Isaiah 14:4-23

4 you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has ceased! How the flood has receded!

5 The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked, the rod of tyrants

6 that struck peoples in rage with ceaseless blows, that ruled nations with anger, with relentless aggression.

7 All the earth rests quietly, then it breaks into song.

8 Even the cypresses rejoice over you, the cedars of Lebanon: "Since you were laid low, no logger comes up against us!"

9 The underworld beneath becomes restless to greet your arrival. It awakens the ghosts, all the leaders of earth; it makes the kings of the nations rise from their thrones.

10 All of them speak and say to you: "Even you've become weak like we are! You are the same as us!"

11 Your majesty has been brought down to the underworld, along with the sound of your harps. Under you is a bed of maggots, and worms are your blanket.

12 How you've fallen from heaven, morning star, son of dawn! You are cut down to earth, helpless on your back!

13 You said to yourself, I will climb up to heaven; above God's stars, I will raise my throne. I'll sit on the mount of assembly, on the heights of Zaphon.

14 I'll go up to the cloud tops; I'll be like the Most High!

15 But down to the underworld you are brought, to the depths of the pit.

16 Those who see you will stare at you; they will examine you closely: "Is this the man who rattled the earth, who shook kingdoms,

17 who made the world a wasteland and tore down its cities, and wouldn't let his prisoners go home?"

18 All the kings of the nations lie down honored, all of them, each in his own tomb.

19 But you are cast away from your own grave like a rejected branch, covered by the dead and those pierced by the sword— who go down to the stony pit— like a trampled corpse.

20 You won't join them in burial, for you destroyed your own land; you killed your own people. Such evil offspring will never be mentioned again!

21 Prepare a place to slaughter his sons for the guilt of their father. Don't let them arise to take over the earth or fill the world with cities.

22 I will arise against them, says the LORD of heavenly forces. I will cut off Babylon's renown and remnant, offshoot and offspring.

23 I will make it the home of herons, a swampland. I will sweep it away with the broom of destruction, says the LORD of heavenly forces.

Isaiah 14:4-23 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 14

This chapter contains prophecies of the restoration of the Jews, of the fall of the king of Babylon, and the destruction of the Assyrian empire, and of the ruin of Palestine. The moving cause of the restoration of the Jews, and their settlement in their own land, is the distinguishing mercy of God towards them; the accomplishment of it, proselytes joined unto them; the means, people of other nations, who should bring them into it, and whom they should possess and rule over; and the consequence of it, rest from sorrow, fear, and hard bondage, Isa 14:1-3 upon which they are introduced as taking up a proverb, or a triumphant song, concerning the king of Babylon, wondering at his fall, and ascribing it to the Lord, Isa 14:4,5 representing the inhabitants of the earth, and great men of it, as at peace, and rest, and rejoicing, who before were continually disturbed, and smitten by him, Isa 14:6-8 introducing the dead, and those in hell, meeting him, and welcoming him into their regions, with taunts and jeers; upbraiding him with his weakness, shame, and disgrace he was come into; putting him in mind of his former pomp and splendour, pride, arrogance, and haughtiness, Isa 14:9-15 spectators are brought in, as amazed at the low, mean, and despicable condition he was brought into, considering what he had done in the world, in kingdoms and cities, but was now denied a burial, when other kings lay in their pompous sepulchres, Isa 14:16-20 and then it is foretold that that whole royal family should be cut off, and Babylon, the metropolis of his kingdom, should be utterly destroyed, Isa 14:21-23 all which was settled and fixed by the purpose of God, which could not be made void, Isa 14:24-27 and next follows a prophecy of the destruction of Palestine; the date of the prophecy is given Isa 14:28 the inhabitants of Palestine are bid not to rejoice at the death of one of the kings of Judah, since another should arise, who would be fatal to them, Isa 14:29 and while the Jews would be in safety, they would be destroyed by famine and war, Isa 14:30,31 from all which it would appear, and it might be told the messengers of the nations, or any inquiring persons, that Zion is of the Lord's founding, and under his care and protection, and that his people have great reason and encouragement to trust in him, Isa 14:32.

Footnotes

• [a]. Heb uncertain
• [b]. DSS (1QIsaa), LXX, Syr, Tg; MT fury
• [c]. Heb Sheol
• [d]. Heb Sheol
• [e]. Heb Sheol