Isaiah 14:8

8 "Even the ¹cypress trees rejoice over you, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, 'Since you were laid low, no tree cutter comes up against us.'

Isaiah 14:8 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 14:8

Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, [and] the cedars of
Lebanon
Which by, a prosopopoeia are represented as singing and rejoicing, as inanimate creatures often are in Scripture, these being now in no danger of being cut down, to make way for his armies; see ( Isaiah 37:34 ) or to furnish him with timber for shipping, or building of houses: or else these words are to be understood metaphorically of kings and princes of the earth, comparable to such trees, for their height, strength, and substance; see ( Zechariah 11:2 ) who would now be no longer in fear of him, or in subjection to him. So the Targum,

``the rulers also rejoiced over thee, the rich in substance said;''

not only the common people, the inhabitants of the earth, as before, but the princes of it rejoiced at his ruin; and so will the kings of the earth rejoice at the destruction of the whore of Rome, when they shall hate her, eat her flesh, and burn her with fire; though others, that have committed fornication with her, will lament her case, ( Revelation 17:16 ) ( 18:9 ) : [saying], since thou art, laid down;
or "art asleep" ^F1; that is, dead; it being usual in the eastern nations to express death by sleep: no feller is come up against us;
or "cutter of wood", to whom the king of Babylon is compared, for cutting down nations, and bringing them into subjection to him, in whose heart it was to destroy and cut off nations, not a few; being as an axe in the hand of the Lord, whereby trees, large and high, were cut down; see ( Isaiah 10:5 Isaiah 10:7 Isaiah 10:15 ) but now, since this feller of wood was gone, the axe was laid aside, and broke to pieces, there was none to give the nations any disturbance; and so it will be when antichrist is destroyed, there will be no more persecution of the church and people of God.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F1 (tbkv) "dormisti", Pagninus.

Isaiah 14:8 In-Context

6 Which used to strike the peoples in fury with unceasing strokes, Which subdued the nations in anger with unrestrained persecution.

7 "The whole earth is at rest and is quiet; They break forth into shouts of joy.

8 "Even the cypress trees rejoice over you, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, 'Since you were laid low, no tree cutter comes up against us.'

9 "Sheol from beneath is excited over you to meet you when you come; It arouses for you the spirits of the dead, all the leaders of the earth; It raises all the kings of the nations from their thrones.

10 "They will all respond and say to you, 'Even you have been made weak as we, You have become like us.

Cross References

• 1. Isaiah 55:12; Ezekiel 31:16