Isaiah 14:30 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And the first-born of the poor— In these words we have the consequence of the destruction of the Philistines to be effected by Hezekiah, and a more distinct declaration of the judgment itself. The consequence was to be the secure and peaceful habitation of Judah, in those parts especially which had been long exposed to the incursions and depredations of this hostile nation; and for this very reason the prophet calls these inhabitants of Judaea poor and needy; denoting the husbandmen, under the reign of Ahaz, exhausted and reduced to the greatest distress, as God, under that impious prince, had delivered them up to desolation. 2 Chronicles 30:7. But, every where emphatical in his expressions, the prophet calls them the first-born of the poor; that is to say, the very poorest. So in Job, the first-born of death, is the most violent and terrible of deaths, chap. Job 18:13. Some think, that by the root and the remnant are meant the nobles and the vulgar. Vitringa is of opinion, that the two words mean the same thing; as a root, when the branches are cut off, is that alone which remains of the tree; and that the prophet alludes to the weakening of the Philistines by the Assyrians, and the cutting off the remnant of them by Hezekiah. See Isaiah 14:22 and 2 Chronicles 32:23; 2 Chronicles 32:33 where the felicity of the reign of Hezekiah after the overthrow of the Assyrian in the land of Canaan is related. The time of this destruction of the Philistines was, according to Vitringa, after the overthrow of Sennacherib.