Isaiah · chapter 14 of 66
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Isaiah 14 promises that the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and again choose Israel. It then presents a taunt against the king of Babylon, whose pride led him to want to ascend above the stars of God and who ends in the grave. After that it announces the destruction of Assyria on the Lord's land and closes with an oracle against Philistia, in the year King Ahaz died.
This chapter continues the oracle against Babylon from chapter 13. Isaiah first shows what its fall means for God's people, and then composes a poetic satire about a tyrant king who dies. He then widens his view to two other nations, Assyria and Philistia, showing that the Lord has a plan for the whole earth.
The Lord will have compassion on Jacob and again choose Israel and settle them in their land. Foreigners will join them, and peoples will bring them to their place. The people will have servants among the nations that once oppressed them. When the Lord gives them rest from their pain and hard service, they will take up a taunt against the king of Babylon.
The taunt celebrates that the oppressor has ceased: the Lord has broken the staff of the wicked. The whole earth is at rest and breaks into singing; even the cypresses and the cedars of Lebanon rejoice. Sheol is stirred up to meet the king, and the dead, once the leaders of the earth, rise from their thrones and tell him he has become weak as they are. His pomp is brought down to Sheol and maggots are his bed. How you have fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! He said in his heart that he would ascend to heaven, raise his throne above the stars of God and make himself like the Most High. But he will be brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit. Those who see him will stare at him: is this the man who made the earth tremble? His body will not be buried with honor, because he destroyed his land and killed his people. The Lord will cut off from Babylon name, offspring and descendants.
The Lord swears that what he has planned will happen: he will break Assyria in his land and trample it on his mountains, and its yoke will be removed from his people. This is the purpose planned concerning the whole earth, and no one can annul it. The chapter ends with an oracle from the year King Ahaz died against Philistia: do not rejoice that the rod that struck you is broken, for from the root a viper will come. The Lord has founded Zion, and in her the afflicted of his people will find refuge.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The Lord will have compassion on Jacob and again choose Israel. Babylon's fall is not only judgment on a nation but part of God's faithfulness to his people.
The taunt asks how the Day Star, son of Dawn, fell from heaven. In its context it speaks of the king of Babylon as a star that fell. Some Christians also read a background about Satan's fall, though the text addresses the king of Babylon.
The king said in his heart that he would ascend to heaven, raise his throne above the stars of God and be like the Most High. It is a description of human pride that wants to take God's place.
When the Lord of hosts has purposed something, no one can annul it, and no one can turn back his outstretched hand. That certainty comforts Judah in the face of powers that seem unstoppable.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: He will have compassion on him and again choose Israel and settle them in their land. — Isaiah 14:1
Answer: Against the king of Babylon. — Isaiah 14:4
Answer: It is stirred up to meet him, and the dead rise to tell him he has become weak as they are. — Isaiah 14:9-10
Answer: That he would ascend to heaven, raise his throne above the stars of God and be like the Most High. — Isaiah 14:13-14
Answer: He will break it in his land and trample it on his mountains. — Isaiah 14:25
Answer: He has founded Zion, and the afflicted of his people will take refuge in it. — Isaiah 14:32
Isaiah 14 portrays the end of the pride that wants to take God's place. The powerful of the earth seem invincible, but the text shows that they end in the grave like anyone else. In a small group, the passage invites us to examine pride in our own hearts, since the desire to be self-sufficient puts us on the same road.
At the same time, the chapter brings comfort. The Lord has compassion on his people, fulfills his purposes and offers refuge to the afflicted. Anyone who feels oppressed can rest in the fact that evil does not have the last word.
Isaiah 14 combines the promise of compassion for Israel with the fall of the Babylonian tyrant and the decided purpose against Assyria and Philistia. Chapter 15 begins the oracle against Moab, the neighbor east of the Dead Sea.
In its context the passage is a taunt against the king of Babylon, and the term Day Star compares him to a fallen star. The word Lucifer comes from the Latin translation. Some Christians see in these images an echo of Satan's fall, but others consider that the text speaks only of the king. What is certain is that it teaches that pride that wants to be like God ends up brought down.
It is the Hebrew word for the place of the dead, described as a deep and shadowy region. In this chapter the image of Sheol welcoming the king underlines that, in the face of death, earthly power loses its meaning.
The text gives no name. It may refer to the king of Babylon in general as a representative of a proud imperial power, and to a particular ruler of the empire. What matters is the lesson about God's judgment on arrogance.