Isaiah 14

Berean Standard Bible · Compare translations · 720 BC – 700 BC · Judah alone · Tap a verse to copy, share or highlight ·

32 verses · 782 words · ~4 min read · ~5 min listen

Restoration for Israel

¹For the Lord will have compassion on Jacob; once again He will choose Israel and settle them in their own land. The foreigner will join them and unite with the house of Jacob. ²The nations will escort Israel and bring it to its homeland.

Then the house of Israel will possess the nations as menservants and maidservants in the Lordʼs land. They will make captives of their captors and rule over their oppressors.

The Fall of the King of Babylon

³On the day that the Lord gives you rest from your pain and torment, and from the hard labor into which you were forced, ⁴you will sing this song of contempt against the king of Babylon:

How the oppressor has ceased,

and how his fury has ended!

⁵The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,

the scepter of the rulers.

⁶It struck the peoples in anger

with unceasing blows;

it subdued the nations in rage

with relentless persecution.

⁷All the earth is at peace and at rest;

they break out in song.

⁸Even the cypresses and cedars of Lebanon

exult over you:

“Since you have been laid low,

no woodcutter comes against us.”

⁹Sheol beneath is eager

to meet you upon your arrival.

It stirs the spirits of the dead to greet you—

all the rulers of the earth.

It makes all the kings of the nations

rise from their thrones.

¹⁰They will all respond to you, saying,

“You too have become weak, as we are;

you have become like us!”

¹¹Your pomp has been brought down to Sheol,

along with the music of your harps.

Maggots are your bed

and worms your blanket.

¹²How you have fallen from heaven,

O day star, son of the dawn!

You have been cut down to the ground,

O destroyer of nations.

¹³You said in your heart:

“I will ascend to the heavens;

I will raise my throne

above the stars of God.

I will sit on the mount of assembly,

in the far reaches of the north.

¹⁴I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;

I will make myself like the Most High.”

¹⁵But you will be brought down to Sheol,

to the lowest depths of the Pit.

¹⁶Those who see you will stare;

they will ponder your fate:

“Is this the man who shook the earth

and made the kingdoms tremble,

¹⁷who turned the world into a desert

and destroyed its cities,

who refused to let the captives

return to their homes?”

¹⁸All the kings of the nations lie in state,

each in his own tomb.

¹⁹But you are cast out of your grave like a rejected branch,

covered by those slain with the sword,

and dumped into a rocky pit

like a carcass trampled underfoot.

²⁰You will not join them in burial,

since you have destroyed your land

and slaughtered your own people.

The offspring of the wicked

will never again be mentioned.

²¹Prepare a place to slaughter his sons

for the iniquities of their forefathers.

They will never rise up to possess a land

or cover the earth with their cities.

²²“I will rise up against them,”

declares the Lord of Hosts.

“I will cut off from Babylon

her name and her remnant,

her offspring and her posterity,”

declares the Lord.

²³“I will make her a place

for owls and for swamplands;

I will sweep her away

with the broom of destruction,”

declares the Lord of Hosts.

Godʼs Purpose against Assyria

²⁴The Lord of Hosts has sworn:

“Surely, as I have planned, so will it be;

as I have purposed, so will it stand.

²⁵I will break Assyria in My land;

I will trample him on My mountain.

His yoke will be taken off My people,

and his burden removed from their shoulders.”

²⁶This is the plan devised for the whole earth,

and this is the hand stretched out over all the nations.

²⁷The Lord of Hosts has purposed,

and who can thwart Him?

His hand is outstretched,

so who can turn it back?

Philistia Will Be Destroyed

²⁸In the year that King Ahaz died, this burden was received:

²⁹Do not rejoice, all you Philistines,

that the rod that struck you is broken.

For a viper will spring from the root of the snake,

and a flying serpent from its egg.

³⁰Then the firstborn of the poor will find pasture,

and the needy will lie down in safety,

but I will kill your root by famine,

and your remnant will be slain.

³¹Wail, O gate! Cry out, O city!

Melt away, all you Philistines!

For a cloud of smoke comes from the north,

and there are no stragglers in its ranks.

³²What answer will be given

to the envoys of that nation?

“The Lord has founded Zion,

where His afflicted people will find refuge.”

Footnotes (5)

a v4 DSS, LXX, and Syriac; MT the golden city
b v8 Or pines or junipers or firs
c v12 Or morning star or shining one or Lucifer
d v13 Or in the remote parts of Zaphon or on the heights of Zaphon
e v18 Hebrew house

Study notes on this chapter · 1

Prophecy & fulfillmentDebated

How you have fallen, morning star

Isaiah composes a taunt against the king of Babylon, saying 'How you have fallen from heaven, O shining one, son of the dawn'. Some ancient and later Christian writers have read the passage as also describing the fall of Satan; the text itself names the king of Babylon and compares him to a mythic figure who tried to rise above the stars. Jesus' words in Luke 10:18 about seeing Satan fall like lightning are sometimes linked with it.

When: Isaiah, c. 700 BC or later; Babylon's kings, c. 605–539 BC.

Original passageIsaiah 14:4–20

Echoed inLuke 10:18

Ways people read this (4)

A taunt against a Babylonian king (perhaps Nebuchadnezzar or Nabonidus), using the image of a fallen star-god.
A two-level prophecy, in which the king's pride also pictures Satan's rebellion (the reading of many early church writers such as Origen and Tertullian).
Jewish tradition reads the passage as about a human tyrant, with the pride of Nebuchadnezzar as the main sense.
The Latin name Lucifer (light-bearer) in the Vulgate is a translation of the Hebrew word for 'shining one' and is not originally a name for Satan.

Editorial note by BibleWay. Interpretations vary; dates are approximate scholarly estimates.

See all prophecy & fulfillment notes →

Isaiah 14

Restoration for Israelⓘ

The Fall of the King of Babylonⓘ

Godʼs Purpose against Assyriaⓘ