Thou shalt take up this proverb against the King of Babylon
The “proverb against the King of Babylon”
Lowth is generally thought not to speak with exaggeration when he calls it the finest [song] of its kind extant in any language.
It is a song of triumph in the form of a dirge, and therefore involves an undercurrent of sarcasm or irony. (Sir E. Strachey, Bart.)
An ode of triumph
This ode, if it is to be admired as it deserves, must be read as a whole: its perfection as a work of art, its picturesque imagery, the delicate and subtle vein of irony by which it is penetrated--it is called a “taunt song”--will not endure partial quotation or paraphrase. The line of thought is as follows. In the first strophe (Isaiah 14:4-8), the prophet declares exultingly how at length the tyrant is stilled, the earth is at peace; only the sound of rejoicing is heard. In the second (Isaiah 14:9-11), he accompanies in thought the Shade of the King of Babylon as it journeys to the Underworld, and imagines the ironical greeting which there meets it from the lips of the other kings--still, as on earth, supposed to be invested with the panoply of State. The third strophe (Isaiah 14:12-15) depicts the abasement of the Babylonian monarch in its full magnitude: he who would have joined the ranks of the gods, is east down to the inmost recesses of the pit. In the fourth and last strophe (verse 16-20), the prophet’s thought passes to the battlefield--from the feeble Shade to the unburied, dishonoured corpse: the passers-by express their amazement at the contrast which its fate presents to that of other kings after their death; it is excluded from the royal burial place, flung aside as a worthless bough, hidden amongst the bodies of slain, common soldiers, The prophet concludes with an epilogue, spoken in his own person, and re-asserting emphatically the final and irretrievable ruin of the great city (Isaiah 14:21-23).
The best commentary on this prophecy is the long and impassioned invective against Babylon contained in Jeremiah 50:1-46; Jeremiah 51:1-58.(Prof. E. R. Driver, D. D.)
Destruction of the King of Babylon
The Babylonian monarchy bade fair to be an absolute, universal, and perpetual one, and in these pretensions vied with the Almighty; it is, therefore, very justly not only brought down, but exulted over when it is down. (M. Henry.)
“The golden city”
(Isaiah 14:4) is a graphical description of that city, which was renowned for its immense riches and intern parable splendour. (R. Macculloch.)
Deliverance from an evil dominion
If the nations rejoice at the overthrow of a haughty, tyrannical prince, and the re-establishment of tranquillity and liberty, how much greater ought to be the triumph of those who are delivered from the dominion of divers impetuous lusts, and enjoy the earnests of spiritual and eternal rest! (R. Macculloch.)
“Hell”
(Isaiah 14:9), as always in the Old Testament = the Greek Hades; not a place of torment, but the “meeting place of all living” (Job 30:23). The prophet’s representation is based upon the ideas current among the people. See Bishop Lowth’s “Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews,” Lecture 7. The same idea is elaborated in greater detail by Ezekiel 32:17-32. (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)
An image of the soul
The mythological idea of Hades proceeds on the two-fold truth, that what and how man has been in this world is not obliterated in the other world, but becomes essentially manifest, and that there is an immaterial self-formation of the soul in which all that the individual man has become through his own self-determination under God-given relations is reflected as in a mirror, and that in an abiding figure. This image of the soul, to which the dead body is related as the shattered form of a mould, is the shadowy corporeity of the inhabitants of Hades, in which they appear essentially, although in the condition of spirits, as what they were in this life. (F. Delitzsch.)
“Hell”
“Hell” is moved as a city is moved when a great king is brought prisoner thither, and everyone runs out of his house to see him. (W. Day, M. A.)
Lucifer
(Isaiah 14:12):--In his splendour [the King of Babylon] is likened to the morning star, which was worshipped by the Babylonians under the name of Istar. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
Impious expectations disappointed
(Isaiah 14:13-15):--That he should go to Sheol at all was a fate never contemplated by his soaring and self-deifying pride. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
Pride
Pride and ambition know no bounds (Isaiah 14:14). (R. Macculloch.)
“The bittern”
(Isaiah 14:23), Hebrews kippod. The word occurs also in chap. Zephaniah 2:14. It has been rendered otter, tortoise, owl, beaver, porcupine (R.V.). No one of the renderings proposed is satisfactory. “Bittern” is freer from objection than any other bird which might be proposed. It is a solitary bird, and loves such haunts as would be supplied by the marshes which were found in districts of Edom and Babylon and Nineveh, as the fruit of the desolation sent on them. It feeds at night, and hides during the day among the long grass and rushes of its favourite habitats. (J. Duns, D. D., F. R. S. E.)
“The bosom of destruction”
(Isaiah 14:23):--When a people have nothing among them but dirt and filth, and will not be made clean with the besom of reformation, what can they expect but to be swept off the face of the earth with “the bosom of destruction”? (M. Henry.)
The Church’s exultation over her foes
Surely, in some such terms as these, the Church shall one day exult over all her foes, and especially over the great apostate power of Babylon the Great, the City of the Seven Hills. And still more, over the cast out prince of this world, of whom the King of Babylon and other princes of this world have been the types and representatives. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)