Isaiah 14 Study Notes

14:1-2 A pronouncement anticipating the restoration of God’s people appears in the midst of the pronouncement against Babylon. While this seems awkward, Babylon’s fall correlates with the rise of a restored Judah. Indeed, this restoration provides the context for the taunt song against Babylon’s king in vv. 4-21.

14:1 Just as God chose Israel in Egypt and freed them from bondage, he will do so again in Mesopotamia. As foreigners traveled with God’s people from Egypt, they will do so again.

14:2 The nations had escorted God’s people out of the promised land when they were exiled, so in the future they will escort them back. Power relations will be reversed. Israel had been the slave of the nations; now the nations will serve God’s people.

14:3-4 The following song (vv. 4b-21) has its setting after Israel’s return to the land. The song is a song of contempt or a taunt song (Hb mashal). It was directed toward the king of Babylon. The song speaks as if the king is a definite individual, but the lack of a specific name may mean that the king is depicted as the apex of the imperialistic machine that oppressed the people of God.

14:5 The staff and the scepter were held by the king, and they represented his power. The staff may be a shepherd’s staff, and it could refer to the king’s responsibility to shepherd the people. The scepter was an ornamented mace used as a weapon, representing the king’s fearsome power. The fact that God has broken them indicates his superior power.

14:6-7 The downfall of Babylon will result in peace and jubilation.

14:8 It is not just the inhabitants of the earth, and in particular the people of God, who rejoice over Babylon’s downfall, but even the trees, which had been cut down to produce siege works.

14:9 Sheol refers to the grave and in some contexts signifies the underworld. In this verse Sheol is personified and pictured as warmly greeting its new citizen, the Babylonian king. Indeed, Sheol will rouse all the spirits of the departed kings to greet the Babylonian king when he arrives in the realm of the dead. Some believe this reference to the activities of the dead is just a poetic device, but it is better understood as evidence that the Israelites at the time of Isaiah had an awareness of the afterlife.

14:10 Though conscious, the spirits of the departed kings will confess that they are weak in the afterlife. This weakness contrasts with the oppressive power they had exercised in life.

14:11 Maggots and worms will crawl over the corpse in the grave. This plays on the idea that Sheol was considered both the grave and the underworld.

14:12-15 Commentators have often connected this passage to Lk 10:18 and Rv 12:8-9, but the context seems clear that the one fallen from the heavens is not Satan (even though the KJV translated shining morning star as “Lucifer”) but is instead the Babylonian king. If there is a double application the Bible never indicates as much. The poetic theme of this passage may be modeled on the Canaanite account of a lesser god that tried to usurp the position of the high God. Such pride resulted in a quick and horrible fall.

14:12 The shining morning star may figuratively refer to a Canaanite deity whose story provides the pattern for this taunting lament for the Babylonian king. But in any case, Venus is the morning “star” that falls so quickly through the sky.

14:13 The attempt of a human, no matter how powerful, to take the place of God is the ultimate expression of arrogance. In Canaanite mythology, which is exploited here to make a point about human pride, the mountain of Baal, the chief god, was in the remotest parts of the North. Indeed, his mountain was named Mount North (Hb Zaphon).

14:15 Pride tries to lift a human up to the level of God, but it always causes a rapid fall to a position below humanity (the Pit).

14:16-17 In death the powerful, oppressive king will look weak and helpless. The nameless people who will see him are quoted as expressing amazement at how powerless he looks.

14:18-20 There is even a contrast with other kings, who were buried in fine tombs. This king will not even be given a decent burial but will lie dead on the battlefield, surrounded and even covered by other dead bodies. Again, the idea is that a person who was powerful in life will be reduced to a humiliating circumstance in death.

14:21 It was an expectation of a powerful king that, when he died, his son would become the next king and would continue his imperialistic pretensions, but because of the depredations of the fathers, the sons would meet an untimely death.

14:22-23 God will bring this judgment. Babylon, particularly its most southern part, was a swampland. God would reduce the entire nation to this in the anger of his judgment.

14:24-27 The pronouncement shifts focus to the northern center of Mesopotamian power, Assyria. Assyria was the nation that under Tiglath-pileser III reduced the size of the northern kingdom of Israel in the 730s BC and then in 722 BC, under Shalmaneser, deported its citizens. But God will bring even this strong kingdom to an end.

14:24 On a human level Assyria seemed invincible, but God assured his people of his determination to judge the Assyrian people.

14:25 The yoke was a common metaphor for political servitude (10:27; 47:6; 58:6; Jr 27:11; 30:8; Ezk 30:18).

14:28-32 The pronouncement against Philistia is the first in a series of pronouncements against nations that were immediate neighbors of Israel. Indeed, Philistia occupied part of the promised land in a region west of Jerusalem and on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The book of Genesis records interaction between the patriarchs and the Philistines (Gn 10:14; 21:32,34), but it was not until the period of the united monarchy that we hear of a sizeable presence of Philistines in the region. Both Saul and David waged war against them. A remnant of Philistines lasted until the sixth century (Jr 47).

14:28 The year that King Ahaz died is debated. It may have been as early as the 720s BC, but it certainly was not later than 715 BC.

14:29 Debate surrounds the exact reference to the figurative language of this verse, but the broken rod may be a reference not to a particular king but to weakness in Assyria, perhaps in the period after Sargon II took the throne. However, the warning is that, though apparently weak, Assyria is not done. From its slumber will come a flying serpent against Philistia. Under Sennacherib, Esar-haddon, and Ashurbanipal, Assyria did experience a major resurgence.

14:30 Because of Philistia’s oppression of Judah, the poor had grown poorer, but with its destruction, there will be a reversal of their fortunes.

14:31 The cloud of dust coming from the north will be none other than the Assyrian army that will destroy Philistia.

14:32 This verse envisions Philistine envoys trying to convince Judah to join them in resisting the Assyrian army. But Judah’s trust should be in Zion, or God, not foreign alliances.