ISAIAH 47


12 Stand now with thine enchantments [khavarim], and with the multitude of thy sorceries [kashefanut], wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth [toiled from thy neurim]; if so be [perhaps] thou shalt be able to profit [succeed], if so be thou mayest prevail [perhaps thou mayest cause terror].

v9-13 Quoting Daubuz

The literal Babylon was the beginner and supporter of tyranny and idolatry, first by Nimrod or Ninus, and afterwards by Nebuchadnezzar; and therefore in Isaiah 47:12, she is accused of magical enchantments from her youth or infancy; namely, from the very first origin of her being a city or nation.

"This city and the whole empire thereof was taken by the Persians under Cyrus. The Persians were subdued by the Macedonians, and the Macedonians by the Romans: so that Rome succeeded to the power of the old Babylon. And it was her way to adopt the worship of the false deities she had conquered: so that by her own acts she became the Heiress and Successor of all the Babylonian idolatry, and of all that was introduced into it, by the immediate successors of Babylon, and by consequence of all the idolatry of the earth.

"Rome Catholic, corrupted by dressing up the idolatry of Rome Pagan in another form, and forcing it upon the world, because the successor of the old literal Babylon in tyranny and idolatry, and may therefore be properly represented and called by the name of Babylon; it being the usual style of the prophets to give the name of the head, or first institution, to the successors, however different they may be in some circumstances; even as in Ezek. 37, the Messiah is called David, as being successor to David; and as the Christian church, though chiefly composed of Gentiles, is called, Gal. 6:16, by the name of lsrael, as successively inheriting, in a spiritual sense, the promises made to the literal Israel.

So Rachel, in Jer. 31:15, Matt. 2:18, is put for the town, or women inhabiting the town of Bethlehem, wherein was the sepulchre of the literal Rachel, of which, consequently, those inhabitants were still in possession. And so the Persians and Moguls call the Ottoman Turks by the name of Roumi, i.e, Romans, because in possession of the country and capital enjoyed by the ancient Romans.

'Lastly, that Babylon is Rome is evident from the explanation the angel in Rev. 17:18, where it is expressly said to be that great city which ruleth over the kings of the earth: no other city but Rome being in the exercise of such power at the time when the vision was seen.

Eureka 13.1.12.

13 Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels [ etzot]. Let now the astrologers [ hovrev Shomayim (the dissectors of the heavens)], the stargazers [chozim bakochavim], the monthly prognosticators [the ones that predict the future by Rosh Chodesh], [now] stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.