Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
15. thou shalt be brought down to Sheol ] Such is the end of the “vaulting ambition that o’erleaps itself.” The Babylonian Hades ( Aralu) seems to have been conceived as situated under the mountain of the gods. The pit means Sheol, and the sides of the pit are its inmost recesses, the most dismal part of a land of darkness. These apparently are reserved for those who have not obtained honourable burial on earth (see below on Isa 14:18-20).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell – Hebrew, To sheol (compare Isa 14:9).
To the sides of the pit – The word pit, here, is evidently synonymous with hell or hades, represented as a deep, dark region under ground. The dead were often buried in caves, and the descent was often dark and dreary, to the vaults where they reposed. Hence, it is always represented as going down; or, as the inferior regions. The sides of the pit here stand opposed to the sides of the north. He had sought to ascend to the one; he should be brought down to the other. The reference here is, doubtless, to the land of shades; to the dark and dismal regions where the departed dead are supposed to dwell – to sheol. So the parallelism proves. But the image or figure is taken from the custom of burying, where, in a deep natural cavern, or a sepulchre excavated from a rock, the dead were ranged around the sides of the cavern in niches or recesses excavated for that purpose (see the note at Isa 14:9).
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
15. to hellto Sheol (Isa14:6), thou who hast said, “I will ascend into heaven“(Mt 11:23).
sides of the pitantitheticalto the “sides of the north” (Isa14:13). Thus the reference is to the sides of thesepulcher round which the dead were arranged in niches. But MAURERhere, as in Isa 14:13,translates, “the extreme,” or innermost partsof the sepulchre: as in Eze 32:23(compare 1Sa 24:3).
Isa14:16-20. THEPASSERS-BY CONTEMPLATEWITH ASTONISHMENT THEBODY OF THE KINGOF BABYLON CASTOUT, INSTEADOF LYING IN ASPLENDID MAUSOLEUM,AND CAN HARDLYBELIEVE THEIRSENSES THAT ITIS HE.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell,…. Into a very low and miserable condition; see Mt 11:23 instead of ascending to heaven: or “to the grave”; though, inasmuch as afterwards a burial is denied him, the word may be taken for the infernal pit, and so is, as much as can be, opposed to heaven; and this will be true of antichrist, when the beast and false prophet will be cast alive into the lake of fire, Re 19:20:
to the sides of the pit; instead of being on the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north; another word for hell, the pit of corruption, and the bottomless pit. The Targum is,
“to the ends of the lake of the house of perdition;”
the place of everlasting destruction.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
15. But thou shalt be brought down to the grave. He formerly explained the intention of the king of Babylon, which was, that he should place his throne above the clouds; but he now contrasts with it an opposite event, namely, the sides of the pit or ditch, that is, some corner of a sepulcher into which he shall be thrown. He had formerly said that the king of Babylon wished to be carried up to Mount Zion, to the sides of the north, because that was a very lofty situation, and widely seen. He now uses the word sides in an opposite sense, as if he had said that he would have an abode in the most contemptible part of a sepulcher, as when one is thrust into a mean and despicable corner. In a wide and large sepulcher they place the dead bodies of honorable men in the middle; but the Prophet means that he will be thrown into a corner, or into the outer edges. Thus the Lord from on high laughs at the pride of the ungodly, so that, when they shall have swallowed up everything by their covetousness, and shall have burst through the clouds and heaven itself by their effrontery, he will at length expose them to the mockery of all, after having, in the twinkling of an eye, overturned their schemes.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(15) Yet thou shalt be brought . . .We note in the use of the same words ( the sides, or recesses, of the pit), as in the previous verse, the contrast of an indignant sarcasm. Yes, the prophet seems to say, the proud king has found his way to those recesses; but they are not in heaven, but in Hades.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15. Down to hell To hades, as in Mat 11:23.
To the sides To the recesses the side burial places. The image is taken from the shelves and recesses of sepulchres.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 14:15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
Ver. 15. Yet thou shalt be brought down be hell. ] To the counterpoint of thy haughtiest conceits, ad infimam erebi sedem. So a merry fellow said that Xerxes, that great warrior who took upon him to control the sea, was now mending old shoes under a shop board in hell.
To the sides of the pit,
a Adagium Homericum.
b Jac. Rev. Hist. Pontif., 195.
c Daniel’s History, fol. 99.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 14:15-20
Isa 14:15-20
“Yet thou shalt be brought down to Sheol, to the uttermost parts of the pit. They that see thee shall gaze at thee, they shall consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; that made the world as a wilderness, and overthrew the cities thereof; that let not loose his prisoners to their home? All the kings of the nations, all of them, sleep in glory, everyone in his own house. But thou art cast forth away from thy sepulchre like an abominable branch, clothed with the slain, that are thrust through with the sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a dead body trodden under foot. Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, thou hast slain thy people; the seed of evil-doers shall not be named forever.”
Notice that this is written in the future tense, outlining what was to happen to the proud king of Babylon. His great glory would culminate in the destruction of Jerusalem, the captivity of God’s people, and the incompetent, drunken Belshazzar’s desecration of the sacred vessels of the House of God by Belshazzar and his wives and concubines drinking wine from the sacred vessels in the frenzied orgy that terminated both Belshazzar and his kingdom.
Whatever specific king the Lord could have been speaking of in this prophecy, we must believe that this chapter should be read, “as a prediction of the fall of every human tyrant and his fate in the afterlife. The projected fate of the Babylonian despot reminds one of what Herod Agrippa II said at Caesarea, when, shortly after having had himself proclaimed as a god, he collapsed on the stage and at once died from being eaten up internally with worms! (Acts 12). He said, “I, whom you call a god am commanded presently to depart this life. Providence thus reproves your lying words. I, called by you immortal, am immediately to be hurried away by death.
The whole point in these remarkable verses is the remarkable contrast between the earthly glory of ambitious rulers (actually all mortal glory) and the inevitable frustration and defeat terminating all of it at last in the dust of the grave. The picture here of people already dead gazing in astonishment and wonder at the king of Babylon and the taunting remarks made to him is a highly imaginative device used to emphasize the depths to which the tyrant had fallen. If the dead knew anything, and if the dead knew all about earthly affairs that took place after their own death, and if they could have spoken to vainglorious earthly rulers after the death of such rulers, then we might suppose that the scene depicted here is factual; but such assumptions cannot be based upon anything that one may read in God’s Word. Nevertheless, students of all ages have marveled at the power of this passage.
According to the thinking in ancient times, “To be excluded from burial was the most extreme disgrace for a king.” Isa 14:20 adds even that to the humiliation of abylon’s vainglorious monarch who would have assaulted heaven itself.
Isa 14:15-20 KINGS BANISHMENT: The estimate of the king of Babylonia by his long-since-dead predecessors is quite different than that of the kings own self-estimate! When Almighty God deposes the king of Babylon and gives the Babylonian empire over to another people (Cf. Jer 27:5 ff) and the king of Babylon dies and goes to Sheol, the residents of Sheol scrutinize and stare at him in amazement. They reflect, So this is what the worlds great braggart comes to-so this is the man that made the earth to tremble and shook kingdoms? The downfall is to be to the uttermost. The one who was so glorified, so powerful, who even attempted to deify himself, has been thrust down so low. It seems almost incredible. Only Almighty God could do it! He is not only deposed, he is despised and humiliated. His carcass will lie like a vile corpse on the earth. He will be cast out upon the ground like a dead and useless branch.
Other kings may have done evil, but not like this one. In his greed and egotism he wasted his nation, both the people in wars and the resources in selfishness. He will not be buried. His body will be trampled by men and horses. For him there is to be no grave, no monument which will cause his name to be remembered. His demise will be so complete that all remembrance of the seed of evildoers will be forgotten forever. The utter downfall and degradation of the king of Babylon reminds one of tyrants (Hitler, Mussolini, et. al.) whose opposition to God and truth and justice brought about their death and shame. Their bodies were burned and hanged in humiliating defeat.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
hell
Heb. “Sheol,” Also; Is 14:9 (See Scofield “Hab 2:5”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
thou: Isa 14:3-11, Eze 28:8, Eze 28:9, Mat 11:23, Act 12:22, Act 12:23, Rev 19:20
to the: Eze 32:23
Reciprocal: Num 16:33 – into the Psa 63:9 – go Eze 31:16 – When I Eze 32:18 – unto the Luk 10:15 – thrust Luk 16:23 – in hell
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 14:15-17. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell To the grave, and the state of the dead; to the sides of the pit And lodged there in the lowest state of misery and degradation. They that see thee In this humbled and wretched state, shall narrowly look upon thee As not knowing thee at first sight, and hardly believing their own eyes, because of this great alteration of thy condition, a change which, to them, seemed next to impossible. Is this the man that made the earth to tremble All the nations of the earth? that did shake the kingdoms At his pleasure? that made the world a wilderness By slaying or carrying away captive its inhabitants, and destroying its produce: that opened not the house of his prisoners That did not restore them to their own country, as Cyrus afterward did the Jews; but kept them in perpetual slavery, Jer 50:33. By this the prophet signifies both his irresistible power, and his continued cruelty.