Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 14:4
That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!
4. this proverb ] The Hebrew word ( mshl) is used in a variety of senses. Originally signifying a similitude, it came naturally to denote a popular proverb or gnomic saying, and finally acquired the sense of a satire or taunt-song, as here (Hab 2:6; Num 21:27). In ancient Israel wit seems to have passed into sarcasm as readily as in more recent times. The poem which follows might with equal propriety be described as a dirge ( qnah, in LXX.), commencing as it does with the characteristic word ’kh, and exhibiting the peculiarity of the elegiac measure (the line is broken by a csura in such a manner that the second member is shorter than the first. See on ch. Isa 1:21). Such ironical elegies are common in the prophets of the exile. Another striking example will meet us in ch. 47.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
4. The line may be rendered:
How is the oppressor stilled, stilled the insolent rage!
The translation golden city is an attempt to render the received text, but can hardly be justified. All the ancient versions read instead of madhbh, marhbh, a word which combines the ideas of restlessness and insolence (see ch. Isa 3:5).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
4 b 8. The first strophe is like a sigh of relief breathed by the whole of creation, when the disturber of its peace has vanished from the scene.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
4 b 21. The song of triumph over the king of Babylon is one of the finest specimens of Hebrew poetry which the Old Testament contains. A division into five strophes, each containing seven long lines, is distinctly recognisable, and the occasional deviations from strict symmetry of form are probably due to defects in the text.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
That thou shalt take up – Thou shalt utter, declare, or commence. The word take up, is used in the sense of utter, speak, or declare, in Exo 20:7; Exo 23:1; Psa 15:2.
This proverb – ( hamashal). Vulgate, Parable. Septuagint ton threnon – Lamentation. The Hebrew word mashal, usually rendered proverb, is also rendered a parable, or a by-word. It properly denotes a metaphor, a comparison, a similitude; and is applied usually to a brief and pungent sentiment or maxim, where wisdom is embodied in few words. In these the ancients abounded. They had few books; and hence arose the necessity of condensing as much as possible the sentiments of wisdom, that they might be easily remembered, and transmitted to future times. These maxims were commonly expressed in figurative language, or by a brief comparison, or short parable, as they are with us. The word also means, figurative discourse generally; and hence, a song or poem Num 23:7, Num 23:18; Job 27:1; Job 29:1; Psa 49:5. It is also used to denote a satire, or a song of triumph over enemies Mic 2:4; Heb 4:6; Joe 2:17. It is evidently used in this sense here – to denote a taunting speech, a song of triumph over the prostrate king of Babylon. In this beautiful song, there are all the elements of the most pungent satire, and all the beauties of the highest poetry.
Against the king of Babylon – Over the king of Babylon, or in regard to him. It is not certain that any particular king of Babylon is here intended. If there was, it was probably Belshazzar, in whose reign the city was taken (see the notes at Isa 14:22). It may, however, be designed to denote the Babylonian empire – the kingdom that had oppressed the Jews; and thus the king may be referred to as the head of the nation, and as the representative of the whole people.
How hath the oppressor ceased! – The word oppressor ( noges’) denotes, properly, the exactor of tribute, and refers here to the fact that Babylon had oppressed its dependent provinces, by exacting large revenues from them, and thus cruelly oppressing them.
Ceased – Ceased to exact tribute; or (Hebrew) is at rest. It is now at rest, and no more puts forth its power in oppressing its dependent provinces.
The golden city – Babylon. The word used here ( madehebah) occurs nowhere else in the Bible. According to the Jewish Commentators, it means an exactress of gold, as if derived from dehab, used for zehab, gold. Gesenius and Michaelis prefer another reading ( marehebah), from ( rahab), and suppose that it means oppression. The Vulgate renders it tribute – The tribute hath ceased. The Septuagint Epispoudastes – Solicitor, or exactor (of gold). Vitringa supposes that the word means gold, and that it refers to the golden scepter of its kings that had now ceased to be swayed over the prostrate nations. The most probable sense is, that it means the exactress of gold, or of tribute. This best expresses the force of the word, and best agrees with the parallelism. In this sense it does not refer to the magnificence of the city, but to its oppressive acts in demanding tribute of gold from its dependent provinces.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 14:4-23
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 (Isa 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 (Isa 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 (Isa 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 prophets 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 (Isa 14:21-23).
The best commentary on this prophecy is the long and impassioned invective against Babylon contained in Jer 50:1-46; Jer 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
(Isa 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
(Isa 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 prophets representation is based upon the ideas current among the people. See Bishop Lowths Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews, Lecture 7. The same idea is elaborated in greater detail by Eze 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
(Isa 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
(Isa 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 (Isa 14:14). (R. Macculloch.)
The bittern
(Isa 14:23), Hebrews kippod. The word occurs also in chap. Zep 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
(Isa 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 Churchs 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.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 4. This proverb – “This parable”] mashal, I take this to be the general name for poetic style among the Hebrews, including every sort of it, as ranging under one or other, or all of the characters, of sententious, figurative, and sublime; which are all contained in the original notion, or in the use and application of the word mashal. Parables or proverbs, such as those of Solomon, are always expressed in short pointed sentences; frequently figurative, being formed on some comparison; generally forcible and authoritative, both in the matter and the form. And such in general is the style of the Hebrew poetry. The verb mashal signifies to rule; to exercise authority; to make equal; to compare one thing with another; to utter parables, or acute, weighty, and powerful speeches, in the form and manner of parables, though not properly such. Thus Balaam’s first prophecy, (Nu 23:7-10,) is called his mashal; though it has hardly any thing figurative in it: but it is beautifully sententious, and, from the very form and manner of it, has great spirit, force, and energy. Thus Job’s last speeches, in answer to his three friends, chap. 27-31, are called mashals; from no one particular character, which discriminates them from the rest of the poem, but from the sublime, the figurative, the sententious manner which equally prevails through the whole poem, and makes it one of the first and most eminent examples extant of the truly great and beautiful in poetic style. See Clarke on Pr 1:1.
The Septuagint in this place render the word by , a lamentation. They plainly consider the speech here introduced as a piece of poetry, and of that species of poetry which we call the elegiac; either from the subject, it being a poem on the fall and death of the king of Babylon, or from the form of the composition, which is of the longer sort of Hebrew verse, in which the Lamentations of Jeremiah, called by the Septuagint , are written.
The golden city ceased] madhebah, which is here translated golden city, is a Chaldee word. Probably it means that golden coin or ingot which was given to the Babylonians by way of tribute. So the word is understood by the Vulgate, where it is rendered tributum; and by Montanus, who translates it aurea pensio, the golden pension. Kimchi seems to have understood the word in the same sense. De Rossi translates it auri dives, rich in gold, or auri exactrix, the exactor of gold; the same as the exactor of tribute.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Shalt take up into thy mouth, as it is fully expressed, Psa 50:16.
How hath the oppressor ceased! this is spoken by way of astonishment and triumph. Who would have thought this possible?
The golden city, as they used to call themselves; which therefore he expresseth here in a word of their own language.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4. proverbThe Orientals,having few books, embodied their thoughts in weighty, figurative,briefly expressed gnomes. Here a taunting song of triumph (Mic 2:4;Hab 2:6).
the kingthe idealrepresentative of Babylon; perhaps Belshazzar (Da5:1-31). The mystical Babylon is ultimately meant.
golden cityrather,”the exactress of gold” [MAURER].But the old translators read differently in the Hebrew,“oppression,” which the parallelism favors (compare Isa3:5).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
That thou shall take up this proverb against the king of Babylon,…. Or “concerning” him, his fall, and the fall of the Babylonish monarchy with him; if we understand this of any particular king of Babylon, it seems best not to interpret it of Nebuchadnezzar, whom Jerom mentions, in whom the empire was in its greatest glory: but of Belshazzar, in whom it ended; the king of Babylon may be here considered as a type of antichrist, and what is said of the one may be applied to the other: the “proverb” or “parable” taken up into the mouth, and expressed concerning him, signifies a sharp and acute speech, a taunting one, full of ironies and sarcasms, and biting expressions, as the following one is. The Septuagint render it, a “lamentation”; and the Arabic version, a “mournful song”; but as this was to be taken up by the church and people of God, concerning their great enemy, whose destruction is here described, it may rather be called a triumphant song, rejoicing at his ruin, and insulting over him:
and say, how hath the oppressor ceased! he who oppressed us, and other nations, exacted tribute of us, and of others, and made us to serve with hard bondage, how is he come to nothing? by what means is he brought to ruin; by whom is this accomplished? who has been the author of it, and by whom effected? this is said as wondering how it should be brought about, and rejoicing that so it was:
the golden city ceased! the city of Babylon, full of gold, drawn thither from the various parts of the world, called a golden cup,
Jer 51:7 and the Babylonish monarchy, in the times of Nebuchadnezzar, was signified by a golden head, Da 2:32 so mystical Babylon, or the Romish antichrist, is represented as decked with gold, and having a golden cup in her hand; and as a city abounding with gold, Re 17:4. The word here used is a Chaldee or Syriac word x, and perhaps is what was used by themselves, and is the name by which they called this city, and is now tauntingly returned; the word city is not in the text, but supplied. Some render “tribute” y, a golden pension, a tribute of gold, which was exacted of the nations in subjection, but now ceased; and when that tyrant and oppressor, the Romish antichrist, shall cease that tribute which he exacts of the nations of the earth will cease also, as tithes, first fruits, annates, Peter’s pence, c.
x . y “Tributum”, V. L. Cocceius “aurea pensio”, Montanus; “aurum tributarium”, Munster.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| The Doom of the King of Babylon. | B. C. 739. |
4 That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! 5 The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers. 6 He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth. 7 The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing. 8 Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us. 9 Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. 10 All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us? 11 Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. 12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! 13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. 15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. 16 They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; 17 That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners? 18 All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house. 19 But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet. 20 Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned. 21 Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities. 22 For I will rise up against them, saith the LORD of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the LORD. 23 I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the LORD of hosts.
The kings of Babylon, successively, were the great enemies and oppressors of God’s people, and therefore the destruction of Babylon, the fall of the king, and the ruin of his family, are here particularly taken notice of and triumphed in. In the day that God has given Israel rest they shall take up this proverb against the king of Babylon. We must not rejoice when our enemy falls, as ours; but when Babylon, the common enemy of God and his Israel, sinks, then rejoice over her, thou heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets, Rev. xviii. 20. 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 insulted over when it is down; and it is not only the last monarch, Belshazzar, who was slain on that night that Babylon was taken (Dan. v. 30), who is here triumphed over, but the whole monarchy, which sunk in him; not without special reference to Nebuchadnezzar, in whom that monarchy was at its height. Now here,
I. The fall of the king of Babylon is rejoiced in; and a most curious and elegant composition is here prepared, not to adorn his hearse or monument, but to expose his memory and fix a lasting brand of infamy upon it. It gives us an account of the life and death of this mighty monarch, how he went down slain to the pit, though he had been the terror of the mighty in the land of the living, Ezek. xxxii. 27. In this parable we may observe,
1. The prodigious height of wealth and power at which this monarch and monarchy arrived. Babylon was a golden city, v. 4 (it is a Chaldee word in the original, which intimates that she used to call herself so), so much did she abound in riches and excel all other cities, as gold does all other metals. She is gold-thirsty, or an exactress of gold (so some read it); for how do men get wealth to themselves but by squeezing it out of others? The New Jerusalem is the only truly golden city, Rev 21:18; Rev 21:21. The king of Babylon, having so much wealth in his dominions and the absolute command of it, by the help of that ruled the nations (v. 6), gave them law, read them their doom, and at his pleasure weakened the nations (v. 12), that they might not be able to make head against him. Such vast and victorious armies did he bring into the field, that, which way soever he looked, he made the earth to tremble, and shook kingdoms (v. 16); all his neighbours were afraid of him, and were forced to submit to him. No one man could do this by his own personal strength, but by the numbers he has at his beck. Great tyrants, by making some do what they will, make others suffer what they will. How piteous is the case of mankind, which thus seems to be in a combination against itself, and its own rights and liberties, which could not be ruined but by its own strength!
2. The wretched abuse of all this wealth and power, which the king of Babylon was guilty of, in two instances:–
(1.) Great oppression and cruelty. He is known by the name of the oppressor (v. 4); he has the sceptre of the rulers (v. 5), has the command of all the princes about him; but it is the staff of the wicked, a staff with which he supports himself in his wickedness and wickedly strikes all about him. He smote the people, not in justice, for their correction and reformation, but in wrath (v. 6), to gratify his own peevish resentments, and that with a continual stroke, pursued them with his forces, and gave them no respite, no breathing time, no cessation of arms. He ruled the nations, but he ruled them in anger, every thing he said and did was in a passion; so that he who had the government of all about him had no government of himself. He made the world as a wilderness, as if he had taken a pride in being the plague of his generation and a curse to mankind, v. 17. Great princes usually glory in building cities, but he gloried in destroying them; see Ps. ix. 6. Two particular instances, worse than all the rest, are here given of his tyranny:– [1.] That he was severe to his captives (v. 17): He opened not the house of his prisoners; he did not let them loose homeward (so the margin reads it); he kept them in close confinement, and never would suffer any to return to their own land. This refers especially to the people of the Jews, and it is that which fills up the measure of the king of Babylon’s iniquity, that he had detained the people of God in captivity and would by no means release them; nay, and by profaning the vessels of God’s temple at Jerusalem, did in effect say that they should never return to their former use, Dan. v. 3. For this he was quickly and justly turned out by one whose first act was to open the house of God’s prisoners and send home the temple vessels. [2.] That he was oppressive to his own subjects (v. 20): Thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people; and what did he get by that, when the wealth of the land and the multitude of the people are the strength and honour of the prince, who never rules so safely, so gloriously, as in the hearts and affections of the people? But tyrants sacrifice their interests to their lusts and passions; and God will reckon with them for their barbarous usage of those who are under their power, whom they think they may use as they please.
(2.) Great pride and haughtiness. Notice is here taken of his pomp, the extravagancy of his retinue, v. 11. He affected to appear in the utmost magnificence. But that was not the worst: it was the temper of his mind, and the elevation of that, that ripened him for ruin (Isa 14:13; Isa 14:14): Thou has said in thy heart, like Lucifer, I will ascend into heaven. Here is the language of his vainglory, borrowed perhaps from that of the angels who fell, who not content with their first estate, the post assigned them, would vie with God, and become not only independent of him, but equal with him. Or perhaps it refers to the story of Nebuchadnezzar, who, when he would be more than a man, was justly turned into a brute, Dan. iv. 30. The king of Babylon here promises himself, [1.] That in pomp and power he shall surpass all his neighbours, and shall arrive at the very height of earthly glory and felicity, that he shall be as great and happy as this world can make him; that is the heaven of a carnal heart, and to that he hopes to ascend, and to be as far above those about him as the heaven is above the earth. Princes are the stars of God, which give some light to this dark world (Matt. xxiv. 29); but he will exalt his throne above them all. [2.] That he shall particularly insult over God’s Mount Zion, which Belshazzar, in his last drunken frolic, seems to have had a particular spite against when he called for the vessels of the temple at Jerusalem, to profane them; see Dan. v. 2. In the same humour he here said, I will sit upon the mount of the congregation (it is the same word that is used for the holy convocations), in the sides of the north; so Mount Zion is said to be situated, Ps. xlviii. 2. Perhaps Belshazzar was projecting an expedition to Jerusalem, to triumph in the ruins of it, at the time when God cut him off. [3.] That he shall vie with the God of Israel, of whom he had indeed heard glorious things, that he had his residence above the heights of the clouds. “But thither,” says he, “will I ascend, and be as great as he; I will be like him whom they call the Most High.” It is a gracious ambition to covet to be like the Most Holy, for he has said, Be you holy, for I am holy; but it is a sinful ambition to aim to be like the Most High, for he has said, He that exalteth himself shall be abased, and the devil drew our first parents in to eat forbidden fruit by promising them that they should be as gods. [4.] That he shall himself be deified after his death, as some of the first founders of the Assyrian monarchy were, and stars had even their names from them. “But,” says he, “I will exalt my throne above them all.” Such as this was his pride, which was the undoubted omen of his destruction.
3. The utter ruin that should be brought upon him. It is foretold, (1.) That his wealth and power should be broken, and a final period put to his pomp and pleasure. He has been long an oppressor, but he shall cease to be so, v. 4. Had he ceased to be so by true repentance and reformation, according to the advice Daniel gave to Nebuchadnezzar, it might have been a lengthening of his life and tranquillity. But those that will not cease to sin God will make to cease. “The golden city, which one would have thought might continue for ever, has ceased; there is an end of that Babylon. The Lord, the righteous God, has broken the staff of that wicked prince, broken it over his head, in token of the divesting him of his office. God has taken his power from him, and rendered him incapable of doing any more mischief: he has broken the sceptres; for even these are brittle things, soon broken and often justly.” (2.) That he himself should be seized: He is persecuted (v. 6); violent hands are laid upon him, and none hinders. It is the common fate of tyrants, when they fall into the power of their enemies, to be deserted by their flatterers, whom they took for their friends. We read of another enemy like this, of whom it is foretold that he shall come to his end and none shall help him, Dan. xi. 45. Tiberius and Nero thus saw themselves abandoned. (3.) That he should be slain, and go down to the congregation of the dead, to be free among them, as the slain that are no more remembered, Ps. lxxxviii. 5. He shall be weak as the dead are, and like unto them, v. 10. His pomp is brought down to the grave (v. 11), that is, it perishes with him; the pomp of his life shall not, as usual, end in a funeral pomp. True glory (that is, true grace) will go up with the soul to heaven, but vain pomp will go down with the body to the grave: there is an end of it. The noise of his viols is now heard no more. Death is a farewell to the pleasures, as well as to the pomps, of this world. This mighty prince, that used to lie on a bed of down, to tread upon rich carpets, and to have coverings and canopies exquisitely fine, now shall have the worms spread under him and the worms covering him, worms bred out of his own putrefied body, which, though he fancied himself a god, proved him to be made of the same mould with other men. When we are pampering and decking our bodies it is good to remember they will be worms’-meat shortly. (4.) That he should not have the honour of a burial, much less of a decent one and in the sepulchres of his ancestors. The kings of the nations lie in glory (v. 18), either their dead bodies themselves so embalmed as to be preserved from putrefaction, as of old among the Egyptians, or their effigies (as with us) erected over their graves. Thus, as if they would defy the ignominy of death, they lay in a poor faint sort of glory, every one in his own house, that is, his own burying-place (for the grave is the house appointed for all living), a sleeping house, where the busy and troublesome will lie quiet and the troubled and weary lie at rest. But this king of Babylon is cast out and has no grave (v. 19); his dead body is thrown, like that of a beast, into the next ditch or upon the next dunghill, like an abominable branch of some noxious poisonous plant, which nobody will touch, or as the clothes of malefactors put to death and by the hand of justice thrust through with a sword, on whose dead bodies heaps of stones are raised, or they are thrown into some deep quarry among the stones of the pit. Nay, the king of Babylon’s dead body shall be as the carcases of those who are slain in a battle, which are trodden under feet by the horses and soldiers and crushed to pieces. Thus he shall not be joined with his ancestors in burial, v. 20. To be denied decent burial is a disgrace, which, if it be inflicted for righteousness’ sake (as Ps. lxxix. 2), may, as other similar reproaches, be rejoiced in (Matt. v. 12); it is the lot of the two witnesses, Rev. xi. 9. But if, as here, it be the just punishment of iniquity, it is an intimation that evil pursues impenitent sinners beyond death, greater evil than that, and that they shall rise to everlasting shame and contempt.
4. The many triumphs that should be in his fall.
(1.) Those whom he had been a great tyrant and terror to will be glad that they are rid of him, Isa 14:7; Isa 14:8. Now that he is gone the whole earth is at rest and is quiet, for he was the great disturber of the peace; now they all break forth into singing, for when the wicked perish there is shouting (Prov. xi. 10); the fir-trees and cedars of Lebanon now think themselves safe; there is no danger now of their being cut down, to make way for his vast armies or to furnish him with timber. The neighbouring princes and great men, who are compared to fir-trees and cedars (Zech. xi. 2), may now be easy, and out of fear of being dispossessed of their rights, for the hammer of the whole earth is cut asunder and broken (Jer. l. 23), the axe that boasted itself against him that hewed with it, ch. x. 15.
(2.) The congregation of the dead will bid him welcome to them, especially those whom he had barbarously hastened thither (Isa 14:9; Isa 14:10): “Hell from beneath is moved for thee, to meet thee at thy coming, and to compliment thee upon thy arrival at their dark and dreadful regions.” The chief ones of the earth, who when they were alive were kept in awe by him and durst not come near him, but rose from their thrones, to resign them to him, shall upbraid him with it when he comes into the state of the dead. They shall go forth to meet him, as they used to do when he made his public entry into cities he had become master of; with such a parade shall he be introduced into those regions of horror, to make his disgrace and torment the more grievous to him. They shall scoffingly rise from their thrones and seats there, and ask him if he will please to sit down in them, as he used to do in their thrones on earth? The confusion that will then cover him they shall make a jest of: “Hast thou also become weak as we? Who would have thought it? It is what thou thyself didst not expect it would ever come to when thou wast in every thing too hard for us. Thou that didst rank thyself among the immortal gods, art thou come to take thy fate among us poor mortal men? Where is thy pomp now, and where thy mirth? How hast thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer! son of the morning!Isa 14:11; Isa 14:12. The king of Babylon shone as brightly as the morning star, and fancied that wherever he came he brought day along with him; and has such an illustrious prince as this fallen, such a star become a clod of clay? Did ever any man fall from such a height of honour and power into such an abyss of shame and misery?” This has been commonly alluded to (and it is a mere allusion) to illustrate the fall of the angels, who were as morning stars (Job xxxviii. 7), but how have they fallen! How art thou cut down to the ground, and levelled with it, that didst weaken the nations! God will reckon with those that invade the rights and disturb the peace of mankind, for he is King of nations as well as of saints. Now this reception of the king of Babylon into the regions of the dead, which is here described, surely is something more than a flight of fancy, and is designed to teach these solid truths:– [1.] That there is an invisible world, a world of spirits, to which the souls of men remove at death and in which they exist and act in a state of separation from the body. [2.] That separate souls have acquaintance and converse with each other, though we have none with them: the parable of the rich man and Lazarus intimates this. [3.] That death and hell will be death and hell indeed to those that fall unsanctified from the height of this world’s pomps and the fulness of its pleasures. Son, remember, Luke xvi. 25.
(3.) Spectators will stand amazed at his fall. When he shall be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit, and be lodged there, those that see him shall narrowly look upon him, and consider him (Isa 14:15; Isa 14:16); they shall scarcely believe their own eyes. “Never was death so great a change to any man as it is to him. Is it possible that a man, who a few hours ago looked so great, so pleasant, and was so splendidly adorned and attended, should now look so ghastly, so despicable, and lie thus naked and neglected? Is this the man that made the earth to tremble and shook kingdoms? Who could have thought he should ever come to this?” Ps. lxxxii. 7.
5. Here is an inference drawn from all this (v. 20): The seed of evil-doers shall never be renowned. The princes of the Babylonian monarchy were all a seed of evil-doers, oppressors of the people of God, and therefore they had this infamy entailed upon them. They shall not be renowned for ever (so some read it); they may look big for a time, but all their pomp will only render their disgrace at last the more shameful. There is no credit in a sinful way.
II. The utter ruin of the royal family is here foretold, together with the desolation of The royal city.
1. The royal family is to be wholly extirpated. The Medes and Persians, that are to be employed in this destroying work, are ordered, when they have slain Belshazzar, to prepare slaughter for his children (v. 21) and not to spare them. The little ones of Babylon must be dashed against the stones, Ps. cxxxvii. 9. These orders sound very harshly; but, (1.) They must suffer for the iniquity of their fathers, which is often visited upon the children, to show how much God hates sin and is displeased at it, and to deter sinners from it, which is the end of punishment. Nebuchadnezzar had slain Zedekiah’s sons (Jer. lii. 10), and, for that iniquity of his, his seed are paid in the same coin. (2.) They must be cut off now, that they may not rise up to possess the land and do as much mischief in their day as their fathers had done in theirs–that they may not be as vexatious to the world by building cities for the support of their tyranny (which was Nimrod’s policy, Gen 10:10; Gen 10:11) as their ancestors had been by destroying cities. Pharaoh oppressed Israel in Egypt by setting them to build cities, Exod. i. 11. The providence of God consults the welfare of nations more than we are aware of by cutting off some who, if they had lived, would have done mischief. Justly may the enemies cut off the children: For I will rise up against them, saith the Lord of hosts (v. 22), and if God reveal it as his mind that he will have it done, as none can hinder it, so none need scruple to further it. Babylon perhaps was proud of the numbers of her royal family, but God had determined to cut off the name and remnant of it, so that none should be left, to have both the sons and grandsons of the king slain; and yet we are sure he never did, nor ever will do, any wrong to any of his creatures.
2. The royal city is to be demolished and deserted, v. 23. It shall be a possession for solitary frightful birds, particularly the bittern, joined with the cormorant and the owl, ch. xxiv. 11. And thus the utter destruction of the New-Testament Babylon is illustrated, Rev. xviii. 2. It has become a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. Babylon lay low, so that when it was deserted, and no care taken to drain the land, it soon became pools of water, standing noisome puddles, as unhealthful as they were unpleasant: and thus God will sweep it with the besom of destruction. 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 besom of destruction?
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
4. Then thou shalt take up this saying. (213) By the term witty saying, or parable, (for the Hebrew word משל ( mashal) denotes “sayings that are weighty and remarkable, and worthy of being observed,”) he shows that the ruin of Babylon will be so great that it will even become a proverb, which usually happens in great and astonishing events.
How hath the oppressor ceased? The word How throws it into the form of a question expressive of astonishment and ridicule. It might be thought incredible that Babylon, furnished with such abundant wealth and forces, should be overturned and fall into the hands of the enemy. Justly, therefore, does he ridicule their foolish and vain confidence, that, being swelled with haughtiness, they thought that they were invincible, and were placed beyond the reach of all danger.
Yet it may be thought to be inconsistent with the modesty of godly persons to scoff at the misery of others, for they ought rather to have pitied them. But it is not inconsistent with compassion, when our zeal is regulated by the justice of the judgment of God; for in that case we may with human feelings compassionate those who perish through their folly, and at the same time laugh at their insolence and madness. As the Lord scoffs at them, laughing at their senselessness, so he bids us, through zeal for his glory, mock at them; not that we may be swelled with impudence, but that we may praise his goodness and power. By this example, therefore, we may scoff at the enemies of God, when they are vanquished or brought down, as we may scoff at Antichrist, whose power we daily see diminished and gradually falling into decay.
How hath the city covetous of gold ceased! (214) The word מדהבה, ( madhebah,) in this clause, might be rendered golden, or ornamented with gold; but as it is connected with the word Oppressor or Tyrant, it probably denotes covetousness and insatiable greediness for gold, to which the Babylonians were subject. It is usually the case with great empires and states and wealthy nations, that the greater their abundance, the stronger is their greediness to possess more. (215)
(213) That thou shalt take up this proverb, (or, taunting speech.) — Eng. Ver.
FT205 The golden city ceased ! — Eng. Ver.
FT206 “ מדהבה, ( madhebah,) being a Chaldee word, was probably the epithet by which that people distinguished their capital, as the Italians say, Florence the fair, Padua the learned, etc.” — Stock
FT207 With a continued stroke. (Heb. a stroke without removing.) — Eng Ver. A stroke without intermission. — Stock With a stroke unremitted. — Lowth
FT208 Hell from beneath (or, the grave) is moved for thee. — Eng. Ver.
FT209 The dead. — Eng. Ver. The mighty dead. — Stock. “ Rephaim, the gigantic spectres. Ghosts are commonly magnified by vulgar terror to a stature superior to the human.” — Rosenmuller
FT210 The allusion is obviously to a passage from Juvenal which the author, on a former occasion (See page 174), quoted at greater length. — Ed
Mors sola fatetur, Quantula sint hominum corpuscula . Juven. Sat. 10:172,173.
(214) Bogus footnote
(215) Bogus footnote
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(4) That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon.The prophet appears once more (comp. Isa. 5:1; Isa. 12:1) in his character as a psalmist. In the mashal or taunting-song that follows, the generic meaning of proverb is specialised (as in Mic. 2:4; Hab. 2:6; Deu. 28:37, 1Ki. 9:7, and elsewhere) for a derisive utterance in poetic or figurative speech. The LXX., singularly enough, renders the word here by lamentation.
How hath the oppressor ceased.If we take the golden city of the English version as the correct rendering, it finds a parallel in the epithet of gold abounding applied to Babylon by schylus (Pers. 53). The word so translated is, however, not found elsewhere, and the general consensus of recent critics, following in the wake of the Targum and the LXX., is in favour of the rendering, the task-master, or the place of torture. The Vulgate, how has the tribute ceased, expresses substantially the same thought. The marginal reading, exactress of gold, seems like an attempt to combine two different etymologies.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 14:4-7. 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, Isa 14:4-21 and of Babylon itself, Isa 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, Isa 14:4-7 secondly, the cedars of Lebanon, Isa 14:8 thirdly, the spirits of departed kings and princes, Isa 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, Isa 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, Isa 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. Isa 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, Isa 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 shachar, does not signify morning or daylight, but the twilight which precedes the appearance of the morning-star. See ch. Isa 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. Isa 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, Isa 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, Isa 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.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Isa 14:4 That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!
Ver. 4. That thou shalt take up this proverb. ] Or, Taunting speech; a this exultatory and insultatory song, which upon the fall of Babylon shall be in every man’s mouth.
How hath the oppressor ceased!
The golden city.
a Carmen, .
b Aurata vel auri avida.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
take up this proverb. Reference to Pentateuch (Num 23:7, Num 23:24; Num 24:3, Num 24:15, Num 24:20, Num 24:21, Num 24:23). Elsewhere only in Mic 2:4. Hab 2:6, and Job 27:1; Job 29:1.
proverb = triumph-song.
king of Babylon. Figure of speech Polyonymia. One of the names for the Antichrist. See note on Dan 7:8.
How. ! Figure of speech Chleuasmos. App-6.
golden city: or exactress of gold. Some, by reading (= R) for (= D) read “oppression”.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
proverb: or, taunting speech, Jer 24:9, Eze 5:15, Hab 2:6
How: Isa 14:6, Isa 14:17, Isa 47:5, Isa 49:26, Isa 51:23, Jer 25:9-14, Jer 27:6, Jer 27:7, Jer 50:22, Jer 50:23, Jer 51:20-24, Jer 51:34, Jer 51:35, Dan 7:19-25, Hab 1:2-10, Hab 2:6-12, Hab 2:17, Rev 13:15-17, Rev 16:5, Rev 16:6, Rev 17:6, Rev 18:5-8, Rev 18:20
golden city: or, exactress of gold, Isa 13:19, Isa 45:2, Isa 45:3, 2Ch 36:18, Lam 4:1, Dan 2:38, Rev 18:16
Reciprocal: Num 21:27 – General 2Ki 20:12 – Babylon Job 3:18 – they Psa 87:4 – Babylon Psa 103:6 – executeth Psa 137:8 – who art Isa 14:12 – weaken Isa 14:16 – Is this Isa 16:4 – for Isa 21:9 – Babylon Isa 39:1 – king Jer 28:14 – I have put Jer 48:17 – How Jer 49:21 – earth Jer 49:25 – General Jer 50:1 – against Babylon Jer 50:13 – every Jer 51:7 – a golden Jer 51:41 – the praise Eze 21:31 – and skilful Eze 28:12 – take up Eze 30:11 – the terrible Dan 2:32 – head Mic 2:4 – shall Zep 2:15 – how is
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
The first strophe of this poem rejoices in the peace on earth that would result from the king’s death. Both animate and inanimate creatures could rest and be quiet after his reign of terror. The measure of an ancient Near Eastern king’s power was how much he destroyed. [Note: See Oswalt, p. 317.]
Mesopotamian kings regularly took parties of lumberjacks to the forests of Lebanon to cut timber to build their palaces and public buildings. Such timber was unavailable in Mesopotamia and Palestine. [Note: Watts, p. 208.]