Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 14:10
All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?
All they shall speak … – Language of astonishment that one so proud, and who apparently never expected to die, should be brought down to that humiliating condition. It is a severe taunt at the great change which had taken place in a haughty monarch.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Thou, who wast king of kings, and far superior to us in power and authority, that didst neither fear God nor reverence man, that didst slay whom thou wouldst, and keep alive whom thou wouldst, Dan 5:19.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
10. They taunt him and derivefrom his calamity consolation under their own (Eze31:16).
weakas a shade bereftof blood and life. Rephaim, “the dead,” may come from aHebrew root, meaning similarly “feeble,””powerless.” The speech of the departed closes with Isa14:11.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
All they shall speak, and say unto thee,…. So they would say, could they speak, and are here represented as if they did:
art thou become also weak as we? who had been more powerful than they, had been too many for them, and had subdued them, and ruled over them, and was not only looked upon as invincible but as immortal, yea, as a deity; and yet now was become “sick”, as the word b signifies, or by sickness brought to death, and by death enfeebled and rendered weak and without strength, stripped of all natural strength, as well as of all civil power and authority:
art thou become like unto us? who thought himself, and was flattered by others, that there were none like unto him; but now as the rest of the dead, and upon a level with them. So will it be with the Romish antichrist, who now exalts himself above all that is called God, and reigns over the kings of the earth, and shows himself as if he was God, and of whom his parasites say, “who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?” when he shall be consumed by Christ, and cast into the lake of fire with the devil and false prophet, he will be like the kings of the earth deceived by him, and the rest of the worshippers of him, and be as weak as they, 2Th 2:4
Re 20:10.
b a “aegrotuss fuit”.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
And how do they greet this lofty new-comer? “They all rise up and say to thee, Art thou also made weak like us? art thou become like us?” This is all that the shades say; what follows does not belong to them. The pual c hullah (only used here), “to be made sickly, or powerless,” signifies to be transposed into the condition of the latter, viz., the Repahim (a word which also occurs in the Phoenician inscriptions, from = , to be relaxed or weary), since the life of the shades is only a shadow of life (cf., , and possibly also in Homer, when used in the sense of those who are dying, exhausted and prostrate with weakness). And in Hades we could not expect anything more than this expression of extreme amazement. For why should they receive their new comrade with contempt or scorn? From Isa 14:11 onwards, the singers of the mashal take up the song again.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
10. All shall speak and say to thee. These are taunts with which the dead jeer the tyrant who has joined them, as if they asked him what is the reason why he too is dead like other men. Struck with the singularity of the event, Isaiah pretends that they inquire with astonishment about it as something that could not be believed.
Art thou become like unto us? Tyrants are blinded by their greatness, and do not think that they are mortal, and even make themselves to be half-gods and adore themselves. On this account it is made known after their death that they shared in the condition of all mortals, to which they did not think that they were liable. It is in this sense that the dead, not without bitter scorn, reproach him for having become like unto themselves; for “death alone,” as the poet says, “acknowledges how small are the dimensions of the bodies of men.” (219) David also, speaking of princes and their high rank, says,
I have said, ye are gods; but you shall die like men, and fall like one of the common people. (Psa 82:6.)
The bodies of princes, like those of the common people, must at length become corrupted and be devoured by worms, even though costly and splendid sepulchres be built for them.
(219) Bogus footnote
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(10) Art thou also become weak as we?The question implies, of course, an affirmative answer. The king of Babylon, the report of whose coming had roused awe and wonder, is found to be as weak as any of the other Rephaim, the eidla, or shadowy forms, of Homer (Il, xxiii., 72). With these words the vision of the spectral world ends, and the next verse takes up the taunting song of the liberated Israelites, the language of which is, however, influenced by the imagery of the vision.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
10. Shall speak The scene is as if, before his coming, they stood in dread; but his approach revealing his weakness, they become bolder, and venture the expression, on his advance toward them, “Thou art weak as we.” Delitzsch is of opinion that this is all the shades say; that what follows does not belong to them. And on the ground that surprise naturally, after an expressive burst, says but little, this is probably true.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 14:10 All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?
Ver. 10. Art thou also become weak as we? ] Interrogatio sarcastica et insultabunda. Hast thou also a Hic situs est, here he lies, or Mortuus est, here he died, set upon thy tombstone? This if thou hadst forethought, thou wouldst have better behaved thyself while alive: the meditation of death would have been a death to thy passions, and an allay to thine insolencies. Virgil saith, if swarms of bees meet in the air, they will sometimes fight as it were in a set battle with great violence; but if you cast but a little dust upon them, they will be all presently quiet.
“ Hi motus animorum atque haec certamina tanta,
Pulveris exigui iactu compressa quieseunt. ”
– Georg.,
Had Nebuchadnezzar or his successors bethought themselves of their mortality and of death’s impartiality, they would have been more moderate.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
speak. say. Figure of speech Prosopopoeia, by which the dead are represented as speaking.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Art thou also: Psa 49:6-14, Psa 49:20, Psa 82:6, Psa 82:7, Ecc 2:16, Luk 16:20-23
Reciprocal: 2Sa 11:21 – Thy servant Job 3:14 – kings Isa 25:5 – shalt bring Jer 50:46 – General Eze 32:21 – strong