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Isaiah 14:10
ESV All of them will answer and say to you: ‘You too have become as weak as we! You have become like us!’
NIV They will all respond, they will say to you, "You also have become weak, as we are; you have become like us."
NASB They will all respond and say to you, ‘Even you have become weak as we, You have become like us.
CSB They all respond to you, saying, "You too have become as weak as we are; you have become like us!
NLT With one voice they all cry out, ‘Now you are as weak as we are!
KJV All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?
NKJV They all shall speak and say to you: ‘Have you also become as weak as we? Have you become like us?

What does Isaiah 14:10 mean?

The people of Israel will sing this taunt-song about the king of Babylon after his death and their return to the Promised Land. Earlier, the chapter has shown the world celebrating the king's death (Isaiah 14:4–9). But this imagines him being ridiculed to his face.

"Sheol" was the name given during this era for the place of the dead. This was where the spirits of those who departed would dwell. Isaiah is not giving a theologically precise assessment of the afterlife in these verses. Rather, he is poetically imagining a scene where the king of Babylon is further humbled even after he has died.

The song describes the stir in Sheol at the news that the king will be arriving because he has died on earth. The spirits of the dead kings will rise from their thrones to greet him. In a traditional funeral dirge of the day, they would be rising to give the king of Babylon honor. In this song however, they rise to mock the new member of their company (Isaiah 14:9). The departed kings of the world point out to the dead tyrant that he is now as weak as they are. He is no greater than them. During his life, the king of Babylon may have conquered, and killed, some of those greeting him. Now, he has no power or authority over them. He is no threat to them. He is just another dead soul.
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