Isaiah 14:10 - Printer Friendly

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?

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.

Chapter 14:3–23 contains a mocking, sarcastic dirge for the fallen king of Babylon. The song imitates the respects otherwise paid to honor a fallen king. Instead, this song describes celebration of both people and trees at his death. The fallen kings in Sheol rise to mock the man for his weakness. The king is sarcastically referred to as the "Day Star"—leading to speculation that this is also a description of Satan's fall from heaven. The fallen one had ambition to become like the Most High among the gods, but instead was cut down to nothing in his death.

After the oracle against Babylon in the previous chapter, Isaiah briefly describes what will follow for Judah. In compassion, the Lord will choose His people once more. He will return them to their homeland. They will sing a mocking taunt-song against the fallen king of Babylon. Isaiah pronounces oracles from the Lord against Assyria and Philistia. The Lord will break the Assyrians in His land. With heavy symbolism, Isaiah seems to prophecy that the Assyrians will defeat the Philistines with a siege four years before it happens. God's people will find refuge in Zion.

Chapter 14 follows the oracle about the destruction of Babylon with a brief encouragement to the people of Judah. The Lord will restore them to the land. They will taunt the fallen Babylonian king, using phrases many also associate with the fall of Satan. Isaiah pronounces oracles from the Lord against Assyria and Philistia. He declares that He will break the Assyrians in His land, freeing His people from their oppression. Philistia will fall at the Lord's hand to a famine inflicted on them by a power from the north. Next, Isaiah's prophecy will turn to Moab.

Isaiah is among the most important prophetic books in the entire Bible. The first segment details God's impending judgment against ancient peoples for sin and idolatry (Isaiah 1—35). The second part of Isaiah briefly explains a failed assault on Jerusalem during the rule of Hezekiah (Isaiah 36—39). The final chapters predict Israel's rescue from Babylonian captivity (Isaiah 40—48), the promised Messiah (Isaiah 49—57), and the final glory of Jerusalem and God's people (Isaiah 58—66).