Thou shalt take up this proverb— The latter member of this discourse is employed in a figurative enarration of the fall of the kings of Babylon, Isaiah 14:4-21 and of Babylon itself, Isaiah 14:22-23. The prophet introduces his prediction concerning the fall of the kings of Babylon by a poetic or dramatic song, in which the church congratulates herself and all other people on this event: in this song he elegantly represents, as in a scene, various persons speaking; as, first, the church, or people of God, Isaiah 14:4-7 secondly, the cedars of Lebanon, Isaiah 14:8 thirdly, the spirits of departed kings and princes, Isaiah 14:9-11 and fourthly, the church again, which closes the scene. Bishop Lowth observes, in his 17th Prelection, that the prophet, after having described the deliverance of the Israelites from their Babylonish slavery, and their return to their own country, introduces them on a sudden, as singing a triumphal ode upon the fall of the Babylonish monarch; which abounds with the most splendid images, and is carried on by a succession of prosopopoeias, the most beautiful of their kind. The poem opens with a sudden exclamation of the Jews, expressing their joy and admiration on the unexpected vicissitude of their affairs, and the death of the tyrant: the earth itself, and its productions, join in the triumph; the fir-trees and cedars of Lebanon (under which images are represented kings and princes in the ancient hieroglyphics, and in the parabolical style) exult with joy, and insult the declining power of this cruel enemy, Isaiah 14:7-8. After this follows a very bold figure, or prosopopoeia, in which hell, or the infernal regions, are represented under the image of a person rousing the spirits of the princes and kings, its inhabitants; who immediately arise from their thrones, and go to meet the king of Babylon: as he approaches them, they insult and deride him, and seek for solace in his calamity, Isaiah 14:9-11. Nothing can be more awful and tremendous than the images in these verses. All the descriptions of the state of the dead in the Jewish rabbins seem to be drawn from their graves; (concerning which see the note on ch. Isaiah 5:11-14.) the sides of those subterraneous caverns were cut into separate cells, which were adorned with carvings, and appropriated to the reception of a single body. Let us imagine then that we behold one of these vast, dreary, sepulchral caves, in which the
Gentile kings are deposited in their respective cells, with their arms placed under their heads, and their attendants lying near them,—for it was a Jewish opinion, that the whole armies or those nations which were destroyed, descended into the regions of the dead together.—Lo! the king of Babylon is introduced: they all rise from their thrones, go to meet him, and as he advances thus address him, Art thou become weak as we are? art thou become like unto us?—But no words, except those of his own, can express the sublimity of the prophet's ideas. After this the Jews are introduced as speaking again; and in an exclamation, agreeable to the funeral rites of the ancients, with great elegance aggravate the misery of his fall, Isaiah 14:12. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! Lucifer is said to set before the morning-star rises; and it is observable, that the Hebrew שׁחר shachar, does not signify morning or daylight, but the twilight which precedes the appearance of the morning-star. See ch. Isaiah 13:10. They then introduced this fallen Lucifer, this king of Babylon, as speaking in his own person, and, by his mad boasting of his invincible power, still heightening the greatness of his fall. I will exalt myself says he, above the stars of God, above all other princes; I will sit upon the mount of the congregation, &c. Isaiah 14:13-14. That is, "I will sit triumphant in the temple of the God of Israel himself, which was built on mount Moriah, and on the north side of Jerusalem." But, as if this was not sufficient, other speakers are brought in: some persons are introduced, who find the carcase of the Babylonish king, and, after viewing him with the greatest attention, scarcely know him again, Isaiah 14:15-17. They then reproach him with having the common rites of burial denied him on account of his cruelty and barbarity, and execrate both his name, race, and posterity, Isaiah 14:18-21. The whole is concluded with an awful and tremendous speech from God himself, wherein he threatens perpetual excision and destruction to the king of Babylon, his posterity, and the city itself, and confirms this denunciation, as irrevocable and immutable, by the solemn sanction of an oath. Vitringa renders the 21st verse, Prepare slaughter unto his children for the iniquity of their fathers: Let them not rise up to possess the land, that enemies should fill the face of the world. The meaning is, "Take care, lest if you spare his children, they raise themselves again, and obtain possession of the land, filling the world with enemies, prepared to avenge their father's injuries, and to spread around all kinds of confusion." See Bishop Lowth's Prelections.