1Vždyť Hospodin se slituje nad Jákobem a znovu vyvolí Izrael, dá jim spočinout v jejich zemi; připojí se k nim příchozí, připojí se k domu Jákobovu. 2Národy je vezmou a přivedou je na jejich místo. Dům izraelský je přijme v Hospodinově zemi do dědictví za otroky a za služky. Tak se ti, kdo je odvedli do zajetí, stanou jejich zajatci. Budou panovat nad svými utlačovateli. 3I stane se v den, kdy ti Hospodin dopřeje odpočinutí od tvého trápení a nepokoje i od tvrdé otročiny, jíž jsi byl zotročen, 4že proneseš o babylonském králi toto pořekadlo: Jak přestal utlačovatel, jak přestal útok! 5Hospodin zlomil hůl ničemů, žezlo vládců, 6které se zuřivostí bilo národy ranami bez ustání, které panovalo v hněvu nad národy s bezmeznou tyranií. 7Celá země odpočinula a má klid; lidé propukli v jásot. 8I cypřiše se nad tebou radují i libanonské cedry: Od té doby, co jsi lehl, nepřichází, kdo by nás kácel. 9Podsvětí dole se třese na tebe, vstříc tvému příchodu; zburcovalo kvůli tobě nebožtíky — všechny vůdce země — ze svých trůnů dalo povstat všem králům národů. 10Ti všichni promluví a řeknou ti: I ty jsi zbaven síly jako my? Stal ses nám podobným! 11Do podsvětí je svržena tvá vznešenost, hudba tvých harf; pod tebou jsou rozprostřeny larvy a červi jsou tvou přikrývkou. 12Jak jsi spadl z nebes, třpytivá hvězdo, synu úsvitu? Byl jsi odseknut k zemi, ty, který jsi porážel národy! 13A ty sis řekl ve svém srdci: Vystoupím do nebes, nad hvězdy Boží vyvýším svůj trůn; usednu na Hoře shromáždění na nejzazším severu. 14Vystoupím na výsosti oblaku, vyrovnám se Nejvyššímu. 15Jenže jsi svržen do podsvětí, do největších hlubin jámy. 16Ti, kteří tě uvidí, na tebe budou zírat a pozorně tě sledovat: Což to není ten muž, jenž znepokojoval zemi a otřásal královstvími? 17Obracel svět v pustinu a jeho města bořil, své vězně nepropouštěl domů. 18Všichni králové národů, všichni leží ve slávě, každý ve vlastní hrobce. 19Ale tebe pohodili mimo tvůj hrob jako ohavný výhonek, zahalený pobitými, probodenými mečem, těmi, kdo sestupují ke kamenům jámy — jako rozšlapanou mršinu. 20Nebudeš s nimi mít jeden hrob, protože jsi ničil svou zemi a zabíjel svůj lid. Potomstvo zločinců nebude zmiňováno navěky. 21Připravte místo porážení pro jeho syny kvůli vině jejich otců, ať nevstanou a nedostanou do vlastnictví zemi a nenaplní povrch světa městy. 22Povstanu proti nim, je výrok Hospodina zástupů, a vyhladím jméno Babylona i jeho ostatek, nástupce i následníka, je Hospodinův výrok. 23A učiním ho vlastnictvím ježků a vodní mokřinou; a zametu ho koštětem vyhlazení, je výrok Hospodina zástupů. 24Hospodin zástupů přísahal: Jistěže tak, jak jsem si usmyslil, se stane, a jak jsem se rozhodl, tak se to naplní: 25Rozdrtím Ašúra ve své zemi a na svých horách ho pošlapu. Stáhnu z nich jeho jho a odstraním jeho břemeno z jejich ramen. 26To je plán, který je naplánován pro celou zemi, a to je paže, která je vztažena proti všem národům. 27Vždyť to naplánoval Hospodin zástupů, kdo to zruší? A jeho paže je vztažena, kdo ji odvrátí? 28V roce, kdy zemřel král Achaz, přišel tento prorocký výnos: 29Neraduj se, celá Pelišteo, že je zlomena hůl, která tě bije: Neboť z hadího kořenu vyjde zmije a jejím plodem bude létající ohnivý had. 30Prvorození nuzných se budou pást a chudí budou uléhat v bezpečí. Ale tvůj kořen nechám zemřít hladem a tvůj ostatek zabiji. 31Naříkej, bráno, křič o pomoc, město! Propadni malomyslnosti, celá Pelišteo, protože od severu přichází kouř a není, kdo by zůstal stranou svého shromaždiště. 32Co odpovědí poslům toho národa? Že Hospodin založil Sijón a v něm budou mít útočiště nuzní jeho lidu.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 CONFIRMATION OF THIS BY THE HEREFORETOLD DESTRUCTION OF THE ASSYRIANS UNDER SENNACHERIB; (
Is 14:24-
Is 14:27)
choose--"set His choice upon." A deliberate predilection [HORSLEY]. Their restoration is grounded on their election (see
Sal 102:13-
Sal 102:22).
strangers--proselytes (
Est 8:17;
Hch 2:10;
Hch 17:4,
Hch 17:17). TACITUS, a heathen [Histories, 5.5], attests the fact of numbers of the Gentiles having become Jews in his time. An earnest of the future effect on the heathen world of the Jews' spiritual restoration (
Is 60:4-
Is 60:5,
Is 60:10;
Mi 5:7;
Zac 14:16;
Rm 11:12).
2 the people--of Babylon, primarily. Of the whole Gentile world ultimately (
Is 49:22;
Is 66:20;
Is 60:9).
their place--Judea (
Esd 1:1-
Esd 1:6).
possess--receive in possession.
captives--not by physical, but by moral might; the force of love, and regard to Israel's God (
Is 60:14).
3 rest-- (
Is 28:12;
Ez 28:25-
Ez 28:26).
The whole earth rejoices; the cedars of Lebanon taunt him.
4 A CHORUS OF JEWS EXPRESS THEIR JOYFUL SURPRISE AT BABYLON'S DOWNFALL. (
Is 14:4-
Is 14:8)
proverb--The Orientals, having few books, embodied their thoughts in weighty, figurative, briefly expressed gnomes. Here a taunting song of triumph (
Mi 2:4;
Hab 2:6).
the king--the ideal representative of Babylon; perhaps Belshazzar (Dan. 5:1-31). The mystical Babylon is ultimately meant.
golden city--rather, "the exactress of gold" [MAURER]. But the old translators read differently in the Hebrew, "oppression," which the parallelism favors (compare
Is 3:5).
5 staff--not the scepter (
Sal 2:9), but the staff with which one strikes others, as he is speaking of more tyrants than one (
Is 9:4;
Is 10:24;
Is 14:29) [MAURER].
rulers--tyrants, as the parallelism "the wicked" proves (compare see on
Is 13:2).
6 people--the peoples subjected to Babylon.
is persecuted--the Hebrew is rather, active, "which persecuted them, without any to hinder him" [Vulgate, JEROME, and HORSLEY].
7 they--the once subject nations of the whole earth. HOUBIGANT places the stop after "fir trees" (
Is 14:8), "The very fir trees break forth," &c. But the parallelism is better in English Version.
8 the fir trees--now left undisturbed. Probably a kind of evergreen.
rejoice at thee-- (
Sal 96:12). At thy fall (
Sal 35:19,
Sal 35:24).
no feller--as formerly, when thou wast in power (
Is 10:34;
Is 37:24).
Hades (the Amenthes of Egypt), the unseen abode of the departed; some of its tenants, once mighty monarchs, are represented by a bold personification as rising from their seats in astonishment at the descent among them of the humbled king of Babylon. This proves, in opposition to WARBURTON [The Divine Legation], that the belief existed among the Jews that there was a Sheol or Hades, in which the "Rephaim" or manes of the departed abode.
9 THE SCENE CHANGES FROM EARTH TO HELL. (
Is 14:9-
Is 14:11)
moved--put into agitation.
for thee--that is, "at thee"; towards thee; explained by "to meet thee at thy coming" [MAURER].
chief ones--literally, "goats"; so rams, leaders of the flock; princes (
Zac 10:3). The idea of wickedness on a gigantic scale is included (
Ez 34:17;
Mt 25:32-
Mt 25:33). MAGEE derives "Rephaim" (English Version, "the dead") from a Hebrew root, "to resolve into first elements"; so "the deceased" (
Is 26:14) "ghosts" (
Pr 21:16). These being magnified by the imagination of the living into gigantic stature, gave their name to giants in general (
Gn 6:4;
Gn 14:5;
Ez 32:18,
Ez 32:21). "Rephaim," translated in the Septuagint, "giants" (compare see on
Job 26:5-
Job 26:6). Thence, as the giant Rephaim of Canaan were notorious even in that guilty land, enormous wickedness became connected with the term. So the Rephaim came to be the wicked spirits in Gehenna, the lower of the two portions into which Sheol is divided.
10 They taunt him and derive from his calamity consolation under their own (
Ez 31:16).
weak--as a shade bereft of blood and life. Rephaim, "the dead," may come from a Hebrew root, meaning similarly "feeble," "powerless." The speech of the departed closes with
Is 14:11.
11 "Pomp" and music, the accompaniment of Babylon's former feastings (
Is 5:12;
Is 24:8), give place to the corruption and the stillness of the grave (
Ez 32:27).
worm--that is bred in putridity.
worms--properly those from which the crimson dye is obtained. Appropriate here; instead of the crimson coverlet, over thee shall be "worms." Instead of the gorgeous couch, "under thee" shall be the maggot.
The language is so framed as to apply to the Babylonian king primarily, and at the same time to shadow forth through him, the great final enemy, the man of sin, Antichrist, of Daniel, St. Paul, and St. John; he alone shall fulfil exhaustively all the lineaments here given.
12 THE JEWS ADDRESS HIM AGAIN AS A FALLEN ONCE-BRIGHT STAR. (
Is 14:12-
Is 14:15)
Lucifer--"day star." A title truly belonging to Christ (
Ap 22:16), "the bright and morning star," and therefore hereafter to be assumed by Antichrist. GESENIUS, however, renders the Hebrew here as in
Ez 21:12;
Zac 11:2, "howl."
weaken--"prostrate"; as in
Ex 17:13, "discomfit."
13 above . . . God--In
Dn 8:10, "stars" express earthly potentates. "The stars" are often also used to express heavenly principalities (
Job 38:7).
mount of the congregation--the place of solemn meeting between God and His people in the temple at Jerusalem. In
Dn 11:37, and
2Ts 2:4, this is attributed to Antichrist.
sides of the north--namely, the sides of Mount Moriah on which the temple was built; north of Mount Zion (
Sal 48:2). However, the parallelism supports the notion that the Babylonian king expresses himself according to his own, and not Jewish opinions (so in
Is 10:10) thus "mount of the congregation" will mean the northern mountain (perhaps in Armenia) fabled by the Babylonians to be the common meeting-place of their gods. "Both sides" imply the angle in which the sides meet; and so the expression comes to mean "the extreme parts of the north." So the Hindus place the Meru, the dwelling-place of their gods, in the north, in the Himalayan mountains. So the Greeks, in the northern Olympus. The Persian followers of Zoroaster put the Ai-bordsch in the Caucasus north of them. The allusion to the stars harmonizes with this; namely, that those near the North Pole, the region of the aurora borealis (compare see on
Job 23:9;
Job 37:22) [MAURER, Septuagint, Syriac].
14 clouds--rather, "the cloud," singular. Perhaps there is a reference to the cloud, the symbol of the divine presence (
Is 4:5;
Ex 13:21). So this tallies with
2Ts 2:4, "above all that is called God"; as here "above . . . the cloud"; and as the Shekinah-cloud was connected with the temple, there follows, "he as God sitteth in the temple of God," answering to "I will be like the Most High" here. Moreover,
Ap 17:4-
Ap 17:5, represents Antichrist as seated in BABYLON, to which city, literal and spiritual, Isaiah refers here.
15 to hell--to Sheol (
Is 14:6), thou who hast said, "I will ascend into heaven" (
Mt 11:23).
sides of the pit--antithetical to the "sides of the north" (
Is 14:13). Thus the reference is to the sides of the sepulcher round which the dead were arranged in niches. But MAURER here, as in
Is 14:13, translates, "the extreme," or innermost parts of the sepulchre: as in
Ez 32:23 (compare
1S 24:3).
16 THE PASSERS-BY CONTEMPLATE WITH ASTONISHMENT THE BODY OF THE KING OF BABYLON CAST OUT, INSTEAD OF LYING IN A SPLENDID MAUSOLEUM, AND CAN HARDLY BELIEVE THEIR SENSES THAT IT IS HE. (
Is 14:16-
Is 14:20)
narrowly look--to be certain they are not mistaken.
consider--"meditate upon" [HORSLEY].
17 opened not . . . house . . . prisoners--But MAURER, as Margin, "Did not let his captives loose homewards."
18 All--that is, This is the usual practice.
in glory--in a grand mausoleum.
house--that is, "sepulchre," as in
Ec 12:5; "grave" (
Is 14:19). To be excluded from the family sepulcher was a mark of infamy (
Is 34:3;
Jer 22:19;
1R 13:22;
2Cr 21:20;
2Cr 24:25;
2Cr 28:27).
19 cast out of--not that he had lain in the grave and was then cast out of it, but "cast out without a grave," such as might have been expected by thee ("thy").
branch--a useless sucker starting up from the root of a tree, and cut away by the husbandman.
raiment of those . . . slain--covered with gore, and regarded with abhorrence as unclean by the Jews. Rather, "clothed (that is, covered) with the slain"; as in
Job 7:5, "My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust" [MAURER].
thrust through--that is, "the slain who have been thrust through," &c.
stones of . . . pit--whose bodies are buried in sepulchres excavated amidst stones, whereas the king of Babylon is an unburied "carcass trodden under foot."
20 not . . . joined with them--whereas the princes slain with thee shall be buried, thou shalt not.
thou . . . destroyed . . . land--Belshazzar (or Naboned) oppressed his land with wars and tyranny, so that he was much hated [XENOPHON, Cyropćdia 4.6, 3; 7.5, 32].
seed . . . never be renowned--rather, "shall not be named for ever"; the Babylonian dynasty shall end with Belshazzar; his family shall not be perpetuated [HORSLEY].
21 GOD'S DETERMINATION TO DESTROY BABYLON. (
Is 14:21-
Is 14:23)
Prepare, &c.--charge to the Medes and Persians, as if they were God's conscious instruments.
his children--Belshazzar's (
Ex 20:5).
rise--to occupy the places of their fathers.
fill . . . with cities--MAURER translates, "enemies," as the Hebrew means in
1S 28:16;
Sal 139:20; namely, lest they inundate the world with their armies. VITRINGA translates, "disturbers." In English Version the meaning is, "lest they fill the land with such cities" of pride as Babylon was.
22 against them--the family of the king of Babylon.
name--all the male representatives, so that the name shall become extinct (
Is 56:5;
Rt 4:5).
remnant--all that is left of them. The dynasty shall cease (
Dn 5:28-
Dn 5:31). Compare as to Babylon in general,
Jer 51:62.
23 bittern--rather, "the hedgehog" [MAURER and GESENIUS]. STRABO (16:1) states that enormous hedgehogs were found in the islands of the Euphrates.
pools--owing to Cyrus turning the waters of the Euphrates over the country.
besom--sweep-net [MAURER], (
1R 14:10;
2R 21:13).
This would comfort the Jews when captives in Babylon, being a pledge that God, who had by that time fulfilled the promise concerning Sennacherib (though now still future), would also fulfil His promise as to destroying Babylon, Judah's enemy.
24 A FRAGMENT AS TO THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ASSYRIANS UNDER SENNACHERIB. (
Is 14:24-
Is 14:27)
In this verse the Lord's thought (purpose) stands in antithesis to the Assyrians' thoughts (
Is 10:7). (See
Is 46:10-
Is 46:11;
1S 15:29;
Mal 3:6).
25 That--My purpose, namely, "that."
break . . . yoke-- (
Is 10:27).
my mountains--Sennacherib's army was destroyed on the mountains near Jerusalem (
Is 10:33-
Is 10:34). God regarded Judah as peculiarly His.
26 This is . . . purpose . . . whole earth--A hint that the prophecy embraces the present world of all ages in its scope, of which the purpose concerning Babylon and Assyria, the then representatives of the world power, is but a part.
hand . . . stretched out upon--namely, in punishment (
Is 5:25).
27 (
Dn 4:35).
To comfort the Jews, lest they should fear that people; not in order to call the Philistines to repentance, since the prophecy was probably never circulated among them. They had been subdued by Uzziah or Azariah (
2Cr 26:6); but in the reign of Ahaz (
2Cr 28:18), they took several towns in south Judea. Now Isaiah denounces their final subjugation by Hezekiah.
28 PROPHECY AGAINST PHILISTIA. (
Is 14:28-
Is 14:32)
In . . . year . . . Ahaz died--726 B.C. Probably it was in this year that the Philistines threw off the yoke put on them by Uzziah.
29 Palestina--literally, "the land of sojourners."
rod . . . broken--The yoke imposed by Uzziah (
2Cr 26:6) was thrown off under Ahaz (
2Cr 28:18).
serpent's root--the stock of Jesse (
Is 11:1). Uzziah was doubtless regarded by the Philistines as a biting "serpent." But though the effects of his bite have been got rid of, a more deadly viper, or "cockatrice" (literally, "viper's offspring," as Philistia would regard him), namely, Hezekiah awaits you (
2R 18:8).
30 first-born of . . . poor--Hebraism, for the most abject poor; the first-born being the foremost of the family. Compare "first-born of death" (
Job 18:13), for the most fatal death. The Jews, heretofore exposed to Philistine invasions and alarms, shall be in safety. Compare
Sal 72:4, "Children of the needy," expressing those "needy in condition."
feed--image from a flock feeding in safety.
root--radical destruction.
He shall slay--Jehovah shall. The change of person, "He" after "I," is a common Hebraism.
31 gate--that is, ye who throng the gate; the chief place of concourse in a city.
from . . . north--Judea, north and east of Palestine.
smoke--from the signal-fire, whereby a hostile army was called together; the Jews' signal-fire is meant here, the "pillar of cloud and fire," (
Ex 13:21;
Neh 9:19); or else from the region devastated by fire [MAURER]. GESENIUS less probably refers it to the cloud of dust raised by the invading army.
none . . . alone . . . in . . . appointed times--Rather, "There shall not be a straggler among his (the enemy's) levies." The Jewish host shall advance on Palestine in close array; none shall fall back or lag from weariness (
Is 5:26-
Is 5:27), [LOWTH]. MAURER thinks the Hebrew will not bear the rendering "levies" or "armies." He translates, "There is not one (of the Philistine watch guards) who will remain alone (exposed to the enemy) at his post," through fright. On "alone," compare
Sal 102:7;
Os 8:9.
32 messengers of the nation--When messengers come from Philistia to enquire as to the state of Judea, the reply shall be, that the Lord . . . (
Sal 87:1,
Sal 87:5;
Sal 102:16).
poor-- (
Sof 3:12).
LOWTH thinks it was delivered in the first years of Hezekiah's reign and fulfilled in the fourth when Shalmaneser, on his way to invade Israel, may have seized on the strongholds of Moab. Moab probably had made common cause with Israel and Syria in a league against Assyria. Hence it incurred the vengeance of Assyria. Jeremiah has introduced much of this prophecy into his forty-eighth chapter.