Sheol from beneath has moved for you to meet you at your coming. It stirs up the departed spirits for you, even all the rulers of the earth. It has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. They all will answer and ask you, “Have you also become as weak as we are? Have you become like us?” Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, with the sound of your stringed instruments. Maggots are spread out under you, and worms cover you.
How you have fallen from heaven, shining one, son of the dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, “I will ascend into heaven! I will exalt my throne above the stars of God! I will sit on the mountain of assembly, in the far north! I will ascend above the heights of the clouds! I will make myself like the Most High!” Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the pit. Those who see you will stare at you. They will ponder you, saying, “Is this the man who made the earth to tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the world like a wilderness, and overthrew its cities, who didn’t release his prisoners to their home?”
All the kings of the nations, sleep in glory, everyone in his own house. But you are cast 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; like a dead body trodden under foot. You will not join them in burial, because you have destroyed your land. You have killed your people. The offspring of evildoers will not be named forever.
Prepare for slaughter of his children because of the iniquity of their fathers, that they not rise up and possess the earth, and fill the surface of the world with cities. “I will rise up against them,” says Yahweh of Armies, “and cut off from Babylon name and remnant, and son and son’s son,” says Yahweh. “I will also make it a possession for the porcupine, and pools of water. I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” says Yahweh of Armies.
Yahweh of Armies has sworn, saying, “Surely, as I have thought, so shall it happen; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand: that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and tread him under foot on my mountains. Then his yoke will leave them, and his burden leave their shoulders. This is the plan that is determined for the whole earth. This is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations. For Yahweh of Armies has planned, and who can stop it? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?”
This burden was in the year that king Ahaz died.
Don’t rejoice, O Philistia, all of you, because the rod that struck you is broken; for out of the serpent’s root an adder will emerge, and his fruit will be a fiery flying serpent. The firstborn of the poor will eat, and the needy will lie down in safety; and I will kill your root with famine, and your remnant will be killed.
Howl, gate! Cry, city! You are melted away, Philistia, all of you; for smoke comes out of the north, and there is no straggler in his ranks.
What will they answer the messengers of the nation? That Yahweh has founded Zion, and in her the afflicted of his people will take refuge.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv9, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 As though they feared, lest thou shouldest trouble the…
As though they feared, lest thou shouldest trouble the dead, as thou didst the living: and here he derideth the proud tyranny of the wicked, which know not that all creatures wish their destruction, that they may rejoice.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv9–32 Isa 14:9 Hell from beneath is moved for thee…
Isa 14:9 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.
Ver. 9. Hell from beneath is moved for thee.] Infernus ab inferendo; shaal, from its unsatiableness, and continual craving. Here is an ironic and poetic representation of the King of Babylon’s coming into hell, and his entertainment there; the dead kings rising from their places for reverence to receive him.
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Even all the chief ones of the earth.] Heb., The he-goats, such as lead and go before the flock; such rhetoric as this we meet with in Lucian’s Dialogues. Of Laurentius Valla, that great critic, who found fault with almost all Latin authors, one made this tetrastich;
“ Nunc postquam manes defunctus Valla petivit,
Non audet Pluto verba Latina loqui.
Iupiter hunc caeli dignatus honore fuisset,
Censarem linguae sed timer ipse sum. ”
- Trithem.
From their thrones,] i.e., From their "sepulchres," saith Piscator.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 Hell; or, the grave, as the same word is…
Hell; or, the grave, as the same word is rendered, Isa 14:11, and in innumerable other places; to which he elegantly ascribeth sense and speech, as poets and orators frequently do.
The chief ones, Heb. the he-goats; which lead and govern the flock. From their thrones; from their several graves, which he seems to call their thrones by way of irony or derision, the only thrones now left to them. Thrones both paved and covered with worms, as is noted, Isa 14:11, instead of their former thrones made of ivory or silver, and adorned with gold and precious stones.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v24 The destruction of Babylon and the Chaldean empire was…
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,
I. Assurance given of the destruction of the Assyrians (Isa 14:25): I will break the Assyrian in my land. Sennacherib brought a very formidable army into the land of Judah, but there God broke it, broke all his regiments by the sword of a destroying angel. Note, Those who wrongfully invade God's land shall find that it is at their peril: and those who with unhallowed feet trample upon his holy mountains shall themselves there be trodden under foot. God undertakes to do this himself, his people having no might against the great company that came against them: "I will break the Assyrian; let me alone to do it who have angels, hosts of angels, at command." Now the breaking of the power of the Assyrian would be the breaking of the yoke from off the neck of God's people: His burden shall depart from off their shoulders, the burden of quartering that vast army and paying contribution; therefore the Assyrian must be broken, that Judah and Jerusalem may be eased. Let those that make themselves a yoke and a burden to God's people see what they are to expect. Now, 1. This prophecy is here ratified and confirmed by an oath (Isa 14:24): The Lord of hosts hath sworn, that he might show the immutability of his counsel, and that his people may have strong consolation, Heb 6:17, Heb 6:18. What is here said of this particular intention is true of all God's purposes: As I have thought, so shall it come to pass; for he is in one mind, and who can turn him? Nor is he ever put upon new counsels, or obliged to take new measures, as men often are when things occur which they did not foresee. Let those who are the called according to God's purpose comfort themselves with this, that, as God has purposed, so shall it stand, and on that their stability depends. 2. The breaking of the Assyrian power is made a specimen of what God would do with all the powers of the nations that were engaged against him and his church (Isa 14:26): This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth (the whole world, so the Septuagint), all the inhabitants of the earth (so the Chaldee), not only upon the Assyrian empire (which was then reckoned to be in a manner all the world, as afterwards the Roman empire was, Luk 2:1, and with it many nations fell that had dependence upon it), but upon all those states and potentates that should at any time attack his land, his mountains. The fate of the Assyrian shall be theirs; they shall soon find that they meddle to their own hurt. Jerusalem, as it was to the Assyrians, will be to all people a burdensome stone; all that burden themselves with it shall infallibly be cut to pieces by it, Zac 12:3, Zac 12:6. The same hand of power and justice that is now to be stretched out against the Assyrian for invading the people of God shall be stretched out upon all the nations that do likewise. It is still true, and will ever be so, Cursed is he that curses God's Israel, Num 24:9. God will be an enemy to his people's enemies, Exo 23:22. 3. All the powers on earth are defied to change God's counsel (Isa 14:27): "The Lord of hosts has purposed to break the Assyrian's yoke, and every rod of the wicked laid upon the lot of the righteous; and who shall disannul this purpose? Who can persuade him to recall it, or find out a plea to evade it? His hand is stretched out to execute this purpose; and who has power enough to turn it back or to stay the course of his judgments?"
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II. Assurance is likewise given of the destruction of the Philistines and their power. This burden, this prophecy, that lay as a load upon them, to sink their state, came in the year that king Ahaz died, which was the first year of Hezekiah's reign, Isa 14:28. When a good king came in the room of a bad one then this acceptable message was sent among them. When we reform, then, and not till then, we may look for good news from heaven. Now here we have, 1. A rebuke to the Philistines for triumphing in the death of king Uzziah. He had been as a serpent to them (Isa 14:29), had bitten them, had smitten them, had brought them very low, Ch2 26:6. He warred against the Philistines, broke down their walls, and built cities among them. But when Uzziah died, or rather abdicated, it was told with joy in Gath and published in the streets of Ashkelon. It is inhuman thus to rejoice in our neighbour's fall. But let them not be secure; for though when Uzziah was dead they made reprisals upon Ahaz, and took many of the cities of Judah (Ch2 28:18), yet out of the root of Uzziah should come a cockatrice, a more formidable enemy than Uzziah was, even Hezekiah, the fruit of whose government should be to them a fiery flying serpent, for he should fall upon them with incredible swiftness and fury: we find he did so. Kg2 18:8, He smote the Philistines even to Gaza. Note, If God remove one useful instrument in the midst of his usefulness, he can, and will, raise up others to carry on and complete the same work that they were employed in and left unfinished. 2. A prophecy of the destruction of the Philistines by famine and war. (1.) By famine, Isa 14:30. "When the people of God, whom the Philistines has wasted, and distressed, and impoverished, shall enjoy plenty again," and the first-born of their poor shall feed (the poorest among them shall have food convenient), then, as for the Philistines, God will kill their root with famine. That which was their strength, and with which they thought themselves established as the tree is by the root, shall be starved and dried up by degrees, as those die that die by famine; and thus he shall slay the remnant: those that escape from one destruction are but reserved for another; and, when there are but a few left, those few shall at length be cut off, for God will make a full end. (2.) By war. When the needy of God's people shall lie down in safety, not terrified with the alarms of war, but delighting in the songs of peace, then every gate and every city of the Philistines shall be howling and crying (Isa 14:31), and there shall be a total dissolution of their state; for from Judea, which lay north of the Philistines, there shall come a smoke (a vast army raising a great dust, a smoke that shall be the indication of a devouring fire at hand), and none of all that army shall be alone in his appointed times; none shall straggle or be missing when they are to engage; but they shall all be vigorous and unanimous in attacking the common enemy, when the time appointed for the doing of it comes. None of them shall decline the public service, as, in Deborah's time, Reuben abode among the sheepfolds and Asher on the sea-shore, Jdg 5:16, Jdg 5:17. When God has work to do he will wonderfully endow and dispose men for it.
III. The good use that should be made of all these events for the encouragement of the people of God (Isa 14:32): What shall one then answer the messengers of the nations?
1. This implies, (1.) That the great things God does for his people are, and cannot but be, taken notice of by their neighbours; those among the heathen make remarks upon them, Psa 126:2. (2.) That messengers will be sent to enquire concerning them. Jacob and Israel had long been a people distinguished from all others and dignified with uncommon favours; and therefore some for good-will, others for ill-will, and all for curiosity, are inquisitive concerning them. (3.) That it concerns us always to be ready to give a reason of the hope that we have in the providence of God, as well as in his grace, in answer to every one that asks it, with meekness and fear, Pe1 3:15. And we need go no further than the sacred truths of God's word for a reason; for God, in all he does, is fulfilling the scripture. (4.) The issue of God's dealings with his people shall be so clearly and manifestly glorious that any one, every one, shall be able to give an account of them to those that enquire concerning them. Now,
2. The answer which is to be given to the messengers of the nations is, (1.) That God is and will be a faithful friend to his church and people, and will secure and advance their interests. Tell them that the Lord has founded Zion. This gives an account both of the work itself that is done and of the reason of it. What is God doing in the world, and what is he designing in all the revolutions of states and kingdoms, in the ruin of some nations and the rise of others? He is, in all this, founding Zion; he is aiming at the advancement of his church's interests; and what he aims at he will accomplish. The messengers of the nations, when they sent to enquire concerning Hezekiah's successes against the Philistines, expected to learn by what politics, counsels, and arts of war he carried his point; but they are told that these successes were not owing to any thing of that nature, but to the care God took of his church and the interest he had in it. The Lord has founded Zion, and therefore the Philistines must fall. (2.) That his church has and will have a dependence upon him: The poor of his people shall trust in it, his poor people who have lately been brought very low, even the poorest of them; they more than others, for they have nothing else to trust to, Zep 3:12, Zep 3:13. The poor receive the gospel, Mat 11:5. They shall trust to this, to this great truth, that the Lord has founded Zion; on this they shall build their hopes, and not on an arm of flesh. This ought to give us abundant satisfaction as to public affairs, that however it may go with particular persons, parties, and interests, the church, having God himself for its founder and Christ the rock for its foundation, cannot but stand firm. The poor of his people shall betake themselves to it (so some read it), shall join themselves to his church and embark in its interests; they shall concur with God in his designs to establish his people, and shall wind up all on the same plan, and make all their little concerns and projects bend to that. Those that take God's people for their people must be willing to take their lot with them and cast in their lot among them. Let the messengers of the nations know that the poor Israelites, who trust in God, having, like Zion, their foundation in the holy mountains (Psa 87:1), are like Zion, which cannot be removed, but abides for ever (Psa 125:1.), and therefore they will not fear what man can do unto them.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv9–31 Hell from beneath is moved for thee,.... Or the…
Hell from beneath is moved for thee,.... Or the "grave", or the place and state of the dead, and particularly of the damned, meaning those that are in such a place and state; and the sense is, that not only the inhabitants of the earth, and the trees upon it, express their joy at the fall of the king of Babylon, but those that are under the earth, in the grave, or in hell, are affected with it, and moved on account of it, not with fear and dread, as they were in his and their life time, as Kimchi suggests; but they are represented as in motion, and that as attended with a great noise, because of the multitude of them, upon hearing of his death, and his entrance into the regions of the dead:
to meet thee at thy coming: as kings used to be met when they, and as he used to be when he, entered into any city that was taken, to salute him, and congratulate him upon his entrance into the dark regions of death, the grave, and hell; a biting sarcasm:
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it stirreth up the dead for thee; the dead that are in it, in hell or the grave; not to oppose him, but to welcome him into their parts, as being now one of them, and to be joined to their company; hell or the grave is said to rouse them, as if they were asleep, and took no notice of the death of so great a monarch, who was just making his public entry among them. The word "Rephaim", here used, is sometimes rendered "giants", as in Deu 2:11 and Jarchi interprets it of the Anakim; and so the Targum,
"it raiseth up unto thee mighty men;''
for not the common people among the dead, but the princes and great ones of the earth, whom the Babylonian monarch had subdued and slain, and to whom he was well known, are intended, as appears by what follows:
even all the chief ones of the earth; or the "great goats"; the leaders and commanders of the people, who, as goats go before and lead the flock, so they the people. The Targum calls them
"all the rich in substance;''
who were persons of wealth, power, and authority, when on earth:
it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations; to offer in a jeering manner their thrones to him, who had been obliged, in their life time and his, to surrender to him their crowns, and thrones, and kingdoms; but by their thrones here are meant their sepulchres, built, as many of them were, in great pomp and splendour; for kings at death have no other thrones but their graves. Aben Ezra says, it was the custom of the Babylonians to set thrones in the sepulchres of their kings.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 Thrones - From their graves, which he seems to…
Thrones - From their graves, which he seems to call their thrones by way of irony: the only thrones now left to them. Thrones both paved and covered with worms, instead of their former thrones, adorned with gold and precious stones.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv9, 11, 12, 13, 19, 20, 23, 25, 28, 30, 31, 32 Verse 9. Hell from beneath is moved for thee…
Verse 9. Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee] That is, Nebuchadnezzar. "It (hell) hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the earth; - the ghosts (rephaim) of all the mighty ones, or goats, (עתודי attudey,) of the earth - all the oppressors of mankind." What a most terrible idea is here! Tyrannical kings who have oppressed and spoiled mankind, are here represented as enthroned in hell; and as taking a Satanic pleasure in seeing others of the same description enter those abodes of misery!
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 28, 30, 31, 32 Isa 14:12-14. How art thou fallen from heaven —…
Isa 14:12-14. How art thou fallen from heaven — From the height of thy glory; O Lucifer — Lucifer is properly a bright star, that ushers in the morning; but is here metaphorically taken for the mighty king of Babylon, who outshone all the kings of the earth by his great splendour. Son of the morning — The title of son is given in Scripture, not only to a person or thing begotten or produced by another, but also to any thing which is related to it, in which sense we read of the son of a night, Jon 4:10, a son of perdition, Joh 17:12, and, which is more agreeable to the present case, the sons of Arcturus, Job 38:32. How art thou cut down to the ground — Thou, whose power raised thee, in the estimation of men, even to heaven itself? Thou, who didst trample on, and destroy all the nations! For thou hast said in thy heart — Which lay open to God’s inspection; I will ascend into heaven — I will advance myself above the state of weak and mortal men. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God — Above all other kings and potentates; or, above the most eminent persons of God’s church. I will sit upon the mount of the congregation — I will establish my royal throne upon mount Zion, where the Jews meet together to worship God: in the sides of the north — This is added as a more exact description of the place of the temple; it stood upon mount Moriah, which was northward from the hill of Zion, strictly so called. I will be like the Most High — In the uncontrollableness of my power, and the universal extent of my dominion. By putting these and such like words into the mouths of the kings of Babylon, the prophet means to show their excessive pride, and the confidence which they entertained, that they should perpetually reign over the Jews.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv9–32 Hell from beneath - The scene is now changed.…
Hell from beneath - The scene is now changed. The prophet had represented the people of all the subject nations as rejoicing that the king of Babylon had fallen, and had introduced even the trees of the forest as breaking forth into joy at this event. He now transfers the scene to the mournful regions of the dead; follows the spirit of the departed king of Babylon - the man who once gloried in the magnificence of his kingdom and his court, and who was more distinguished for pride and arrogance than all other monarchs - down to the land of darkness, and describes his reception there. This portion of the ode is signally sublime, and is managed with great power and skill. It is unequalled, perhaps, by any writings for boldness, majesty, and, at the same time, for its severe sarcasm. The word ‘hell’ here (שׁאול she'ôl) is rendered by the Vulgate, “infernus;” and by the Septuagint, ὁ ᾅδης ho Hadēs, “Hades.”
It properly means the grave, and then the dark regions of the lower world - the region of ghosts and shades a place where thick darkness reigns. The verb from which it is derived means, properly, “to ask, to demand, to require, to seek;” and this name (שׁאול she'ôl) is supposed to have been given to the grave, and to the regions of departed spirits, from the insatiable demand which they are constantly making of the living (see the note at Isa 5:14, where the word is explained). The word denotes, says Taylor (“Heb. Con.”), ‘The underground parts of the earth, otherwise called the nether, or lower parts of the earth; the earth beneath in opposition to the earth above, where people and other animals live. In “sheol” are the foundations of the mountains Deu 32:22. In “sheol “men penetrate by digging into the earth Amo 9:2. Into “sheol” the roots of trees do strike down Eze 31:16.
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Into “sheol,” Korah, Dathan, and Abiram went down alive Num 16:30, Num 16:33. In “sheol” the body is corrupted and consumed by worms Job 17:13-14; Psa 16:10; Psa 49:14. They that rest together in the dust are said “to go down to the bars, or strong gates of sheol” Job 17:16. In “sheol” there is no knowledge, nor can any praise God or give thanks there Psa 6:5; Ecc 9:10; Isa 38:10-11. “Sheol” and the pit, death and corruption, are synonymous Psa 16:10; Psa 89:48; Pro 1:12; Pro 7:27; Eze 31:16; Hos 13:14. A grave is one particular cavity purposely digged for the interment of a dead person; “sheol” is a collective name for all the graves. He that is in the grave is in “sheol;” but he that is in “sheol” may not be in a grave, but in any pit, or in the sea. In short, it is the region of the dead; which is figuratively considered as a city or large habitation with gates and bars in which there are many chambers Pro 7:27.’ “Sheol” is never full, but is always asking or craving more Pro 27:20; Heb 2:5. Here it means, not a place of punishment, but the region of the dead, where the ghosts of the departed are considered as residing together.
From beneath - From beneath the earth. “Sheol” was always represented as being “in” or “under” the ground, and the grave was the avenue or door that led to it (see the note at Isa 5:14.)
Is moved for thee - Is roused to meet thee; is surprised that a monarch once so proud and magnificent is descending to it. The image here is taken from the custom of the ancients in burying, especially of burying princes and kings. This was usually done in caves or sepulchres excavated from a rock (see the notes and illustrations on Isa 66:4). Mr. Stephens, in his “Travels in Egypt, Arabia Petrea, and the Holy land,” has given an account of the manner in which he passed a night in Petra, which may serve to illustrate this passage: ‘We ascended the valley, and rising to the summit of the rocky rampart, of Petra, it was almost dark when we found ourselves opposite a range of tombs in the suburbs of the city. Here we dismounted; and selecting from among them one which, from its finish and dimensions, must have been the last abode of some wealthy Edomite, we prepared to pass the night within its walls.
In the front part of it was a large chamber, about twenty-five feet square, and ten feet high; and behind this was another of smaller dimensions, furnished with receptacles of the dead, not arranged after the manner of shelves along the wall, as in the catacombs I had seen in Italy and Egypt, but cut lengthwise in the rock, like ovens, so as to admit the insertion of the body with the feet foremost. My plans for the morrow being all arranged, the Bedouins stretched themselves out in the outer chamber, while I went within; and seeking out a tomb as far back as I could find, I crawled in feet first, and found myself very much in the condition of a man buried alive. I had just room enough to turn round; and the worthy old Edomite for whom the tomb was made, never slept in it more quietly than I did.’ (Vol. ii. pp. 82, 83, 86.) To understand the passage before us, we are to form the idea of an immense and gloomy cavern, all around which are niches or cells made to receive the bodies of the dead. In this vast vault monarchs repose in grandeur suitable to their former rank, each on his couch, ‘in glory,’ with their arms beside them (see Isa 14:18). These mighty shades - these departed monarchs - are represented as rising from their couches to meet the descending king of Babylon, and receive him with insults on his fall. The Hebrew word for “moved” denotes more than our translation conveys. It means that they were “agitated” - they “trembled” - they advanced toward the descending monarch with trepidation. The idea of the shades of the mighty dead thus being troubled, and rising to meet the king of Babylon, is one that is exceedingly sublime.
It stireth up - “Sheol” stirreth up; that is, they are stirred up or excited. So the Septuagint renders it ‘All the giants who rule the earth rise up to thee.’
The dead - Hebrew, רפאים repā'ı̂ym. The Septuagint renders this, Ὁι γίγαντες hoi gigantes ‘giants.’ So the Vulgate and the Chaldee, The meaning of this word has been a subject of great difference of opinion among lexicographers. It is sometimes found as a gentile noun to denote the sons of Raphah, called “Rephaim” 2Sa 21:16, 2Sa 21:18, a Canaanite race of giants that lived beyond Jordan Gen 14:5; Gen 15:20, from whom Og the son of Bashan was descended Deu 3:11. It is sometimes used to denote all the giant tribes of Canaan Deu 2:11, Deu 2:20; and is particularly applied to people of extraordinary strength among the Philistines 2Sa 21:16, 2Sa 21:18. Vitringa supposes that the term was given to the spirits of the dead on account of the fact that they appeared to be “larqer” than life; that they in their form and stature resembled giants. But a more probable opinion is, that it is applied to the shades of the dead as being weak, feeble, or without power or sensation, from the word רפא râpâ', weak, feeble, powerless. This interpretation is strongly confirmed by the place before us Isa 14:10, ‘Art thou become weak as we?’ The word is rendered ‘giants’ in the following places: Deu 2:11, Deu 2:20; Deu 3:13; Jos 21:4; Jos 15:8; Jos 17:15; Jos 18:16; 2Sa 21:16, 2Sa 21:18, 2Sa 21:20, 2Sa 21:22; 1Ch 20:5-6, 1Ch 20:8. It is rendered ‘Rephaims,’ Gen 14:5; Gen 15:20; 2Sa 5:18, 2Sa 5:22; 2Sa 23:13. It is rendered ‘the dead’ Job 26:5; Psa 88:10; Pro 2:18; Pro 9:18; Pro 21:16; Isa. 26:29; and once it is rendered ‘deceased,’ Isa 26:14. It here means the departed spirits of the dead - the inhabitants of that dark and dismal region, conceived by the Hebrews to be situated beneath the ground, where dwell the departed dead before their final destiny is fixed - called “sheol” or “hades.” It is not the residence of the wicked only - the place of punishment - but the place where all the dead are supposed to be congregated before their final doom is pronounced.
(The author entertains unique views of the state of knowledge among the Hebrews regarding the future world - views which will be found fully canvassed in the preface to the volumes on Job. As to the alleged notion of all the dead dwelling in some dismal region before their final doom is pronounced, we have there taken pains to show that the righteous in ancient times entertained no such gloomy expectations. The opinions of the ancient Hebrews on this subject, must be taken from passages in which they expressly treat of it, and intimate plainly what their belief is, and not from passages confessedly full of poetical imagery. Nor are we to construe popular and poetical phraseology so strictly and literally as to form a theological creed out of it, in contradiction to the actual belief of those who daily used that phraseology. Because Englishmen speak of the dead “indiscriminately” as having “gone to the grave,” and “to the land of spirits,” must we, out of this, construct a Popish purgatory as the national belief?
Yet this would be just as reasonable in the case of the English, as in the case of the Jews. The reader will appreciate the following observations of Professor Alexander on the place: ‘Two expressions have been faithfully transcribed by interpreters, from one another, in relation to this passage, with a very equivocal effect upon its exposition. The one is, that it is full of biting sarcasm - an unfortunate suggestion of Calvin’s, which puts the reader on the scent for irony, and even wit, instead of opening his mind to impressions of sublimity and tragic grandeur. The other, for which Calvin is in no degree responsible, is, that we have before us not a mere prosopopeia, or poetical creation of the highest order, but a chapter from the popular belief of the Jews, as to the locality, contents, and transactions of the unseen world. Thus Gesenius, in his Lexicon and Commentary, gives a minute topographical description of “Sheol,” as the Hebrews believed it to exist.
With equal truth, a diligent compiler might construct a map of hell, as conceived of by the English Puritans, from the descriptive portions of the Paradise Lost. The infidel interpreters of Germany regard the scriptural and Classical mythology precisely in the same light. But when Christian writers copy their expressions or ideas, they should take pains to explain whether the popular belief of which they speak was true or false, and, if false, how it could lie countenanced and sanctioned by inspired writers. This kind of exposition is, moreover, chargeable with a rhetorical incongruity, in landing the creative genius of the poet, and yet making all his grand creations commonplace articles of popular belief. The true view of the matter, as determined both by piety and taste, appears to be, that the passage now before ns comprehends two elements, and only two religious verities or certain facts, and poetical embellishments. The admission of a “tertium quid,” in the shape of superstitious fables, is as false in rhetoric as in theology.’)
The chief ones of the earth. - Margin, ‘Leaders,’ or ‘great goats.’ The Hebrew word means properly “great goats,” or goats that are leaders of the flock. Perhaps there is intended to be a slight degree of sarcasm in applying this word to princes and monarchs. It is nowhere else applied to princes, though the word is often used or applied to rams, or to the chief goats of a flock.
From their thrones - In “hades,” or “sheol.” They are there represented as occupying an eminence similar to that which distinguished them on earth.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv9, 12, 13, 15, 16, 19, 20, 22, 23, 25, 28, 29, 32 Hell is personified, deriding the Chaldean monarch, Baltassar, who…
Hell is personified, deriding the Chaldean monarch, Baltassar, who perished the very night after he had profaned the sacred vessels, Daniel v. 3. He probably received only the burial of an ass, ver. 11, 19. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On vv24, 28 Isa_14:24 to Isa_20:6
II. PROPHECIES RELATING TO ASSYRIA AND TO THE NATIONS THREATENED BY ASSYRIA, PHILISTIA, MOAB, SYRIA, AND ARAM-EPHRAIM, ETHIOPIA AND EGYPT
Isa_14:24 to Isa_20:6
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a) Prophecy against Assyria
Isa_14:24-27
We have explained above why the prophecy against Assyria occupies the second place and after the one against Babylon. A prophecy against Assyria could not be omitted. It was necessary as a background to the prophecies that follow. But it needed only to be a short one. For the Prophet is sensible that the power of Assyria is shattered by the overthrow of Sennacherib—therefore fore that, in a prophetic sense, it is in principle a thing done away. But to Assyria and the other nations named in the superscription above, the Prophet does not proclaim merely temporal destruction. He sets before all more or less plainly the prospect of partaking of the Messianic salvation of the future.
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24 The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying,
Surely as I have thought, so 35shall it come to pass;
And as I have purposed, so shall it stand:
25 36That 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?
37And his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa_14:24. דִּמָּה in the sense of animo componere, “to dispose in thought,” only again Isa_10:7; moreover the Prophet seems to have had in mind in this place, Num_33:56.——The Perfect היתה expresses the coincidence of the realization with the thought. No sooner said than done, i.e., as God conceives a thought, it is also (as to principle) realized. The following imperf. תקום has then the meaning that what is, as to principle, realized, must arise, set up as actual, outward circumstance. Before תקום the כּן is not repeated, but היא is used, evidently for the sake of variety. The thought is essentially the same. It is a sort of Anacoluthon——היה and קום are used as in Isa_7:7; Isa_8:10.
Isa_14:25. The infin. לשׁבר depends on the oath-clause Isa_14:24 b; what is determined shall be fulfilled frangendo Assyrios, etc. לשׁבר is therefore inf. modalis or gerundivus.——With אבוסנו (comp. Isa_14:19; Isa_63:6; Isa_63:18) the language returns from the infinitive construction to the verbum fin., according to a frequent Hebrew usage.——The suffixes in מעליהם and שׁכמו have nothing to which they can relate in the words of Isa_14:24-25.—Moreover from Isa_14:4 onwards, Israel is not referred to. True, in Isa_14:1-2, Israel is likewise spoken of in the third person, and with quite similar suffixes (עליחם Isa_14:1, שׁביהם ,נגשׂיהם Isa_14:2); but then Isa_14:3 intervenes, in which Israel is spoken of in the second person. It must, therefore, be assumed that the suffixes Isa_14:25 refer back, not only over the entire Maschal (4–23), but also away over Isa_14:3 to Isa_14:1-2, and that these verses originated, not at the same time with the rest of the prophecy against Babylon, but much earlier. All this is very improbable. I cannot therefore agree with Vitringa and Drechsler, but must side with the view, that the present verses are a fragment of a greater prophecy for Israel of a comforting nature, which, however, cannot be identical with 7–12 because in these Assyria is regarded in a totally different light from that which appears in the present verses.
Isa_14:27. יָפֵר comp. Isa_8:10. [“This has been variously translated “scatter” (LXX.), “weaken” (Vulg.), “avert” (Luth.), “dissolve” (Calvin), “change” (J. D. “Michaelis”), “hinder” (Gesen.), break (Ewald [Naegelsb.]); but its true sense is that given in the Eng. Version and by De Wette (vereiteln) [see Fuerst Lex.]. The meaning of the last clause is not simply that his hand is stretched out, as most writers give it, but that the hand stretched out is his, as appears from the article prefixed to the participle נטויה. (See Gesen. § 108, 3. Ewald, § 560.—J. A. A.].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. Whoever reads the prophecies of Isaiah against the heathen nations with attention, must feel surprise that in them, there is relatively little more said about Assyria. After occupying in 7–12 the foreground, it retreats in 13 and onward into the background. On the other hand Babylon now stands front and the Prophet recognizes in it the representative of the perfectly developed world-power that has attained to the exclusive possession of dominion. Now the question arises: how are Assyria and Babylon related? What becomes of Assyria if now Babylon is called the world-power? How is it to be explained that according to Isa_10:24-27 Israel at the end of days is delivered out of bondage to Assyria, if at that end-period not Assyria but Babylon stands at the summit of the world-power? These questions are solved by the short section before us, Isa_14:24-27. It appears therein that in the immediate future Assyria must be destroyed, that, therefore, Israel may expect deliverance from the yoke of Assyria in a brief season, but that therewith Israel is neither delivered forever, nor is the world-power for ever broken up. But Babylon walks in the footsteps of Assyria; and if in 7–12 the world-power appeared solely under the name of Assyria, it happened only because the Prophet could not then distinguish that which followed Assyria from Assyria itself, and therefore comprehended it under one name.
2. The Lord of hosts——turn it back.
Isa_14:24-27. Drechsler attaches great weight to the fact that the phrase “the Lord of hosts hath sworn,” is preceded by a thrice repeated “saith the Lord of hosts,” Isa_14:22-23. He says the former is only a climax of these latter. He lays stress, too, on the fact that the thrice repeated “Lord of hosts” of Isa_14:22-23 has its correlative in the double use of the same in Isa_14:24; Isa_14:27, and that the same words which in Isa_14:23 “conclude the proper body of the discourse, in Isa_14:24 begin the appendix.” He, therefore, regards Isa_14:24-27 as an integral part of the discourse that extends through Isa_13:1 to Isa_14:27, and therefore as having originated at the same time. But that is impossible. The words Isa_14:24-27 must be older than, the catastrophe of Sennacherib before Jerusalem, for they foretell it. But the prophecy against Babylon Isa_13:1 to Isa_14:23 must be much more recent, for it is the product of a much higher and, therefore, of a much later prophetic knowledge [? Tr.]. If, too, in the points named there appears a certain correspondence, yet it remains very much a question whether that is intentional. The expressions in question, so far as they correspond, occur exceedingly often in all sorts of connections.
The expression “the Lord hath sworn” is especially frequent in Deuteronomy, but always with the Dative of the person whom the oath concerns (Deu_1:8; Deu_2:14; Deu_4:31, etc.). In Isaiah it occurs again, Isa_45:23; Isa_54:9; Isa_62:8.—The contents of the oath is: “as I have thought … so shall it stand.”
[“From the distant view of the destruction of Babylon, the Prophet suddenly reverts to that of the Assyrian host, either for the purpose of making one of these events accredit the prediction of the other, or for the purpose of assuring true believers, that while God had decreed the deliverance of the people from remoter dangers, He would also protect them from those at hand.—On the formula of swearing vide supra, v. 9.—Kimchi explains היתה to be a preterite used for a future, and this construction is adopted in most versions, ancient and modern. It is, however, altogether arbitrary and in violation of the only safe rule as to the use of tenses, viz., that they should have their proper and distinctive force, unless forbidden by the context, or the nature of the subject; which is very far from being the case here.——The true force of the preterite and future forms, as here employed, is recognized by Aben Ezra, who explains the clause to mean that according to God’s purpose, it has come to pass and will come to pass hereafter. The antithesis is rendered still more prominent by Jarchi, by whom this verse is paraphrased as follows—‘Thou hast seen, oh Nebuchadnezzar, how the words of the prophets of Israel have been fulfilled in Sennacherib, to break Assyria in my land, and by this thou mayest know that what I have purposed against thee shall also come to pass’ (comp. Eze_31:3-18).—The only objection to this view is that the next verse goes on to speak of the Assyrian overthrow, which would seem to imply that the last clause of this verse (24) as well as the first relates to that event. Another method of expounding the verse, therefore, is to apply היתה and תקום to the same events, but in a somewhat different sense,—‘As I intended it has come to pass, and as I purposed, it shall continue.’ The Assyrian power is already broken, and shall never be restored. This strict interpretation of the preterite does not necessarily imply that the prophecy was actually uttered after the destruction of Sennacherib’s army. Such would indeed be the natural inference from this verse alone: but for reasons which will be explained below, [viz., in comment on Isa_14:26.—Tr.] it is more probable that the Prophet merely takes his stand in vision at a point of time between the two events of which he speaks, so that both verbs are really prophetic, the one of a remote the other of a proximate futurity, but for that very reason their distinctive forms should be retained and recognized. Yet the only modern writers who appear to do so in translation are Calvin and Cocceius, who have factum est, and J. D. Michaelis, who has ist geschehen.—J. J. A. So also substantially Barnes.]
In my land and on my mountain the Lord says. Therefore not in his own land or some other land, but in Palestine the annihilating blow shall fall on Assyria. This evidently points to the overthrow of Sennacherib before Jerusalem (2Ki_19:35; Isa_37:36). Though even after this overthrow Assyria’s power did not at once appear broken, still it was such inwardly and in principle. As much as Nebuchadnezzar after his victory at Carchemish was ruler of the world, though outwardly he had not that appearance (Jeremiah 25), so Assyria, after the Lord had smitten him in his territory, from the view-point of God, and according to inward and divine reality, was broken to pieces and trodden down.—The consequence of that overthrow of Assyria is that Israel shall be freed from his dominion.
The words his yoke shall depart,etc. sound essentially the same as Isa_10:27. Other resemblances are of Isa_14:24 to Isa_7:5; Isa_7:7; Isa_8:10; Isa_10:7; Isa_14:25 to Isa_9:3; Isa_10:27; Isa_14:26 to Isa_9:11; Isa_9:16; Isa_9:20; Isa_10:4; Isa_11:11; Isa_14:27 to Isa_8:10. But much as Isa_14:24-27 remind one of chapts. 7–12, there is still this essential difference, that in the last named chapters there is no where a prophecy of an overthrow of Assyria in the holy land itself. In general the gaze of the Prophet in those chapters is directed to a much more remote distance. There he looks on Assyria still as representative of the world-power generally, and thus, too, Assyria’s overthrow coincides for him with the overthrow of the world-power in general by the Messiah. Here we encounter a look into the immediate future. It must belong to the time before the defeat of Sennacherib. Therefore our verses cannot belong originally to the prophecy against Babylon. [See above in Text. and Gram.].
When the Prophet (Isa_14:26) declares that the catastrophe predicted for Assyria is significant for the whole earth, and for all nations, he does it by reason of the connection that exists between all acts of the Godhead. That defeat of Sennacherib, too, is an integral moment of the decree that the Lord has determined concerning the whole earth, and all nations. This counsel of God stands so firm that no power of the world can hinder its execution; the hand which the Lord has stretched out to do this execution nothing can turn aside from its doing.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. How grand is the Prophet’s contemplation of history! How the mighty Assyria shrivels up, which in chapters 7–12, played so great a part! Only a line or so is devoted to it here, “Das macht, es ist gericht, eir Wörtlein bann es fällen.” The Prophet knows that Sennacherib’s defeat before Jerusalem is at once the overthrow of the Assyrian world-power, and the deliverance of Israel from his yoke, although Assyria stood yet a hundred years and did harm enough to Judah still (2Ch_33:11). But God always sees the essence of things. What He wills, comes to pass; and when it has happened, perhaps no one knows what that which has come to pass means: only the future makes it plain. The fruit germ frosted in the blossom, may remain green for days. Only by degrees it becomes yellow, then black, and evidently dead.
[“By this assurance (Isa_14:24-27) God designed to comfort His people, when they should be in Babylon in a long and dreary captivity. Comp. Psalms 137. And by the same consideration His people may be comforted in all times. His plans shall stand. None can disannul them. No arm has power to resist Him. None of the schemes formed against Him shall ever prosper. Whatever ills, therefore, may befall His people; however thick, gloomy, and sad their calamities may be; and however dark His dispensations may appear, yet they may have the assurance that all His plans are wise, and that they all shall stand.”—Barnes].
Footnotes:
[35]it has come to pass.
[36]To break.
[37]And his is the hand that is stretched out.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv9–32 THE SCENE CHANGES FROM EARTH TO HELL. (Isa 14:9-11)
THE SCENE CHANGES FROM EARTH TO HELL. (Isa 14:9-11)
moved--put into agitation.
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for thee--that is, "at thee"; towards thee; explained by "to meet thee at thy coming" [MAURER].
chief ones--literally, "goats"; so rams, leaders of the flock; princes (Zac 10:3). The idea of wickedness on a gigantic scale is included (Eze 34:17; Mat 25:32-33). MAGEE derives "Rephaim" (English Version, "the dead") from a Hebrew root, "to resolve into first elements"; so "the deceased" (Isa 26:14) "ghosts" (Pro 21:16). These being magnified by the imagination of the living into gigantic stature, gave their name to giants in general (Gen 6:4; Gen 14:5; Eze 32:18, Eze 32:21). "Rephaim," translated in the Septuagint, "giants" (compare see on Job 26:5-6). Thence, as the giant Rephaim of Canaan were notorious even in that guilty land, enormous wickedness became connected with the term. So the Rephaim came to be the wicked spirits in Gehenna, the lower of the two portions into which Sheol is divided.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 9. While it is all quiet on the earth,…
9. While it is all quiet on the earth, it is all excitement in the regions below. The bold personification goes on, but in the world invisible, and a good reading of this verse is as follows:
Hell from beneath — Or, The kingdom of the dead below, is all in an uproar on account of thee, to meet thee at thy coming; it stirreth up the shades for thee, all the he-goats of the earth; it raiseth up from their throne-seats all the kings of the nations.”
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Hell — On this word see notes on Isa_5:14. There is something awfully grand and fearful in the sheol, the underworld of the Hebrews, the hades of the New Testament, and the “hell” of the English Old Testament: an immense subterranean kingdom, (Isa_14:9; Jer_5:14; Job_26:6,) thickly dark, (Job_10:21-22,) deeply gullied, (Proverbs 9:19,) closed with strong gates, (Isa_38:10,) and a place whence there is no escape, (Job_7:9-10; Luk_16:26;) all which passages, too, describe the popular conceptions of the Hebrews and Jews poetically embellished, as well as express what to the Hebrews contained an indisputable doctrine, namely, that of life after death.
Stirreth up the dead — The “dead” — Hebrew, רפאים, rephaim — rendered, in Isa_26:14, “deceased;” in Deu_2:11; Deu_3:11, giants; (so the Septuagint and Vulgate;) either from being long time dead, or because shades or spectres may be conceived as actually larger than living men.
Chief ones of the earth — Literally, he-goats; bellwethers, leaders. Isa_3:6; Zec_10:3.
Their thrones — The personification retains for the shadowy souls of the great, their relative positions, even in the underworld.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 9. Hell from beneath] Rather, Sheol beneath. It is…
9. Hell from beneath] Rather, Sheol beneath. It is best to retain the Hebrew name of the under-world (shì’ôl) as is sometimes done by the Revisers, though not in this passage. An almost exact equivalent would be the Greek Hades, For the dead, render the shades (rìphâ’îm) as in R.V. marg.
the chief ones] lit. “the he-goats,” a figurative designation of kings (Jer_1:8; Zec_10:3).
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9–11. The second strophe forms an effective contrast to the first. He who had so long troubled the earth becomes a disturbing presence in the under-world; the earth is now at rest, Sheol is troubled.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv9–32 (9) Hell from beneath is moved for thee .…
(9) Hell from beneath is moved for thee . . .—“Hell,” or Sheol, is, as elsewhere, the shadow-world, the region of the dead. Into that world the king of Babylon descends. The “dead” and the Rephaim are there, the giant-spectres, now faint and feeble (Deu_2:11; Deu_3:11), of departed forms of greatness. The verb (“it stirreth up”), which is masculine, while the noun is feminine, seems to personify Sheol, as Hades is personified in Rev_20:14. The “chief ones” are, literally, the he-goats, or “bell-wethers” of the flock (Isa_34:6; Zec_10:3), of which Hades is the shepherd (Psa_49:14). Even in Sheol the kings of the earth retain their former majesty, and sit on thrones apart from the vulgar dead. In Eze_32:17-32 we have a reproduction of the same imagery, and the kings appear, each with his “weapons of war.” The whole passage finds a striking parallel in the Assyrian legend of the Descent of Ishtar (Records of the Past, i. p. 144), where Hades is described.
“The abode of darkness and famine.
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* * * * * *
Night is not seen—in darkness they dwell.
Ghosts, like birds, flutter their wings there.
On the door and gate-posts the dust lies undisturbed.
* * * * * * *
To be the ruler of a palace shall be thy rank;
A throne of state shall be thy seat.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 Hell from beneath. The Hebrew Sheol corresponded nearly to…
Hell from beneath. The Hebrew Sheol corresponded nearly to the Greek Hades, and the Latin Inferi. It was a dismal region in the center of the earth, whither departed souls descended, and where they remained thenceforth. There were various depths in it, each apparently more dismal than the preceding; but there is no evidence that it was considered to contain any place of happiness, until after the return from the Captivity. The prophet here represents Sheol as disturbed by the advent of the Babylonian monarch, and as rousing itself to receive him. The great ones of the earth, and the kings, who are kings even in Hades, and sit upon thrones, are especially moved by the occasion, and prepare to meet and greet their brother. Personal identity and continued consciousness of it after death are assumed; and the former earthly rank of the inmates seems to be recognized and maintained. It stirreth up the dead. Hell in the aggregate the place personified proceeds to arouse the individual inmates, who are called re-phaim the word commonly translated "giants", (Deu_2:11, 20 13:12Jo 12:4 13:12, etc.) but meaning properly "feeble ones." The shades or ghosts of the departed were regarded as weak and nerveless, in comparison with living men (compare the Homeric eidwla kamontwn ). All the chief ones; literally, the he-goats. (comp. Jer_1:8 Jer_51:40 Zec_10:3) Raised up from their thrones; i.e. "caused to rise up from their thrones," and stand in eager expectation of what was about to happen.
Vers. 9-23. Song of redeemed Israel: the scene in Hades.
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I ENTRANCE OF THE TYRANT INTO THE UNDERWORLD. (Vers. 9-11.) The realm of the departed trembles with the excitement of expectation as the great potentate of Babylonia approaches to take up his abode in those gloomy regions. The shades of departed chiefs and kings bestir themselves, and rise from their thrones in amazement to greet the newcomer. "Hast thou also become weak like us? Art thou become one of us?" His pomp and splendor is cast down to the lowest depth, the sound of his festive harp is silenced in that joyless place. Instead of his costly rugs, maggots are now his bedclothes, and his counterpane worms.
II IDEAS OF THE UNDERWORLD. These pictures reach far back into antiquity, and represent a deep and universal belief in the heart of mankind. Sheol among the Hebrews, Hades and Tartaros among the Greeks, the realm of Dis or Pluto among the Romans, are different representations of the same ideas of conscience. But with the Hebrew it is connected more sublimely and simply with the faith in the one supreme and righteous God.
1. It is viewed as a stale of physical exhaustion. In Homer ("Odyssey," 11.) the departed are described as faint, helpless ghosts, who recover nor memory and consciousness till they have drunk of the blood poured by Odysseus into the trench. And when his mother has thus revived and has spoken to him"Thrice in my arms I strove her shade to hind; Thrice through my arms she slipp"d like empty wind, Or dreams, the vain illusion of the mind.... All, all are such when life the body leaves No more the substance of the man remains, Nor bounds the blood along the purple veins.
Pale and wan beneath those "nether skies," their lot is in extreme contrast to that of their friends who still breathe in realms of cheerful day.
2. It is a place of profound sadness and regret. Who can forget the piercing pathos of Achilles" words when Odysseus hails him as a king among the shades, even as on earth he had been a guardian divinity to his countrymen"Talk not of ruling in this dolorous gloom, Nor think vain words (he cried) can ease my doom. Rather I"d choose laboriously to bear A weight of woes and breathe the vital air, A slave to some poor hind that toils for bread, Than reign the sceptered monarch of the dead.
Oh, how gladly, exclaims Virgil, in describing the suicides in hell, would they now endure poverty and toil beneath the deep sky! But vain the wish; justice forbids, and they must remain confined in the horrid swamp, with its melancholy waters, shut in by the ninefold stream of Styx. A sullen discontent is the mood of others, like Ajax, brooding over the loss of the prize of arms. It is a scene of hopelessness. The descent is easy; but to retrace the steps the Roman poet admits the possibility only to a few, sons of gods, favored by Jupiter, or inspired by superhuman virtue. Says the gloomy Italian, "All hope abandon, ye who enter here." In the soul, where all these dread events must happen, first and last, what is this weakness, this unavailing regret, this void of hope, but the reaction of powers abused, of passions indulged beyond their proper bound? According to our sowing must be our reaping, and our daily deeds must be reflecting their color upon the wall of the inner chamber of the mind, till it becomes to us either prison or palace, a hell or a heaven.
III THE CONTEMPLATION OF PAST GREATNESS. From the depth of sorrow men learn to measure past blessings, from the lowest point of abject humiliation the height of previous greatness. Two things, in all history, in all legend, in the experience of daily life, impress the imagination, and through the imagination the moral conscience the rise of the obscure into glory, and the fall of the great into ignominy. Such changes hint at a great law, the principle of which is one, the effects of whose operation are dual and diverse. The King of Babel had been as the morning star, the type of the Orient in all its splendor of intellectual light, heralding the dawn and the onward march of the sun. How true a proposition is it in reference to human culture, "Light comes from the East!" Babylonia was an early center of such culture; and dimly through the records of the past we may there discern all those passions and energies at work in that great kingdom which lead first to external greatness, then to moral corruption, finally to external ruin. The remains of Oriental architecture, as significant to those who understand the ethical meaning of art as a whole literature could have been, speak of a towering ambition, such as the prophet here describes. In no way can we be more astonished at the vastness of the passions of man"s little heart, than in contemplating those colossal tombs and temples and palaces of ancient lands. They seem a visible challenge to time, a defiance of death, an arrogation of divinity and of immortality. To the prophet they, with other accompaniments of despotic power, appeared as the attempt of vain man to measure himself with heaven. The secret thought he detects in the heart of the tyrant is, "To heaven I will ascend, beyond God"s stars I will raise my throne, and sit down on the mount of all the gods, in the extreme north; will ascend to the heights of the clouds, and make myself like the Most High." The north was in ancient thought generally the sacred quarter. Zeus dwelt in Olympus, on the north borders of Greece. Apollo came from the Hyperboreans, the people beyond the north wind. Zion is on the sides of the north, the city of the great king." And in his epiphany in the tempest, Jehovah comes in majesty from the north. The magnificent heathen would then have rivaled him. He said in his heart as he looked on his palaces and hanging gardens, as he reviewed his troops, as he listened to the echoes of Western alarms, "By the strength of my hand I have done it;" "As one gathereth deserted eggs, I have gathered all the earth". (Isa_10:11, Isa_10:14) He felt himself to be like a magnificent tree, deftly striking his roots through the whole succulence of the earth, overtopping all other growths, sheltering all fowls in his branches, all beasts, yea, all nations, in his shade. All other trees, the cedar in the garden of God, the fir tree and the chestnut, seemed to envy him. (Eze 30) And now! Oh, tragic change! his boughs are broken, his branches scattered on the earth, his shade deserted; the birds and beasts remain, but only as haunters of a ruin. "Now thou art east into hell, into the lowest depth.
IV ASTONISHMENT AT PRESENT IGNOMINY.
1. The world looks on. "Is this the man who made the earth tremble through and through, who shook the kingdoms to their base? who made the world as a desert, and destroyed its cities, and let not his captives return home?" The scene is changed from Hades; no longer is the monarch viewed even as in the underworld, to which only the buried could pass. It is an outcast corpse the spectators look upon, and no sight could to ancient feeling be more abhorrent, or signify more deeply the curse of a hero"s end. The other kings of the peoples rest each in his magnificent mausoleum; he lies amongst the meanest corpses of those slain upon the battle-field; not even hastily interred in a hole filled with stones, but liable to be trampled underfoot by the victor. He who would have grasped the earth in his ambitious embrace, cannot now find six feet of it to shelter his remains. The lurid light of such an end is cast back upon the beginning. To a prophetic eye false greatness is already smitten by the Divine judgment, the effects of which will be one day the amazement and the horror of men.
2. The prophet reads the moral. Such an end of the waster of lands and fierce murderer of peoples must serve as example and prototype to all times. It is no mere personal, but a dynastic doom. The seed of evil-doers, the tyrant"s progeny, will pass into oblivion; his sons will expiate his offences in a bath of blood, so that the very species of human savages called "tyrants" shall no more be propagated. Every general truth has its particular application to a given time and condition; so every particular catastrophe that fills the nations with amaze is to be traced up to some great central ever-working cause. And for good or for evil, there is organic sympathy in the lives and fates of individuals. If we wrench ourselves not free from the family vice, what can we expect but the family doom? If we are partakers, by the force of custom or example, of the sins of our party, profession, class, we may not be exempt from the moral disgrace which must sooner or later overtake it.
V CLOSING ORACLE. It uses images of the utmost energy and tragic vehemence. Jehovah will root out of Babylon name and remnant, sprout and shoot. It shall become the heritage of hedgehogs and swamps," shall be swept with the besom of destruction. The doom of great cities what is it but the doom of individuals "writ large?" In that doom may be seen eternal justice; can we find mixing with it eternal mercy, eternal love? In these scenes of horror on earth, in the reflected miseries of Hades? Must history ever pursue its spiral course, and epicycle upon epicycle of sin and damnation eternally succeed? Let us fall back upon our deepest hopes, and think that the yearning of the creature cannot exceed that of the Creator, and that at the foundation of hell"s floor must still be Divine justice and love. So Dante sang"Justice the founder of my fabric moved; To rear me was the task of power Divine, Supremest wisdom, and primeval love. J.
The Hebrew conception of Sheol.
Henderson says, "In this verse the state of the dead is represented as thrown into great agitation, on its being announced that the mighty King of Babylon is about to enter. Personages of the same rank, as the fittest to conduct the ceremony of his reception, and the most likely to sympathize with him, are selected to present themselves and address him on the occasion. They rise from their thrones of state on which they had been sitting perpetuating in mock majesty the pageant which they had exhibited while on earth." Sheol is here used collectively of the entire population of shades. The word means first a grave, or individual sepulcher, and then the grave as a general receptacle, indiscriminately occupied by all the dead without respect to character." In its further signification it means the abode of disembodied souls, and these are regarded poetically as retaining not only a form, but a position also, analogous to that which they had on earth. It is an interesting and important, though a difficult question, how far we may regard Holy Scripture as colored by the common conceptions of a future state in ancient times. We need not regard such conceptions as tree, because they belonged rather to the imaginations of men than to the revelations of God. The subject may profitably be discussed under the following headings; but little or no treatment is suggested, because different conclusions are reached by different schools of theologians.
I On the nature and occupations of the future state, or condition of the dead, no precise revelations were made in olden times.
II Men seem to have been left to fashion the future by their own imaginations. The general line of thought seems to have been started by Egyptian notions concerning the dead; but each nation put its characteristic seal upon its eschatology.
III There is a very real sense in which "life and immortality have been brought to light" by Jesus Christ.
IV But the light he sheds falls rather on the character of the future than on the form of it. He meets all that man actually requires to know; he satisfies man in nothing that he too curiously seeks to know. The essence of Christ"s revelation of the future is, that moral goodness is crowned with everlasting blessedness. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv9, 24, 29, 32 Hell from beneath is moved for thee
Isa_14:9
Hell from beneath is moved for thee
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The first five minutes after death
There is a very well-known story told of a man who had served his king and country in many a distant land, and in many a strange experience, coming back home, and talking to his friends of the wonderful sights which he had seen, and the wonderful experiences which he had gone through.
And when they remarked to him on the sort of wonders he had experienced and known, he checked them with saying, There is something more wonderful than anything I have yet known, which I still have to experience, and when they asked him what it was, he said, It is the first five minutes after death. The first five minutes after death! It was upon what happens in the first five minutes after death that the prophet was exercising himself here in this particular prophecy. (Davey Biggs, D. D.)
Life beyond the grave
1. The prophet believed that for those who pass through the gate of death there would be recognition in the strange life beyond the grave. He believed that those who were inhabiting that world before other individuals entered into it would know them, would be there ready to greet them, greet them as in this ease with horror, with dismay, with, as it were, congratulations that what had been tyrannical in the world of life before death had now, as it were, found its level, the opportunity of tyranny gone.
The prophet pictures the expectation that there was in the hearts of those who had known what it was to be cruelly oppressed in this world when their oppressor came to join them. He shows that the attitude of those who were within the grave in the unseen world was one of expectation.
2. There is memory there, memory not only of our past selves, but about other people; memory, too, of those living on the earth. (Davey Biggs, D. D.)
Recognition beyond the grave
We know that what was only conjecture in the mind of the prophet when he painted hell stirring up the dead to meet Belshazzar, King of Babylon, has become certainty through the revelation given to us by our Lord Jesus Christ. I do not know how anybody can read through the parable of the rich man and Lazarus and not feel that, whatever the intention was with which the parable was spoken, incidentally our Lord does teach us that in the life beyond the grave the personality which we have known here in this life continues. As personality shows itself in self-consciousness, so our Lord shows that the rich man and Lazarus are conscious of their own existence. There is mutual recognition too. The rich man has not any doubt whatever who it is in whose bosom Lazarus was reposing; and I suppose at the very least fifteen centuries parted them. In the same mysterious way Peter, James, and John on the Mount of Transfiguration knew that it was Moses and Elijah who were talking with the Messiah. There is a wonderful power of recognition of even those whom we have never met. We shall know, and our Lord Jesus Christ wishes us to know that we shall know, the great people in the past to whom we owe such great debts. (Davey Biggs, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v24
CHAPTER XVII
ISAIAH TO THE FOREIGN NATIONS
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736-702 B.C.
Isa_14:24-32; Isaiah 15-21, 23
THE centre of the Book of Isaiah (chapters 13 to 23) is occupied by a number of long and short prophecies which are a fertile source of perplexity to the conscientious reader of the Bible. With the exhilaration of one who traverses plain roads and beholds vast prospects, he has passed through the opening chapters of the book as far as the end of the twelfth; and he may look forward to enjoying a similar experience when he reaches those other clear stretches of vision from the twenty-fourth to the twenty-seventh and from the thirtieth to the thirty-second. But here he loses himself among a series of prophecies obscure in themselves and without obvious relation to one another. The subjects of them are the nations, tribes, and cities with which in Isaiahs day, by war or treaty or common fear in face of the Assyrian conquest, Judah was being brought into contact. There are none of the familiar names of the land and tribes of Israel which meet the reader in other obscure prophecies and lighten their darkness with the face of a friend. The names and allusions are foreign, some of them the names of tribes long since extinct, and of places which it is no more possible to identify. It is a very jungle of prophecy, in which, without much Gospel or geographical light, we have to grope our way, thankful for an occasional gleam of the picturesque-a sandstorm in the desert, the forsaken ruins of Babylon haunted by wild beasts, a view of Egypts canals or Phoenicias harbours, a glimpse of an Arab raid or of a grave Ethiopian embassy.
But in order to understand the Book of Isaiah, in order to understand Isaiah himself in some of the largest of his activities and hopes; we must traverse this thicket. It would be tedious and unprofitable to search every corner of it. We propose, therefore, to give a list of the various oracles, with their dates and titles, for the guidance of Bible-readers, then to take three representative texts and gather the meaning of all the oracles round them.
First, however, two of the prophecies must be put aside. The twenty-second chapter does not refer to a foreign State, but to Jerusalem itself; and the large prophecy which opens the series (chapters 13-14:23) deals with the overthrow of Babylon in circumstances that did not arise till long after Isaiahs time, and so falls to be considered by us along with similar prophecies at the close of this volume. (See Book V)
All the rest of these chapters-14-21 and 23-refer to Isaiahs own day. They were delivered by the prophet at various times throughout his career; but the most of them evidently date from immediately after the year 705, when, on the death of Sargon, there was a general rebellion of the Assyrian vassals.
1. Isa_14:24-27-OATH OF JEHOVAH that the Assyrian shall be broken. Probable date, towards 701.
2. Isa_14:28-32-ORACLE FOR PHILISTIA. Warning toPhilistia not to rejoice because one Assyrian king is dead, for a worse one shall arise: "Out of the serpents root shall come forth a basilisk. Philistia shall be melted away, but Zion shall stand." The inscription to this oracle (Isa_14:28) is not genuine. The oracle plainly speaks of the death and accession of Assyrian, not Judaean, kings. It may be ascribed to 705, the date of the death of Sargon and accession of Sennacherib. But some hold that it refers to the previous change on the Assyrian throne-the death of Salmanassar and the accession of Sargon.
3 Isaiah 15-Isaiah 16:12-ORACLE FOR MOAB. A long prophecy against Moab. This oracle, whether originally by himself at an earlier period of his life, or more probably by an older prophet, Isaiah adopts and ratifies, and intimates its immediate fulfilment, in Isa_16:13-14 : "This is the word which Jehovah spake concerning Moab long ago. But now Jehovah hath spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of a hireling, and the glory of Moab shall be brought into contempt with all the great multitude, and the remnant shall be very small and of no account." The dates both of the original publication of this prophecy and of its reissue with the appendix are quite uncertain. The latter may fall about 711, when Moab was threatened by Sargon for complicity in the Ashdod conspiracy or in 704, when, with other states, Moab came under the cloud of Sennacheribs invasion. The main prophecy is remarkable for its vivid picture of the disaster that has overtaken Moab and for the sympathy with her which the Jewish prophet expresses; for the mention of a "remnant" of Moab; for the exhortation to her to send tribute in her adversity "to the mount of the daughter of Zion"; {Isa_16:1} for an appeal to Zion to shelter the outcasts of Moab and to take up her cause: "Bring counsel, make a decision, make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts, bewray not the wanderer;" for a statement of the Messiah similar to those in chapters 9 and 11; and for the offer to the oppressed Moabites of the security of Judah in Messianic times (Isa_16:4-5). But there is one great obstacle to this prospect of Moab lying down in the shadow of Judah-Moabs arrogance. "We have heard of the pride of Moab, that he is very proud," {Isa_16:6, cf. Jer_48:29; Jer_48:42; Zep_2:10} which pride shall not only keep this country in ruin, but prevent the Moabites prevailing in prayer at their own sanctuary (Isa_16:12)-a very remarkable admission about the worship of another god than Jehovah.
4. Isa_17:1-11 -ORACLE FOR DAMASCUS. One of the earliest and most crisp of Isaiahs prophecies. Of the time of Syrias and Ephraims league against Judah, somewhere between 736 and 732.
5. Isa_17:12-14 -UNTITLED. The crash of the peoples upon Jerusalem and their dispersion. This magnificent piece of sound, which we analyse below, is usually understood of Sennacheribs rush upon Jerusalem. Isa_17:14 is an accurate summary of the sudden break-up and "retreat from Moscow" of his army. The Assyrian hosts are described as "nations," as they are elsewhere more than once by Isaiah. {Isa_22:6; Isa_29:7} But in all this there is no final reason for referring the oracle to Sennacheribs invasion, and it may just as well be interpreted of Isaiahs confidence of the defeat of Syria and Ephraim (734-723). Its proximity to the oracle against Damascus would then be very natural, and it would stand as a parallel prophecy to Isa_8:9 : "Make an uproar, O ye peoples, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of the distances of the earth: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces"-a prophecy which we know belongs to the period of the Syro-Ephraimitic league.
6. Isaiah 18 -UNTITLED. An address to Ethiopia, "land of a rustling of wings, land of many sails, whose messengers dart to and fro upon the rivers in their skiffs of reed." The prophet tells Ethiopia, cast into excitement by the news of the Assyrian advance, how Jehovah is resting quietly till the Assyrian be ripe for destruction. When the Ethiopians shall see His sudden miracle they shall send their tribute to Jehovah, "to the place of the name of Jehovah of hosts, Mount Zion." It is difficult to know to which southward march of Assyria to ascribe this prophecy-Sargons or Sennacheribs? For at the time of both of these an Ethiopian ruled Egypt.
7. Isaiah 19 -ORACLE FOR EGYPT. The first fifteen verses (Isa_19:1-15) describe judgment as ready to fall on the land of the Pharaohs. The last ten speak of the religious results to Egypt of that judgment, and they form the most universal and "missionary" of all Isaiahs prophecies. Although doubts have been expressed of the Isaiah authorship of the second half of this chapter on the score of its universalism, as well as of its literary style, which is judged to be "a pale reflection" of Isaiahs own, there is no final reason for declining the credit of it to Isaiah, while there are insuperable difficulties against relegating it to the late date which is sometimes demanded for it. On the date and authenticity of this prophecy, which are of great importance for the question of Isaiahs "missionary" opinions, see Cheynes introduction to the chapter and Robertson Smiths notes in "The Prophets of Israel" (p. 433). The latter puts it in 703, during Sennacheribs advance upon the south. The former suggests that the second half may have been written by the prophet much later than the first, and justly says, "We can hardly imagine a more swan-like end for the dying prophet."
8. Isaiah 20 -UNTITLED. Also upon Egypt, but in narrative and of an earlier date than at least the latter half of chapter 19. Tells how Isaiah walked naked and barefoot in the streets of Jerusalem for a sign against Egypt and against the help Judah hoped to get from her in the years 711-709, when the Tartan, or Assyrian commander-in-chief, came south to subdue Ashdod.
9. Isa_21:1-10 -ORACLE FOR THE WILDERNESS OF THESEA, announcing but lamenting the fall of Babylon. Probably 709.
10. Isa_21:11-12 -ORACLE FOR DUMAH. Dumah, or Silence - Psa_94:17; Psa_115:17, "the land of the silence of death," the grave - is probably used as an anagram for Edom and an enigmatic sign to the wise Edomites, in their own fashion, of the kind of silence their land is lying under-the silence of rapid decay. The prophet hears this silence at last broken by a cry. Edom cannot bear the darkness any more. "Unto me one is calling from Seir, Watchman, how much off the night? how much off the night? Said the watchman, Cometh the morning, and also the night: if ye will inquire, inquire, come back again." What other answer is possible for a land on which the silence of decay seems to have settled down? He may, however, give them an answer later on, if they will come back. Date uncertain, perhaps between 704 and 701.
11. 21:13-17 -ORACLE FOR ARABIA. From Edom the prophet passes to their neighbours the Dedanites, travelling merchants. And as he saw night upon Edom, so, by a play upon words, he speaks of evening upon Arabia: "in the forest, in Arabia," or with the same consonants, "in the evening." In the time of the insecurity of the Assyrian invasion the travelling merchants have to go aside from their great trading roads "in the evening to lodge in the thickets." There they entertain fugitives, or (for the sense is not quite clear) are themselves as fugitives entertained. It is a picture of the "grievousness of war," which was now upon the world, flowing down even those distant, desert roads. But things have not yet reached the worst. The fugitives are but the heralds of armies, that "within a year" shall waste the "children of Kedar," for Jehovah, the God of Israel, hath spoken it. So did the prophet of little Jerusalem take possession of even the far deserts in the name of his nations God.
12. Isaiah 23 -ORACLE FOR TYRE. Elegy over its fall, probably as Sennacherib came south upon it in 703 or 702. To be further considered by us.
These, then, are Isaiahs oracles for the Nations, who tremble, intrigue, and go down before the might of Assyria.
We have promised to gather the circumstances and meaning of these prophecies round three representative texts. These are-
1. "Ah! the booming of the peoples, the multitudes, like the booming of the seas they boom; and the rushing of the nations, like the rushing of mighty waters they rush; nations, like the rushing of many waters they rush. But He rebuketh it, and it fleeth afar off, and is chased like the chaff on the mountains before the wind and like whirling dust before the whirlwind." {Isa_17:12-13}
2. "What then shall one answer the messengers of a nation? That Jehovah hath founded Zion, and in her shall find refuge the afflicted of His people." {Isa_14:32}
3. "In that day shall Israel be a third to Egypt and to Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, for that Jehovah of hosts hath blessed them, saying, Blessed be My people Egypt, and the work of My hands Assyria, and Mine inheritance Israel". {Isa_19:24-25}
I.
The first of these texts shows all the prophets prospect filled with storm, the second of them the solitary rock and lighthouse in the midst of the storm: Zion, His own watchtower and His peoples refuge; while the third of them, looking far into the future, tells us, as it were, of the firm continent which shall rise out of the waters-Israel no longer a solitary lighthouse, "but in that day shall Israel be a third to Egypt and to Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth." These three texts give us a summary of the meaning of all Isaiahs obscure prophecies to the foreign nations-a stormy ocean, a solitary rock in the midst of it, and the new continent that shall rise out of the waters about the rock.
The restlessness of Western Asia beneath the Assyrian rule (from 719, when Sargons victory at Rafia extended that rule to the borders of Egypt) found vent, as we saw, in two great Explosions, for both of which the mine was laid by Egyptian intrigue. The first Explosion happened in 711, and was confined to Ashdod. The second took place on Sargons death in 705, and was universal. Till Sennacherib marched south on Palestine in 701, there were all over Western Asia hurryings to and fro, consultations and intrigues, embassies and engineerings from Babylon to Meroe in far Ethiopia, and from the tents of Kedar to the cities of the Philistines. For these Jerusalem, the one inviolate capital from the Euphrates to the river of Egypt, was the natural centre. And the one far-seeing, steady-hearted man in Jerusalem was Isaiah. We have already seen that there was enough within the city to occupy Isaiahs attention, especially from 705 onward; but for Isaiah the walls of Jerusalem, dear as they were and thronged with duty, neither limited his sympathies nor marked the scope of the gospel he had to preach. Jerusalem is simply his watchtower. His field-and this is the peculiar glory of the prophets later life-his field is the world.
How well fitted Jerusalem then was to be the worlds watchtower, the traveller may see to this day. The city lies upon the great central ridge of Palestine, at an elevation of two thousand five hundred feet above the level of the sea. If you ascend the hill behind the city, you stand upon one of the great view-points of the earth. It is a forepost of Asia. To the east rise the red hills of Moab and the uplands of Gilead and Bashan, on to which wandering tribes of the Arabian deserts beyond still push their foremost camps. Just beyond the horizon lie the immemorial paths from Northern Syria into Arabia. Within a few hours walk along the same central ridge, and still within the territory of Judah, you may see to the north, over a wilderness of blue hills, Hermons snowy crest; you know that Damascus is lying just beyond, and that through it and round the base of Hermon swings one of the longest of the old worlds highways-the main caravan road from the Euphrates to the Nile. Stand at gaze for a little, while down that road there sweep into your mind thoughts of the great empire whose troops and commerce it used to carry. Then, bearing these thoughts with you, follow the line of the road across the hills to the western coastland, and so out upon the great Egyptian desert, where you may wait till it has brought you imagination of the southern empire to which it travels. Then, lifting your eyes a little further, let them sweep back again from south to north, and you have the whole of the west, the new world, open to you, across the fringe of yellow haze that marks the sands of the Mediterranean. It is even now one of the most comprehensive prospects in the world. But in Isaiahs day, when the world was smaller, the high places of Judah either revealed or suggested the whole of it.
But Isaiah was more than a spectator of this vast theatre. He was an actor upon it. The court of Judah, of which during Hezekiahs reign he was the most prominent member, stood in more or less close connection with the courts of all the kingdoms of Western Asia; and in those days, when the nations were busy with intrigue against their common enemy, this little highland town and fortress became a gathering place of peoples. From Babylon, from far-off Ethiopia, from Edom, from Philistia, and no doubt from many other places also, embassies came to King Hezekiah, or to inquire of his prophet. The appearance of some of them lives for us still in Isaiahs descriptions: "tall and shiny" figures of Ethiopians {Isa_18:2}, with whom we are able to identify the lithe, silky-skinned, shining-black bodies of the present tribes of the Upper Nile. Now the prophet must have talked much with these strangers, for he displays a knowledge of their several countries and ways of life that is full and accurate. The agricultural conditions of Egypt; her social ranks and her industries (chapter 19); the harbours and markets of Tyre (chapter 23); the caravans of the Arab nomads, as in times of war they shun the open desert and seek the thickets {Isa_21:14} -Isaiah paints these for us with a vivid realism. We see how this statesman of the least of States, this prophet of a religion which was confessed over only a few square miles, was aware of the wide world, and how he loved the life that filled it. They are no mere geographical terms with which Isaiah thickly studs these prophecies. He looks out upon and paints for us, lands and cities surging with men-their trades, their castes, their religions, their besetting tempers and sins, their social structures and national policies, all quick and bending to the breeze and the shadow of the coming storm from the north.
We have said that in nothing is the legal power of our prophets style so manifest as in the vast horizons, which, by the use of a few words, he calls up before us. Some of the finest of these revelations are made in this part of his book, so obscure and unknown to most. Who can ever forget those descriptions-of Ethiopia in the eighteenth chapter?-"Ah! the land of the rustling of wings, which borders on the rivers of Cush, which sendeth heralds on the sea, and in vessels of reed on the face of the waters! Travel, fleet messengers, to a people lithe and shining, to a nation feared from ever it began to be, a people strong, strong and trampling, whose land the rivers divide"; or of Tyre in chapter 23?-"And on great waters the seed of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her revenue; and she was the mart of nations." What expanses of sea! what fleets of ships! what floating loads of grain! what concourse of merchants moving on stately wharves beneath high warehouses!
Yet these are only segments of horizons, and perhaps the prophet reaches the height of his power of expression in the first of the three texts, which we have given as representative of his prophecies on foreign nations. Here three or four lines of marvellous sound repeat the effect of the rage of the restless world as it rises, storms, and breaks upon the steadfast will of God. The phonetics of the passage are wonderful. The general impression is that of a stormy ocean booming in to the shore and then crashing itself out into one long hiss of spray and foam upon its barriers. The details are noteworthy. In Isa_17:12 we have thirteen heavy M-sounds, besides two heavy Bs, to five Ns, five Hs, and four sibilants. But in Isa_17:13 the sibilants predominate; and before the sharp rebuke of the Lord the great, booming sound of Isa_17:12 scatters out into a long yish-sha oon. The occasional use of a prolonged vowel amid so many hurrying consonants produces exactly the effect now of the lift of a storm swell out at sea and now of the pause of a great wave before it crashes on the shore. "Ah, the booming of the peoples, the multitudes, like the booming of the seas they boom; and the rushing of the nations, like the rushing of the mighty waters they rush: nations, like the rushing of many waters they rush. But He checketh it"-a short, sharp word with a choke and a snort in it-"and it fleeth far away, and is chased like chaff on mountains before wind, and like swirling dust before a whirlwind."
So did the rage of the world sound to Isaiah as it crashed into pieces upon the steadfast providence of God. To those who can feel the force of such language nothing need be added upon the prophets view of the politics of the outside world these twenty years, whether portions of it threatened Judah in their own strength, or the whole power of storm that was in it rose with the Assyrian, as in all his flood he rushed upon Zion in the year 701.
II.
But amid this storm Zion stands immovable. It is upon Zion that the storm crashes itself into impotence. This becomes explicit in the second of our representative texts: "What then shall one answer the messengers of a nation? That Jehovah hath founded Zion, and in her shall find a refuge the afflicted of His people". {Isa_14:32} This oracle was drawn from Isaiah by an embassy of the Philistines. Stricken with panic at the Assyrian advance, they had sent messengers to Jerusalem, as other tribes did, with questions and proposals of defences, escapes, and alliances. They got their answer, Alliances are useless. Everything human is going down. Here, here alone, is safety, because the Lord hath decreed it.
With what light and peace do Isaiahs words break out across that unquiet, hungry sea! How they tell the world for the first time, and have been telling it ever since, that, apart from all the struggle and strife of history, there is a refuge and security of men, which God Himself has assured. The troubled surface of life, nations heaving uneasily, kings of Assyria and their armies carrying the world before them-these are not all. The world and her powers are not all. Religion, in the very teeth of life, builds her a refuge for the afflicted.
The world seems wholly divided between force and fear. Isaiah says, It is not true. Faith has her abiding citadel in the midst, a house of God, which neither force can harm nor fear enter.
This then was Isaiahs Interim-Answer to the Nations-Zion at least is secure for the people of Jehovah.
III.
Isaiah could not remain content, however, with so narrow an interim-answer: Zion at least is secure, whatever happens to the rest of you. The world was there, and had to be dealt with and accounted for-had even to be saved. As we have already seen, this was the problem of Isaiahs generation; and to have shirked it would have meant the failure of his faith to rank as universal.
Isaiah did not shirk it. He said boldly to his people, and to the nations: "The faith we have covers this vaster life. Jehovah is not only God of Israel. He rules the world." These prophecies to the foreign nations are full of revelations of the sovereignty and providence of God. The Assyrian may seem to be growing in glory; but Jehovah is watching from the heavens, till he be ripe for cutting down. {Isa_18:4} Egypts statesmen may be perverse and wilful; but Jehovah of hosts swingeth His hand against the land: "they shall tremble and shudder". {Isa_19:16} Egypt shall obey His purposes (chapter 17). Confusion may reign for a time, but a signal and a centre shall be lifted up, and the world gather itself in order round the revealed will of God. The audacity of such a claim for his God becomes more striking when we remember that Isaiahs faith was not the faith of a majestic or a conquering people. When he made his claim, Judah was still tributary to Assyria, a petty highland principality, that could not hope to stand by material means against the forces which had thrown down her more powerful neighbours. It was. no experience of success, no mere instinct of being on the side of fate, which led Isaiah so resolutely to pronounce that not only should his people be secure, but that his God would vindicate His purposes upon empires like Egypt and Assyria. It was simply his sense that Jehovah was exalted in righteousness. Therefore, while inside Judah only the remnant that took the side of righteousness would be saved, outside Judah wherever there was unrighteousness, it would be rebuked, and wherever righteousness, it would be vindicated. This is the supremacy which Isaiah proclaimed for Jehovah over the whole world.
How spiritual this faith of Isaiah was, is seen from the next step the prophet took. Looking out on the troubled world, he did not merely assert that his God ruled it, but he emphatically said, what was a far more difficult thing to say, that it would all be consciously and willingly Gods. God rules this, not to restrain it only, but to make it His own. The knowledge of Him, which is today our privilege, shall be tomorrow the blessing of the whole world.
When we point to the Jewish desire, so often expressed in the Old Testament, of making the whole world subject to Jehovah, we are told that it is simply a proof of religious ambition and jealousy. We are told that this wish to convert the world no more stamps the Jewish religion as being a universal, and therefore presumably a Divine, religion than the Mohammedans zeal to force their tenets on men at the point of the sword is a proof of the truth of Islam.
Now we need not be concerned to defend the Jewish religion in its every particular, even as propounded by an Isaiah. It is an article of the Christian creed that Judaism was a minor and imperfect dispensation, where truth was only half revealed and virtue half developed. But at least let us do the Jewish religion justice; and we shall never do it justice till we pay attention to what its greatest prophets thought of the outside world, how they sympathised with this, and in what way they proposed to make it subject to their own faith.
Firstly then, there is something in the very manner of Isaiahs treatment of foreign nations, which causes the old charges of religious exclusiveness to sink in our throats. Isaiah treats these foreigners at least as men. Take his prophecies on Egypt or on Tyre or on Babylon-nations which were the hereditary enemies of his nation-and you find him speaking of their natural misfortunes, their social decays, their national follies and disasters, with the same pity and with the same purely moral considerations with which he has treated his own land. When news of those far-away sorrows comes to Jerusalem, it moves this large-hearted prophet to mourning and tears. He breathes out to distant lands elegies as beautiful as he has poured upon Jerusalem. He shows as intelligent an interest in their social evolutions as he does in those of the Jewish State. He gives a picture of the industry and politics of Egypt as careful as his pictures of the fashions and statecraft of Judah. In short, as you read his prophecies upon foreign nations, you perceive that before the eyes of this man humanity, broken and scattered in his days as it was, rose up one great whole, every part of which was subject to the same laws of righteousness, and deserved from the prophet of God the same love and pity. To some few tribes he says decisively that they shall certainly be wiped out, but even them he does not address in contempt or in hatred. The large empire of Egypt, the great commercial power of Tyre, he speaks of in language of respect and admiration; but that does not prevent him from putting the plain issue to them which he put to his own countrymen: If you are unrighteous, intemperate, impure-lying diplomats and dishonest rulers-you shall certainly perish before Assyria. If you are righteous, temperate, pure, if you do trust in truth and God, nothing can move you.
But, secondly, he, who thus treated all nations with the same strict measures of justice and the same fulness of pity with which he treated his own, was surely not far from extending to the world the religious privileges which he has so frequently identified with Jerusalem. In his old age, at least, Isaiah looked forward to the time when the particular religious opportunities of the Jew should be the inheritance of humanity. For their old oppressor Egypt, for their new enemy Assyria, he anticipates the same experience and education which have made Israel the firstborn of God. Speaking to Egypt, Isaiah concludes a missionary sermon, fit to take its place beside that which Paul uttered on the Areopagus to the younger Greek civilisation, with the words, "In that day shall Israel be a third to Egypt and to Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, for that Jehovah of hosts hath blessed them, saying, Blessed be Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands and Israel Mine inheritance."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv9, 11, 20, 32 Isa_14:9-12. Hell from beneath is moved for thee, &c.
THE GRAVE AND ITS MYSTERIES
Isa_14:9-12. Hell from beneath is moved for thee, &c.
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I. There is an invisible world (H. E. I., 2173–2175). II. Its inhabitants stand in a mysterious relation to this. III. Are conscious of passing events. IV. Despise all earthly distinctions. V. Await the coming of their fellows. VI. Receive them according to their moral character.—J. Lyth, D.D.: Homiletical Treasury, part i. p. 20.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On vv24, 28 The Destruction of the Power of Assyria
The Destruction of the Power of Assyria
A short section belonging to the same period as Isa_10:5 to Isa_12:6 (cp. Isa_14:25 with Isa_10:27); the subject is the overthrow of the Assyrian invader, and the prophecy was literally fulfilled in the destruction of Sennacherib's army.
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24-27. It is Jehovah's sworn and unalterable purpose to destroy the Assyrian power, that his burdensome rule over Judah and the nations may cease.
25. Upon my mountains] i.e. the mountains of Judah (Isa_49:11; Isa_65:9). 26. All the nations] Jehovah's merciful purpose embraces not only His own people, but the nations generally.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv9, 11, 12, 15, 22, 26, 28, 29, 32 Heb. "Sheol," Also; 15 (See Scofield "Hab 2:5")
hell
Heb. "Sheol," Also; 15 (See Scofield "Hab 2:5")
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v23 Prophecies Against Assyria and Philistia
Prophecies Against Assyria and Philistia
v. 24. The Lord of hosts, the Commander of all the forces of heaven, hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, as He had disposed or planned, so shall it come to pass, this prophecy preceding that against Babylon in point of human time; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand, this prophecy being practically a continuation of 10:34;
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v. 25. that I will break the Assyrian in My land, overthrowing his power within the boundaries of Judah, and upon My mountains tread him under foot, for the turning-point in the Assyrian fortunes came at Libnah, in the foothills of the Judean mountains, with the destruction of Sennacherib’s forces, 2 Kings 19. Then shall his yoke depart from off them, namely, the inhabitants of Judah, and his burden depart from off their shoulders, so that the design of the invader could not be accomplished.
v. 26. This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth, in the counsel of the Lord, in whose hand is the government of the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations, and every decree of the Lord has significance for all men.
v. 27. For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? No power of the world can prevent its execution. And his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back? No man can turn Him aside from the acts which He has determined upon.
v. 28. In the year that King Ahaz died, about 727 B. C. was this burden, this sentence of judgment upon the Philistines, who just at this time prepared to regain their ancient power:
v. 29. Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, that is, Philistia, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken, the Philistines being of the opinion that the alliance of Syria and the Northern Kingdom, as a consequence of which Ahaz and Judah had become vassals of Assyria, 2Ki 16:5-9, had resulted in breaking the power of Judah, which had only just before that been asserted by Uzziah, 2Ch 26:6; for out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a cockatrice, that is, an adder, a still more poisonous serpent, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent, the reference probably being to Hezekiah, who promptly smote the Philistines and definitely brought about their destruction, 2Ki 18:8.
v. 30. And the first-born of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety, that is, the inhabitants of Judah would enjoy peace and safety under the reign of Hezekiah, over against Philistia; and I will kill thy root with famine, thus eradicating the Philistines as a people, and he, Hezekiah, shall slay thy remnant, thereby carrying out God’s punishment upon the ancient enemies of Judah.
v. 31. Howl, O gate! the strong fortifications of the Philistine cities being meant. Cry, O city! Ashdod and Gaza having retained much of their ancient glory. Thou, whole Palestina, art dissolved, melting away to nothing; for there shall come from the North a smoke, namely, the Assyrian hordes with their ruthless devastations, and none shall be alone in his appointed times, literally, "and none is by himself in his armies," the Assyrian soldiers knowing neither weariness nor insubordination, but all filled with that one idea—the lust of conquest.
v. 32. What shall one, then, answer the messengers of the nation? What answer do the messengers of the nation bring? What report did the ambassadors of various heathen nations make when they returned to their own countries after viewing the results of God’s punishment of Philistia and His protection of Judah? That the Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of His people shall trust in it, the troubled refugees being safe within its walls. In this way the Lord protects those who believe in Him against all enemies, He Himself being their Refuge and Strength.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv10, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 26, 28, 31 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
This is part of the taunt song that the Israelites will sing to the king of Babylon. Here they sing about what the dead kings in Sheol will say to him.
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They all will speak and say to you
The word "they" refers to the dead kings in Sheol, and the word "you" refers to the king of Babylon.
Your pomp has been brought down to Sheol
The dead kings will speak of the king of Babylon having no more splendor as if his splendor had gone down to Sheol. AT: "Your splendor ended when God sent you here to Sheol" (See: Metaphor)
with the sound of your string instruments
People would make music on string instruments to honor the king. The dead kings will speak of people no longer honoring the king of Babylon with music as if the music went to Sheol. AT: "along with the sound of people playing music to honor you" (See: Metaphor)
Maggots are spread under you
The maggots under his dead body are spoken of as if they were a mat or bed. AT: "You lie on a bed of maggots" or "You lie on many maggots" (See: Metaphor)
worms cover you
The worms all over his body are spoken of as if they were covering him like a blanket. AT: "Worms cover you like a blanket" or "There are worms all over your body" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
Hades
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 29, 31, 32 14:9 The Babylonians saw the place of the dead…
14:9 The Babylonians saw the place of the dead (Hebrew Sheol) as a place of no return. • stand up (literally get up from their thrones): The thrones reflect the Babylonian concept of the life hereafter as a continuation of the same mode of existence as the present life. It appears that the other kings are honoring the great king of Babylon, but the next verses tell a different story.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.