4 that you shall take up this parable against the king of Babylon, and say, How has the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!
5 Yahweh has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers;
6 who struck the peoples in wrath with a continual stroke, who ruled the nations in anger, with a persecution that none restrained.
7 The whole earth is at rest, [and] is quiet: they break forth into singing.
8 Yes, the fir trees rejoice at you, [and] the cedars of Lebanon, [saying], Since you are laid low, no lumberjack is come up against us.
9 Sheol from beneath is moved for you to meet you at your coming; it stirs up the dead for you, even all the chief ones of the earth; it has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
10 All they shall answer and tell you, Are you also become weak as we? are you become like us?
11 Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, [and] the noise of your viols: the worm is spread under you, and worms cover you.
12 How you are fallen from heaven, day-star, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, who laid the nations low!
13 You said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; and I will sit on the mountain of congregation, in the uttermost parts of the north;
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.
15 Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the uttermost parts of the pit.
16 Those who see you shall gaze at you, they shall consider you, [saying], "Is this the man who made the earth to tremble, who shook kingdoms;
17 who made the world as a wilderness, and overthrew the cities of it; who didn't let loose his prisoners to their home?"
18 All the kings of the nations, all of them, sleep in glory, everyone in his own house.
19 But you are cast forth away from your tomb like an abominable branch, clothed with the slain, who are thrust through with the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit; as a dead body trodden under foot.
20 You shall not be joined with them in burial, because you have destroyed your land, you have killed your people; the seed of evil-doers shall not be named forever.
21 Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers, that they not rise up, and possess the earth, and fill the surface of the world with cities.
22 I will rise up against them, says Yahweh of Hosts, and cut off from Babylon name and remnant, and son and son's son, says Yahweh.
23 I will also make it a possession for the porcupine, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction, says Yahweh of Hosts.
24 Yahweh of Hosts has sworn, saying, Surely, as I have thought, so shall it happen; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Isaiah 14
Commentary on Isaiah 14 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 14
In this chapter,
Isa 14:1-3
This comes in here as the reason why Babylon must be overthrown and ruined, because God has mercy in store for his people, and therefore,
Isa 14:4-23
The kings of Babylon, successively, were the great enemies and oppressors of God's people, and therefore the destruction of Babylon, the fall of the king, and the ruin of his family, are here particularly taken notice of and triumphed in. In the day that God has given Israel rest they shall take up this proverb against the king of Babylon. We must not rejoice when our enemy falls, as ours; but when Babylon, the common enemy of God and his Israel, sinks, then rejoice over her, thou heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets, Rev. 18:20. The Babylonian monarchy bade fair to be an absolute, universal, and perpetual one, and, in these pretensions, vied with the Almighty; it is therefore very justly, not only brought down, but insulted over when it is down; and it is not only the last monarch, Belshazzar, who was slain on that night that Babylon was taken (Dan. 5:30), who is here triumphed over, but the whole monarchy, which sunk in him; not without special reference to Nebuchadnezzar, in whom that monarchy was at its height. Now here,
Isa 14:24-32
The destruction of Babylon and the Chaldean empire was a thing at a great distance; the empire had not risen to any considerable height when its fall was here foretold: it was almost 200 years from this prediction of Babylon's fall to the accomplishment of it. Now the people to whom Isaiah prophesied might ask, "What is this to us, or what shall we be the better for it, and what assurance shall we have of it?' To both questions he answers in these verses, by a prediction of the ruin both of the Assyrians and of the Philistines, the present enemies that infested them, which they should shortly be eye-witnesses of and have benefit by. These would be a present comfort to them, and a pledge of future deliverance, for the confirming of the faith of their posterity. God is to his people the same to day that he was yesterday and will be hereafter; and he will for ever be the same that he has been and is. Here is,