Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
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; Matthew 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 (I Corinthians 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 Isaiah 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," etc.
uncover . . . thigh—gather up the robe, so as to wade across.
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing Isaiah 47:2:
Job 31:10
Song of Solomon 4:1
Isaiah 20:4
Isaiah 47:7
Nahum 2:7
Nahum 3:5
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