Isaiah 14


Isaiah 14 is the fourteenth chapter of the Book of Isaiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet Isaiah, and is one of the Books of the Prophets.

Text

The original text was written in Hebrew language. In English and most other languages, this chapter is divided into 32 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis, the Petersburg Codex of the Prophets, Aleppo Codex, Codex Leningradensis.
Fragments containing parts of this chapter were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls :
  • 1QIsaa: complete
  • 4QIsac : extant verses 1-5, 13
  • 4QIsal : extant verses 1‑12, 21‑24
  • 4QIsao : extant verses 28‑32
There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Alexandrinus and Codex Marchalianus.

Parashot

The parashah sections listed here are based on the Aleppo Codex. Isaiah 14 is a part of the Prophecies about the Nations . : open parashah; : closed parashah.

The restoration of Jacob (14:1–3)

Verse 1

  • "For": from the Hebrew word כִּי, ki, at the start of the verse as 'asseverative', emphasizing the Lord's desire to restore his people as one of the reasons for Babylon's demise.

    Verse 2

Verse 3

The Parable against the King of Babylon (14:4–21)

The mashal, or the parable against the king of Babylon is the oracle revealed to Isaiah the prophet. It is also considered a proverb. The parable is 18 verses long from verse 4 to verse 21.

Hebrew Text

The following table shows the Hebrew text of Isaiah 14:4-21 with vowels alongside an English translation based upon the JPS 1917 translation.
VerseHebrew textEnglish translation
4that thou shalt take up this parable against the king of Babylon, and say: How hath the oppressor ceased! The exactress of gold ceased!
5The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, the sceptre of the rulers,
6That smote the peoples in wrath with an incessant stroke, that ruled the nations in anger, with a persecution that none restrained.
7The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet; they break forth into singing.
8Yea, the cypresses rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon: ‘Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us.’
9The nether-world from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming; the shades are stirred up for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; all the kings of the nations are raised up from their thrones.
10All they do answer And say unto thee: ‘Art thou also become weak as we? Art thou become like unto us?
11Thy pomp is brought down to the nether-world, And the noise of thy psalteries; the maggot is spread under thee, And the worms cover thee.’
12How art thou fallen from heaven, O day-star, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, That didst cast lots over the nations!
13And thou saidst in thy heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, Above the stars of God Will I exalt my throne, And I will sit upon the mount of meeting, In the uttermost parts of the north;
14I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High.’
15Yet thou shalt be brought down to the nether-world, To the uttermost parts of the pit.
16They that saw thee do narrowly look upon thee, They gaze earnestly at thee: ‘Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, That did shake kingdoms;
17That made the world as a wilderness, And destroyed the cities thereof; That opened not the house of his prisoners?’
18All the kings of the nations, all of them, sleep in glory, every one in his own house.
19But thou art cast forth away from thy grave Like an abhorred offshoot, In the raiment of the slain, that are thrust through with the sword, That go down to the pavement of the pit, As a carcass trodden under foot.
20Thou 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 for ever.
21Prepare ye slaughter for his children For the iniquity of their fathers; That they rise not up, and possess the earth, And fill the face of the world with cities.

Trivia

The song in verses 4b–21 could be secondarily applied to Sargon II, who died in 705 BCE and whose body was never recovered from the battlefield and thus never buried. Here, Sargon is called the "King of Babylon" because from 710–707 BCE he ruled in Babylon and even reckoned his regnal year on this basis.

Verse 12

  • "Fallen from heaven": see, for the words of Jesus regarding the War in Heaven.
  • "Lucifer" or "Daystar". The Septuagint renders it Ἑωσφόρος Heōsphoros, and Jerome in the Vulgate, "Lucifer, the morning star"; in the Chaldee, "How art thou fallen from high, who wert splendid among the sons of men." The New Oxford Annotated Bible suggests the correlation with "a Canaanite myth of the gods Helel and Shahar, who fall from heaven as a result of rebellion."

    Verse 19

  • "Abominable branch": "despised branch" or "like a shoot that is abhorred", where "branch" or "shoot" is from Hebrew word נֵצֶר, netser, here may refer to 'a small shoot that is trimmed from a plant and tossed away'.
  • "Thrust": "pierced"

    Destruction of Babylon, Assyria and Philistia (14:22–32)

Verse 29

  • "Philistia": from, , KJV renders it as "Palestina", not in the wider meaning as today, but specifically as 'the country of the Philistines'.