast in your enchantments and your many sorceries, with which you have labored from your youth; perhaps you may be able to succeed; perhaps you may inspire terror.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
"Stand fast now in your spells And in your many sorceries With which you have labored from your youth; Perhaps you will be able to profit, Perhaps you may cause trembling.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
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.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
So take your stand with your spells and your many sorceries, which you have wearied yourself with from your youth. Perhaps you will be able to succeed; perhaps you will inspire terror!

International Standard Version (©2012)
"But stand up now with your spells and your many incantations, at which you have labored from your childhood until today,

NET Bible (©2006)
Persist in trusting your amulets and your many incantations, which you have faithfully recited since your youth! Maybe you will be successful--maybe you will scare away disaster.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
Keep practicing your spells and your evil magic. You have practiced them ever since you were young. You may succeed. You may cause terror.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
Stand now with your enchantments, and with the multitude of your sorceries, in which you have labored from your youth; perhaps you shall be able to profit, perhaps you may prevail.

American King James Version
Stand now with your enchantments, and with the multitude of your sorceries, wherein you have labored from your youth; if so be you shall be able to profit, if so be you may prevail.

American Standard Version
Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast labored from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Stand now with thy enchanters, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, in which thou hast laboured from thy youth, if so be it may profit thee any thing, or if thou mayst become stronger.

Darby Bible Translation
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 turn them to profit, if so be thou mayest cause terror.

English Revised Version
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.

Webster's Bible Translation
Stand now with thy enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, in which thou hast labored from thy youth; if thou shalt be able to profit, if thou mayest prevail.

World English Bible
"Stand now with your enchantments, and with the multitude of your sorceries, in which you have labored from your youth; if so be you shall be able to profit, if so be you may prevail.

Young's Literal Translation
Stand, I pray thee, in thy charms, And in the multitude of thy sorceries, In which thou hast laboured from thy youth, It may be thou art able to profit, It may be thou dost terrify!

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

47:7-15 Let us beware of acting and speaking as Babylon did; of trusting in tyranny and oppression; of boasting as to our abilities, relying on ourselves, and ascribing success to our own prudence and wisdom; lest we partake of her plagues. Those in the height of prosperity, are apt to fancy themselves out of the reach of adversity. It is also common for sinners to think they shall be safe, because they think to be secret in wicked ways. But their security shall be their ruin. Let us draw from such passages as the foregoing, those lessons of humility and trust in God which they convey. If we believe the word of God, we may know how it will be with the righteous and the wicked to all eternity. We may learn how to escape the wrath to come, to glorify God, to have peace through life, hope in death, and everlasting happiness. Let us then stand aloof from all delusions.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 12. - Stand now. The fourth and concluding strophe now begins; it opens, like the third, with a single imperative. It has, as Mr. Cheyne observes, "a strongly ironical tinge, reminding us of Elijah's language to the priests of Baal in 1 Kings 18:27." The irony is, however, confined to the first half (vers. 12, 13); giving place in vers. 14 and 15 to a scathing sentence of judgment and ruin. Enchantments... sorceries; rather, spells, enchantments (see the comment on ver. 9). If so be, etc.; rather, perchance thou wilt be able to profit; perchance thou wilt cause terror. The prophet gives a pretended encouragement to Israel's adversaries. "If Babylon uses all the resources of her magical art, perhaps she may succeed - who knows? Perhaps she may strike terror into the hearts of her assailants."

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries,.... An ironic expression, deriding those evil arts, bidding defiance to them, calling upon the masters of them to do their utmost by them:

wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth; from the infancy of their state; as soon as their monarchy was founded, or they became a people, they were given to these practices, and were famous for them; and in which, no doubt, many among them were brought up from their youth; and to gain the knowledge of which they were at great labour and expense; and yet it was all in vain, and to no purpose:

if so be thou shall be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail; if skill in these things can be of any advantage to keep off the impending calamity, and fortify against the powerful enemy that will quickly surprise thee; try if by thine art thou canst foresee the danger, and prevent it.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

12. Stand—forth: a scornful challenge to Babylon's magicians to show whether they can defend their city.

laboured—The devil's service is a laborious yet fruitless one (Isa 55:2).

Isaiah 47:12 Parallel Commentaries

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The Fall of Babylon Predicted
…11Therefore 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. 12Stand now with your enchantments, and with the multitude of your sorceries, wherein you have labored from your youth; if so be you shall be able to profit, if so be you may prevail. 13You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save you from these things that shall come on you. …

Revelation 9:21 Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.
Psalm 129:1 A song of ascents. "They have greatly oppressed me from my youth," let Israel say;
Isaiah 8:19 When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?
Isaiah 47:9 Both of these will overtake you in a moment, on a single day: loss of children and widowhood. They will come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and all your potent spells.
Daniel 2:2 So the king summoned the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers to tell him what he had dreamed. When they came in and stood before the king,
Daniel 5:15 The wise men and enchanters were brought before me to read this writing and tell me what it means, but they could not explain it.
Micah 3:7 The seers will be ashamed and the diviners disgraced. They will all cover their faces because there is no answer from God."
Nahum 3:4 all because of the wanton lust of a prostitute, alluring, the mistress of sorceries, who enslaved nations by her prostitution and peoples by her witchcraft.