Isaiah 14
PATbylonians against the Jews. (Seo 2 Chron. xxxvi. 17. Psal. cxxxvii. 9.) - Their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished. All manner of liberty shall be given to the rapine and lust of the soldiers. (Compare Zech. xiv. 2.) A continuation of the same subject, containing a prediction of the utter downfall of the Babylonian empire, and extirpation of the royal family there, under which description is figuratively represented the destruction of the powers of antichrist; the consequence of which would be the deliverance and restoration of the Jewish nation in particular, and of the church in general. comparing Zech. i. 17. ii. 12. Israel is sometimes put for Judah. (See 2 Chron. xxiii. 2. xxviii. 19. Ezck. xiii. 16. Mai. i. 1. ii. 11.) Israel being the name which God gave to Jacob as a mark of his favour, (Gen. xxxii. 28.) it is chiefly, made use of by the prophets, when they deliver some gracious promises from the mouth of God, especially such a one as concerns the twelve tribes, who were all equally descended from Jacob, as I doubt not but this prophecy in its ultimate sense does. (Compare xxvii. 6. 12. xliii. 1. 1 Kings xviii. 31.) - And the strangers shall be joined unto them, and shall cleave unto the house of Jacob.] It is probable, that many strangers might be made proselytes to the Jews’ religion during their captivity, who were willing to go along with them into Judea, there to enjoy the free exercise of their religion: as we find there was a mixed multitude of Egyptians, natives, that accompanied the Jews at their exit,(Exod. xii. 38.) It appears, too, that Cyrus himself acknowledged the God of the Jews to be the true God, (see Ezra i. 2.) and Darius gave orders that sacrifice should be offered daily in the temple for the prosperity of himself and his family, (Ezra iv. 10.) But these were but small beginnings of what should come to pass in the times of the gospel, to which this prophecy does certainly relate, as will appear by comparing it with lvi. 3. 6 — 8. and the notes there. heavenJ] Some tyrants have been so extravagant as to affect Divine honours; (see Ezek. xxviii.2. Acts xii.23.)and the pretences of Caligula, and other llomau emperors, in this kind arc sufficiently known. It is too common among those, whose will is a law, to forget their dependance upon God, and fancy themselves to be all-sufiicient, which is in effect to ascribe that houour to themselves which is due to God aloue. It was for this crime that Nebuchadnezzar was degraded into a beast, (Dan. iv. 30.) I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.] Above the angels: (see ver. 12.) stars, in the prophetical dialect, signify rulers; (see note on xiii. 10.) and, according to the subject matter, denote governors either in church or state. (See Dan, viii. 10. Rev. i. 20. vi. 13. viii. 12. ix. 1.) I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation^ in the sides of the north.] I will sit in the temple of God, which: was situate upon Mount Moriah, and on the north side of. Jerusalem. (See Psal. xlviii. 2. Ezek. xl. 2.) These expressions, as they allude to the rebellion of Satan, who affected to be equal with God; so they contain in them art exact description of antichrist,. who is represented, by St. Paul, as exalting himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, as sitting in the temple of God, and shewing himself that he is God, 2Thess. ii. 4. (See likewise Dan* xi. 36.) After the threatenings mentioned at the latter end of the foregoing ehapter, God here revives his people with comfortable promises, and assurances that he will never. utterly forsake them, but will do sueh miracles for their deliverance, in aftertimes, as shall obscure the memory of » those whieh he wrought for them heretofore. Towards tho conclusion, he renews his expostulations with them for * their ingratitude and neglect of his service, which will be justly punished with the destruction of their temple, and depriving them of the opportunities of public worship.
Isaiah 14:1
Jb OR the Lord will have mercy upon Jacob, and will yet choose Israel. This immediately relates to the restoration of the Jewish captivity by Cyrus, as appears by JtSuT now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not.] God created thee for his glory, as it is explained ver. 7. 21. “to be his peculiar people: so God’s elect are called the work of his hands, xxix. 23. xlv.ll. lx.2l. And those God will never utterly forsake, (Psal.cxxxviii. 8.) By Jacob and Israel are meant the two remaining tribes of Judah and Benjamin in the first place, as below ver. 22. 28. and above xli. 8. though it is probable that many of the promises mentioned here and in the following chapters, relate to that general restoration of the Jews so often spoken of by the prophets. J have redeemed thee,] Out of the house of bondage, to be my peculiar people; and have ever since exereised a very particular providence over yw, and have abundantly testified my care of you. I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.] 1 have made a particular choice of thee for my peculiar people, and singled thee out from the rest of the world; (see Exod. xxxi. 2.) and ever since have treated thee with uncommon instances of kindness and familiarity. When a person of great dignity calls an inferior by his name, it is a token of a particular intimacy, and doing him a great deal of honour. (Compare xlv. 4. xlix. 1. Exod. xxxiii. 12.)
Isaiah 14:2
And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place. They shall provide them with all necessary accommodations for their journey. (See Ezra i. 4;) This will have a more signal completion in that restoration of the Jewish nation, which shall come to pass in the latter times. (See xlix. 22. lxvi. 20.) ■ And the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of tlte Lord for servants and for handmaids r and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.] Those that left their.own country for the sake of the true religion, would be content to live in an inferior condition among the Jews: and as they became strangers during their captivity, so some of these very people shall become their servants, or, as somo understand it, shall become converts to the true religion. This maybe the sense of the words, with relation to the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity: but, without question; they have a farther meaning in them, and point at those times under the gospel, when those worldly powers, which were great enemies to the truth, shall be converted, and pay a profound submission to the laws of Christianity and the pastors of the church: and having been made partakers of their spiritual things, shall minister to them in carnal things, as St. Paul speaks, Rom. xv. 27. (Compare xlix. 23. lxi. 5. and see the notes there.) When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee — when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt.] I will deliver thee wh^n thou art in the greatest straits and difficulties. To pass through fire and water, is a proverbial expression, to signify being exposed to all kind of dangers. (See Psal. lxvi. 12.)
Isaiah 14:3
I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia andSeba for thee. This most interpreters understand of that diversion which the Egyptians, the Jews’ allies, in conjunction with Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, gave to Sennaeherib’s forces, when they were just ready to fall upon the Jews. (See xxx vi. 9. and notes upon xviii. 1.) If we take the words in this sense, we must understand the Cush, or Ethiopia, mentioned in the thirty-seventh ehapter, of Arabia, beeause it is joined herewith Seba, whieh is part of that country. (See likewise xlv. 14.) It is certain that Cush sometimes signifies Arabia, though not always, as Bochart maintains. If we do not approve of this explication, this verse must relate to some historical passage not recorded elsewhere in Scripture. Some, indeed, would refer the place to the destruction of the Ethiopians under Asa: (2 Chron. xiv. 12.) but I take those not to have been Arabians (and such probably are meant here), but Ethiopians properly so called, beeause they are joined with Lubims, 2Chron.xvi. 8. who certainly are Africans.
Isaiah 14:4
Thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon. Compare Hab. ii. G. The Hebrew word mashal signifies not only a proverbial speech, such as was in everybody’s mouth, but likewise sparable, or an acute and excellent saying, drawn up with art, and adorned with rhetorical figures: (see Job xxvii. 1. xxix. 1.) such as are the parables of 3 otham and others in the Old Testament, and those of Christ in the New. Of the same kind is this which here follows, made up of sarcasms and bitter ironies: together with a poetical description of the infernal regions, where all the ghosts of the deceased tyrants are represented as rising out of their places, and coming to meet the king of Babylon, and congratulate his arrival among, them: (ver. 9, &c.), Ver.. 5. TJie Lord Jiath broken the staff of the wicked^]. This was the Lord’s doing, none but he could destroy a power so firmly established. (See the meaning of a staff explained in the note upon ix. 4.) Therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life.] The Chaldeans and their forces. (See ver. 14.)
Isaiah 14:5
G. I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west, &c. This may have partly been fulfilled in the return of the Jews from Babylon, and other.countries under that monarchy; but withal they import some more general restoration of that nation: (see xi. II, 12.) or else we may interpret the words of the gathering together of God’s elect into one body. (See Eph. i. 10. and the following verse here, and the note upon liv. 7.)
Isaiah 14:7
Tlte whole earth is at rest, and quiet. The people of the earth are. at peace, now the great oppressor of the world is gone. Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory.] Every one that is called by the name of God’s servant. (See Ixiii. 19. James ii. 7.) The expressions denote the bringing the gentiles into the ehurch, and making* them fellow-heirs, and. of the same body with the Jews; for he hath created them too for his glory, and to shew forth the praises of him that hath called them out of darkness into his marvellous light, (1 Pet. ii. 9. and compare xlix. G. Amos ix. 12. John xi. 52.) The conversion of tho Jews, and the bringing the fulness of tho gentiles into the ehurch, will be coincident in time, and each of these events will help to advanee and carry on the other; (See the notes on lxvi. 12. 19.)
Isaiah 14:8
Yea, the fir-trees rejoice together at thee,- and the cedars of Lebanon^. Kings and princes are figuratively denoted by these expressions. (See note upon?:. 33.) Kings and princes of lesser note were oppressed and.ruined by this great tyrant, as well as. the common people. Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the. deaf that have,ears.] Tho old translation, published under king Henry VIII. expresses the sense more plainly thus, Bring forth the people which is blind, and yet fiath
Isaiah 14:9
Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming. See note on ver. 4. The. Hebrew word sheol, which our translation renders hell, or the grave, signifies the state of the dead in general, (see Job iii. 14, &c;), and is indifferently applied to the good and bad. Here it is taken in the worst sense, and denotes the infernal mansions of deceased tyrants. So likewise Ezek. xxxiii. 21, &c. a place exactly parallel to this. Sometimes it signifies the regions allotted to the souls of good men, as particularly when Jacob saith, (Gen.xxxvii. 35.) I will go down to the grave [scheolah in the Hebrew] to my son mourning: Where the word cannot be understood of the grave properly so. called, because Jacob thought his son was devoured by some wild beast; but must be meant of the place, where he supposed Joseph’s soul to be lodged. The Greek word tf A$r)Q, which answers to sheol, is rendered the place of the dead by our own interpreters, Ecclus. xlviii. 5. See this subject largely and learnedly handled by Archbishop Usher, in his Answer to the Jesuit’s Challenge, chap. 8. 1 and by Bishop Pearson, upon the article Christ’s descent into hell.
Isaiah 14:11
Tliypomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols. All thy state and glory, thy mirth and jollity. Thus the destruction of Tyre is threatened, (Ezek. xxvi. 13.) Iivill cause the noise of thy so?igs to cease: that is, all that joy and mirth which attend prosperity. (See likewise xxii. 2. xxiii. 7. of this prophecy.)
Isaiah 14:12
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!. Kings and princes are sometimes represented by the heavenly host. (See note on xiii. 10.) So by Lucifer, we are to understand the king of Babylon, who outshined other kings and princes, as much as the morning star does the other constellations. But the expression does likewise allude to the fall of Satan, the prince of the apostate angels, who is described as falling from heaven like lightning, (Luke x. 18.) And the title of son of the morning, is common both to the morning star and to an angel; the angels being styled, morning stars, Job xxxviii. 7. The fall of the apostate angels, is not directly recorded in the Old Testament; but it is implied in the distinction the holy writers make between good and evil spirits, and is sometimes alluded to by the prophets, when they threaten destruction to proud and insolent tyrants, who, in imitation of the pride of the devil, exalt themselves against God and his truth, and. are the instruments of Satan in promoting idolatry and wickedness in the world. (See Ezek. xxviii.
Isaiah 14:13
For thou hast said in thy heart, I will ascend into 3S
Isaiah 14:15
Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell. To the lowest degree of misery and destruction. (Compare Matt, xi. 23.)
Isaiah 14:16
They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee. As not knowing thee at first sight, by Teason of the great alteration of thy condition. i,.,
Isaiah 14:17
Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them. A nation of no account when Isaiah uttered this prophecy: their country being a province under the king of Assyria; (seo 2 Kings xvii. G.) and not erected into a distinct kingdom till Deioces, their first king, took the administration of the government, about the seventeenth year of king Hezekiah. But afterward they grew to be a very considerable people, and made up the principal part of the array which was brought against Babylon by Cyrus (who himself was a Median by the mother’s side); which army is upon that account described as coming from the north, (Jer. 1. 9.41.) for so Media lay with respect to Babylon. (See likewise Isa. xli. 25.) The Medians afterward, by Cyrus’s means, came to have the chief share in that empire, which he erected upon the ruins of the Babylonian monarchy, which is therefore called the kingdom of the Medes and Persians in Daniel, (v. 28. vi. 8.) though afterward the Persians had the precedence. (Sec Esth. i. 3. 9.) That opened not the house of his prisoners.] The marginal reading expresses the sense better, That did not let his prisoners loose homewards: that is, did not restore them to their own country, as Cyrus did afterward to the Jews, but kept them in perpetual slavery. (See Jer.
Isaiah 14:18
They shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare cJiildren. If these two sentences are not equivalent, the former may be explained, of their ripping up women with child; a piece of barbarity sometimes used by conquerors. (See Hos. xiii. 16. Amos i. 13.) Every one in his own house.] In his own sepulchre v so the grave is called the house of eternity, or ( the long home, as our translation very well expresses it, EccIqs. xii. 5.:
Isaiah 14:19
And Babylon, the glonj of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency. The heathen writers give almost an incredible account of the greatness of this city. The most moderate accounts suppose, its walls to have been five-and-forty miles in compass. That passage in Jeremy (li. 31.) shews it to be of a vast extent, " One host shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to shew the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end.” But Aristotle outdoes even this account, telling us, that " when one part of the city was taken, it was three days before the other part knew of it." (Politic, lib. iii. cap. 3.) The stateliness of the city was what Nebuchadnezzar gloried in, as the height of his greatness, (Dan. iv. 30.) Shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.’] See the same threatening denounced against Babylon,‘Jer. 1. 40. 51. 64. Babylon never recovered its ancient splendour after it was taken by Cyrus: but upon the removal of the seat of the empire from thence, by the Persians, it, by degrees, decayed, till it w r as at last reduced to an utter solitude. (See Strabo, lib. xvi. and Pliny’s Nat. Hist. lib. vi. cap. 26.) But this did not come to pass till a considerable time after the taking of the city by Cyrus. From whence we may conclude, that this prophecy looks farther, to another Babylon, mentioned in the Revelation, whose destruction is threatened in the forecited words of Jeremy, (Rev. xviii. 21.) This is a pregnant instance, among many others, that the mystical sense of several prophecies, that is, the sense which is more remotely intended, comes nearer to the letter of the prophecies, than that which some call the literal sense, and think to have been immediately designed by the prophet. But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those tliat are slain.] Thou art not allowed the honour of decent burial. (See the following verse, and Jer. xxxvi. 30.) Thou art reputed no better than a dead branch, that is fit for nothing but to rot upon the ground: or like the raiment of those that are slain, which is so filthy, that nobody cares to touch it. The touching the clothes of any person slain, did contract unr cleanness by the law, (Numb. xix. G.) This verse may fitly be applied to Belshazzar, the last king of the Babylonian Tace, who being slain in a sudden revolution, his body might probably be neglected for some time, and suffered to lie above ground, and afterward be buried without any solemnity, but thrown into a pit in the very clothes in which he was slain, as common soldiers are buried in the field after an engagement..
Isaiah 14:20
Neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there, neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. The Arabians were wandering shepherds that had no certain habitation, but carried their flocks and tents from place to place, for the convenience of pasture: much like the Nomades of Africa. This expression denotes the utmost degree of solitude. It is a great degree of it, for the places where great cities stood to be turned into pasturage. (Sec xvii. 2. xxvii. 10.) But here it is said, that the ruins of Babylon shall be a place fit only for wild savage creatures to resort to.
Isaiah 14:21
But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance tliere. Compare xxxiv. 11. 15. Rev. xviii. 2. It is uncertain what creatures are meant by several Hebrew words in this and the following verse: particularly what the word searim signifies, which our English renders satyrs. The word originally signifies goats: and, it is supposed, that evil spirits of old time appeared in the shape of goats, as the learned Bocharthath proved: (Hierozoic. par. ii. lib. ii. cap. 7.) upon which account the word is sometimes taken for devils, and is so translated by our interpreters, Lev. xvii. 7. 2 Chron. xi. 15. But here and xxxiv. 14. it is rendered satyrs. The expression is taken from a vulgar opinion, that desolate and forlorn places are inhabited by evil spirits, who have their haunts there. (See xxxiv. 13, 14. Baruch iv. 35. Rev. xviii. 2.) Accordingly our Saviour, in his parable of an unclean spirit, saith, that he walks through dry or uninhabited places, (Matt. xii. 43.) [Wild beasts of the desert shall lie there.] St. Jerome tells us, that, in his time, the ground upon which Babylon stood, was turned into apark for the hunting of wild beasts. See his commentaries upon the place.] Prepare slaughter for his children for tlie iniquity of tlieir fathers.] Belshazzar. being slain, and the monarchy translated to the Medes and Persians, (Dan, v. 30, 31.) it is not likely that any related to the family of the former monarchs were suffered to survive. That they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.].It w f as tht.ambition of the great monarchs of those times to build new cities, and call them by their own uames, thereby to perpetuate their memory. Hence the cities took their rise, which were called by the names of Seleucia, Ptolemais, Alexandria, &e. Some render the latter part of the verse, Nor fill the face of the ivorld with enemies, such as should continue a succession of war and bloodshed, and disturb the peace and quiet of mankind.
Isaiah 14:22
And dragons in their pleasant palaces. The Hebrew word tannin signifies any large creature of tho creeping kind, whether upon sea or land. Here it is taken for a great serpent, such as are usually found in deserts and desolate places. (Compare Psal. xliv. 19. Jer. ix. 11. Ii. 37*) See more of this word in the note upon xxvii. 1. [And dragons (or serpents) in their pleasant palaces.] Travellers relate, that it is dangerous approaching the ruins of that city, for fear of serpents and scorpions which lurk there. See their words in Dr. trideaux’s Connect, of Script. Hist, ad an. A. C. 293.] And her time is near at hand, and her days shall not be prolonged.] What will certainly come to pass, the prophets commonly speak of as just at hand. (Compare xlvi. 13. Hab. ii. 3. Deut. xxxii.35* Matt. xxiv. 29.).. I will cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nepheiv.] See the note on ver. 21. [And son and nephew.] Or rather son and grandson: the word neked is translated son’s son, or grandson, Gen. xxi. 23. so it should be translated here, and Job xviii. 19. as Dr. Prideaux observes, ad an. A. C. 539. This prophecy was fulfilled in the death of Belshazzar, who was grandson to Nebuchadnezzar, and the last of that family. See the note upon Jer. xxvii. 7.].
Isaiah 14:23
I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water.". Compare xiii. 21, 22. xxxiv. 11. Babylon stood in a low, marshy ground, and the prophet threatens that it shall be as entirely, destroyed, as if it were sunk into the bottom of a great lakeor pool. (See Jer. Ii. G4.) This agrees with what is said xiii. 19. that it shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, which were swallowed up in a lake of fire and brimstone. Several learned men are of opinion that the same sort of punishment is threatened to mystical Babylon, Rev. xviii. 21. which the prophet hath here all along in his eye. And I will sweep it with the besom of destruction.] I will make a clear riddance of all its wealth and substance. (See the like expressions, 2 Kings xxi. 13.)
Isaiah 14:25
Tliat I zuill break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot. Some. interpreters understand this verse of Sennacherib, whose arrny was destroyed in its march towards Jerusalem upon the mountains of Judea; (see the note upon lxv. 9.) and they think that the prophet mentions this as an earnest of that vengeance which is here denounced against the Babylonian monarchy, which was all one with the Assyrian, and is called by that name, even after the scat of that empire was removed to Babylon. (See 2 Kings xxiii. 29. 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11.) But to make this part of the verse agree better with what follows, Tlien shall the yoke depart from thy neck, &c. which words imply the final deliverance of God’s people; I am apt to think that by the Assyrian, may be meant some remarkable enemies of Gods church, (see note on xi. 14. xxxii. 1G.) aud particularly those which arc expressed by Gog and Magog, Ezek. xxxviii. who, as the prophet there tells us, (ver. 17.) were under several names spoken of by the prophets of Israel: and it is particularly said of them, that they. shall fall upon the mountains of Israel; (Ezek.xxxix.4.) the same expression that is used here. And if we understand the words thus, it properly follows, as.a conclusion from the premises, in the next verse
Isaiah 14:26
Tliis is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth, &c. But they who interpret this verse of the.Babylouian empire, suppose the prophet speaks of it as if it were, a universal monarchy, and comprehended in a manner all the known world: as the Roman empire was,