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Isaiah 14

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The Restoration of Israel 1–2

1
For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. ​
2
And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors. ​

The Taunt Song Against the King of Babylon 3–23

3
And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve,
4
That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! ​
5
The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers.
6
He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth.
7
The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing.
8
Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us.
9
Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. ​
10
All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?
11
Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. ​
12
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! ​
13
For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: ​
14
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
15
Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. ​
16
They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;
17
That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?
18
All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house. ​
19
But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet. ​
20
Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned.
21
Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.
22
For I will rise up against them, saith the LORD of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the LORD.
23
I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the LORD of hosts. ​

The Lord's Unchangeable Purpose 24–27

24
The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand: ​
25
That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders. ​
26
This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.
27
For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?

Oracle Against Philistia 28–32

28
In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden. ​
29
Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken: for out of the serpent's root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent. ​
30
And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety: and I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall slay thy remnant.
31
Howl, O gate; cry, O city; thou, whole Palestina, art dissolved: for there shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall be alone in his appointed times.
32
What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation? That the LORD hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it. ​

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for Isaiah 14

Verse 1

will yet choose Israel — ‘Choose’ (bachar) is the verb of 41:8, ‘Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen’. The ‘strangers’ who ‘shall be joined’ (lavah) are those of 56:3, ‘the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the LORD’, and of Zech 2:11, ‘many nations shall be joined to the LORD in that day’.

Verse 2

they shall rule over their oppressors — ‘Oppressors’ (nagas) is the word of ‘the oppressor’ in v.4 and of 9:4, ‘the rod of his oppressor’. The reversal is told in the terms of captivity: they ‘take them captives, whose captives they were’. Esth 9:1 has the same turn, ‘the Jews had rule over them that hated them’; so has 60:14, ‘shall come bending unto thee’.

Verse 4

take up this proverb against the king of Babylon — ‘Proverb’ is mashal, the word that titles Proverbs (Prov 1:1) and a taunt in Hab 2:6, ‘take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb’. ‘Ceased’ (shabat), said twice, is the verb of the seventh day, ‘he rested’ (Gen 2:2). ‘Golden city’ (madhebah) occurs only here.

Verse 9

Hell from beneath is moved for thee — ‘Hell’ is sheol, the place of the dead. The ‘dead’ (rephaim) are the ‘deceased’ of 26:14. ‘Chief ones’ is literally ‘he goats’, the leaders of a flock, as in Jer 50:8. A fallen king is received by the dead also in Ezek 32:21, ‘The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of hell’.

Verse 11

the worm is spread under thee — ‘Viols’ (nebel) belong to the feasts of 5:12, ‘the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine’, now silent. ‘Worm’ (rimmah) and ‘worms’ (tola’ah) are two words, the second being the ‘worm’ of 66:24, ‘their worm shall not die’.

Verse 12

O Lucifer, son of the morning — Helel, ‘shining one’, occurs only here, and ‘morning’ is shachar, dawn. The song is introduced as a proverb ‘against the king of Babylon’ (v.4); ‘cut down’ is gada’, the verb of 10:33. Many Christian readers also hear the fall of Satan in it, with Luke 10:18, ‘I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven’.

Verse 13

I will exalt my throne above the stars of God — Five ‘I will’s run through vv.13–14, ending ‘I will be like the most High’. ‘Exalt’ (rum) is the verb of 6:1, ‘high and lifted up’. ‘Congregation’ is moed, the word of ‘the tabernacle of the congregation’ (Ex 27:21), and ‘the sides of the north’ is Zion’s: ‘mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King’ (Ps 48:2).

Verse 15

brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit — ‘Sides’ (yarkah) is the word of ‘the sides of the north’ in v.13: the one who would sit there goes down to the sides of the pit. ‘Brought down’ answers ‘I will ascend’ (v.13). Christ says of Capernaum, ‘exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell’ (Matt 11:23).

Verse 18

lie in glory, every one in his own house — ‘His own house’ is the tomb, as in Job 30:23, ‘the house appointed for all living’. Burial among the kings was an honour in Israel too: Jehoiada was buried ‘among the kings’ (2 Chr 24:16), while Joash was buried ‘not in the sepulchres of the kings’ (24:25).

Verse 19

like an abominable branch — ‘Branch’ is netser, the word of 11:1, ‘a Branch shall grow out of his roots’, and of 60:21, ‘the branch of my planting’. Here it is the cast-out shoot. The king is ‘cast out of thy grave’, unlike the kings who lie ‘every one in his own house’ (v.18), and lies as the clothing of the slain, ‘as a carcase trodden under feet’.

Verse 23

a possession for the bittern, and pools of water — ‘Bittern’ (qippod) occurs also at 34:11 and Zeph 2:14. ‘Besom’ (mat’ate) occurs only here. The ruin was foretold in 13:19, ‘Babylon, the glory of kingdoms… shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah’.

Verse 24

as I have thought, so shall it come to pass — ‘Thought’ (damah) is the verb of 10:7, where the Assyrian ‘meaneth not so’; the LORD’s thought stands, and ‘purposed’ (ya’ats) returns in vv.26–27. It answers 7:7, ‘It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass’, said of another plan. The oath is the ‘immutability of his counsel, confirmed… by an oath’ (Heb 6:17).

Verse 25

I will break the Assyrian in my land — ‘Yoke’ and ‘burden’ are the pair of 9:4 and 10:27, here for the third time. The Assyrian is broken ‘in my land… upon my mountains’, as in 37:36, where the angel smote ‘a hundred and fourscore and five thousand’. The verse stands within the burden of Babylon (13:1) but names Assyria, whose end 10:12 describes.

Verse 28

In the year that king Ahaz died — The formula is that of 6:1, ‘In the year that king Uzziah died’. Ahaz ‘slept with his fathers’ (2 Kgs 16:20), though ‘they brought him not into the sepulchres of the kings of Israel’ (2 Chr 28:27). ‘Burden’ (massa) heads the oracles of 13:1, 15:1, 17:1, 19:1, 21:1, 22:1 and 23:1.

Verse 29

a fiery flying serpent — ‘Fiery… serpent’ is saraph and ‘flying’ the verb uph, the two words of 6:2, where the seraphim ‘did fly’; Num 21:6 has the ‘fiery serpents’ of the wilderness. ‘Cockatrice’ (tsepha) is the creature in whose den the weaned child plays in 11:8. ‘Palestina’ is Philistia.

Verse 32

the LORD hath founded Zion — ‘Founded’ (yasad) is the verb of 28:16, ‘I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone’. ‘The poor of his people’ echoes ‘the poor of my people’ in 10:2, where unjust decrees took their right; here they shelter in Zion. ‘Trust’ (chasah) is the verb of Zeph 3:12, ‘an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the LORD’.