What does Isaiah 14:20 mean?

The taunt-song about the fallen king of Babylon continues to focus on the circumstances of his burial. Unlike all the kings of the nations he has defeated, this king will not lie in glory in his own tomb. He will not be honored. In the ancient world, this was a catastrophe, as many cultures considered proper burial a crucial part of passing into the afterlife. Isaiah has shown that the king's body will not even be treated with dignity. His remains will be trampled in the streets and piled with the others killed in the attack on Babylon (Isaiah 14:18–19).

Now Isaiah provides a surprising reason for this disrespectful treatment: The king has destroyed his own land and killed his own people. It's not the other nations that he has conquered who will treat his remains so dishonorably. It is his own nation, perhaps the first target of his ruthless ambition. The Babylonians paid the highest price when multiple nations gathered to destroy the king. The attack will take countless lives of the people this king was supposed to protect. They will not honor him in death who brought so much destruction on them in life.

After the death of the king, the people demand that the "offspring of evildoers nevermore be named." In other words, they reject even the possibility of the king's descendants taking the throne after him (Isaiah 14:21). In refusing to even speak the name of his children, the name of the king will also be removed from the record of history. Indeed, Isaiah never reveals the name of the king in this poem written to dishonor him.