Isaiah 14:8

8 Even the trees of the forest— the cypress trees and the cedars of Lebanon— sing out this joyous song: ‘Since you have been cut down, no one will come now to cut us down!’

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.

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FOOTNOTES:

F1 (tbkv) "dormisti", Pagninus.

Isaiah 14:8 In-Context

6 You struck the people with endless blows of rage and held the nations in your angry grip with unrelenting tyranny.

7 But finally the earth is at rest and quiet. Now it can sing again!

8 Even the trees of the forest— the cypress trees and the cedars of Lebanon— sing out this joyous song: ‘Since you have been cut down, no one will come now to cut us down!’

9 “In the place of the dead there is excitement over your arrival. The spirits of world leaders and mighty kings long dead stand up to see you.

10 With one voice they all cry out, ‘Now you are as weak as we are!