Isaiah 14:18

18 All the kings of the nations lie in state, each in his own tomb. ^[a]

Isaiah 14:18 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 14:18

All the kings of the nations
Of other nations, besides those he governed, and even of those whom he had subdued, at least their ancestors, the greatest part of them however; for the word "all" does not always signify every individual, though by the repetition of it, it here bids fair for such a sense, there being but very few, or scarce any exceptions to this observation; for, on some account or another, both good and bad kings are interred in great state: [even] all of them lie in glory;
in rich tombs and stately monuments, erected for the honour of them; and where they "sleep", as the word signifies, with their fathers, their ancestors, and are at rest, in the state of the dead, where they will continue to the resurrection: everyone in his own house;
or grave, see ( Job 30:23 ) the same with his long home, ( Ecclesiastes 12:5 ) or the house of his world: in reference to which, the Targum paraphrases it by the same phrase here; and though their graves were not in their dwelling houses or palaces, yet often near them, and in their own country, and were what had been erected, or caused to be erected by them, in their lifetime.

Isaiah 14:18 In-Context

16 Those who see you will stare; they will ponder your fate: “Is this the man who shook the earth and made the kingdoms tremble,

17 who turned the world into a desert and destroyed its cities, who refused to let the captives return to their homes?”

18 All the kings of the nations lie in state, each in his own tomb.

19 But you are cast out of your grave like a rejected branch, covered by those slain with the sword, and dumped into a rocky pit like a carcass trampled underfoot.

20 You will not join them in burial, since you have destroyed your land and slaughtered your own people. The offspring of the wicked will never again be mentioned.

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew house