And it shall come to pass in the day that Jehovah shall give thee rest from thy sorrow and from thy trouble and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve,
This verse names a day. On that day God Himself lifts the pain, turmoil and hard service off His people. Then He gives them a song to sing over the tyrant who caused it all. Everything hangs on when that day comes and who the king of Babylon really is.
This verse closes a short passage about mercy. That mercy has one condition first: the fall of the power that held Israel down.
The first three verses of Isaiah 14 show that the judgment of Babylon clears the way for mercy to flow to Israel. This had a partial fulfilment in the days of Cyrus, as the opening verses of Ezra record. It will have a far greater and more complete one when the times of the Gentiles come to an end. Then God will settle Israel in their own land once more. More than that, they will be the leading nation. They will rule over the others who once oppressed them, and they will be fully at rest themselves.
The same pattern runs through the passage. Judgment falls, and God's people are kept safe.
When God acts in judgment, there is always care taken of His people... When devastation sweeps the inhabited world, God will deliver His people Israel, and they will take possession of the earth.
The rest promised here is not just a pause in trouble. It swaps the places of slave and master.
The overthrow of Babylon means the freeing of Israel. So it matters far more than the history of any ordinary power. The Babylon of the past is only a picture of the fall of a greater power, its final heir. That power enslaves the Jews right to the end, and poses as the protector of the holy city while it masters it. Israel are yet to have as their servants the very people who once enslaved them.
One writer describes this as a balance that has always tipped one way or the other.
All through the Old Testament Israel and Babylon sit like two pans of a balance: when Israel is up, Babylon is down; and when Babylon is up, Israel is down... But Isaiah, in his lofty prophecy, leads us on to the reverse of all this. In magnificent language he paints a picture in which Israel is rising and Babylon has sunk completely.
The return under Cyrus was real, but it never produced the scene this verse describes. History itself is the proof.
Clearly this is something that has never yet happened. No one who knows Scripture can suppose that Israel has ever been in a position to take up such a taunt, at any time since Babylon rose to power. The "times of the Gentiles" began when Babylon took control of the Jews. And the Gentiles tread Jerusalem down to this day. One power after another has taken the city.
The rest is not silent. It produces a taunt-song, and the singers are the people who once suffered.
Isaiah did not put this song about the king of Babylon in the mouths of the nations. He put it in the mouth of Israel. Israel would celebrate when the pride of Babylon's king went down into the place of the dead and his royal staff was broken.
Older translations call Babylon "the golden city" in the next verse, where the ESV reads "the insolent fury." One writer prefers a reading that names Babylon as the collector of other people's gold.
"The golden city ceased," Isa. 14:4 is better translated, as in the margin, "the exactress of gold ceased!" Babylon, which had heaped up gold by its conquests, was overcome.
When the oppressor falls, the quiet is not limited to one nation.
In the judgment on Babylon the city and its king are not kept apart: the golden city has ceased, and the king who said, "I will ascend above the heights of the clouds," is yet to be "brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit." He is also called Lucifer, the day star, or son of the morning. And when he is brought low, the earth is at rest. Does this not point on to the rest of the thousand years, when Satan is bound?
- Judgment first. Babylon's fall clears the way for mercy to reach Israel. God never acts in judgment without caring for His own.
- Rest given, not earned. The rest from pain, turmoil and hard service is the Lord's gift. He frees the captives by overthrowing their captor.
- Reversal, not relief. Those who were slaves now rule their oppressors. The balance that always tipped between Israel and Babylon settles for good.
- Reach beyond Israel. When the oppressor falls, the whole earth is at rest. One writer links this to the thousand years when Satan is bound.
- Result is a song. The freed people, not the watching nations, take up the taunt over the fallen king. History shows they have not yet been able to sing it.
that thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased, -- the exactress of gold ceased!
Isaiah gives Israel a song to sing on a future day. It is a taunt against the king of Babylon, sung once the oppressor has ceased. Older versions call the song a "proverb" and read the second line as "the golden city." Two questions run through the verse: what those words mean, and who this king finally is.
Isaiah does not just announce Babylon's fall. He tells Israel when they will sing about it. The first three verses set the scene, and the song's day comes long after Babylon's first fall.
The first three verses of Isaiah 14 show that the judgment of Babylon clears the way for mercy to flow to Israel. This had a partial fulfilment in the days of Cyrus, as the opening verses of Ezra record. It will have a far greater and more complete one when the times of the Gentiles come to an end. Then Israel will not only be settled again in their own land. They will also be the supreme nation, ruling over the ones who once oppressed them, and fully at rest themselves. In that day they will take up the proverb against the king of Babylon, that fills verses 4-23 of the chapter.
Babylon's fall and Israel's freedom are one event. That is why this city matters far beyond its own history.
The fall of Babylon means the freeing of Israel. That gives it far more importance than the story of any ordinary power. The old Babylon is simply a picture of the fall of a greater power, its final heir, which enslaves the Jews right to the end — the would-be protector who is really the master of the holy city. Israel will yet have as their servants the very people who once enslaved them. Expect this glory for Israel and this mighty deliverance for the Jewish people, and you can understand their triumphant tone.
The Hebrew word behind "taunt" is the same word used for the book of Proverbs.
The word usually translated 'proverb,' and used for the book of Proverbs, is mashal. It means 'comparison, likeness.' Proverbs are short sentences designed to catch attention and stay in the memory.
The ESV reads "the insolent fury ceased" in the second half of the line. Older versions read "the golden city," and that wording hides a sharper sense: it points at how Babylon got her gold.
"The golden city ceased," Isa. 14:4 is better translated, as in the margin, "the one who exacted gold has ceased!" Babylon had piled up gold by conquering others, and in the end it was defeated.
The song names a king. Kelly ties him to the empire that began with Nebuchadnezzar, and to the last man who will hold that power.
This means the king of Babylon — the last man to hold the power first placed in the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. He is the last head of the beast (Rev. 17), because the context assumes that his destruction comes at the same time as the deliverance and blessing of Israel. In any full sense the scene is still future.
Commentators differ here. Another writer keeps the human king in view, but sees Satan as the power behind him. He also hears in the earth's rest a hint of something larger.
In the same way the king of Babylon is only Satan's instrument. Here, though, the human agent is not kept as separate from the source of his power as he is in the case of Tyre. … And when this king is brought low, the earth is at rest. Does this not look on to the millennial rest, when Satan will be bound for a thousand years?
- Rest first. Israel does not sing this song in the middle of the trouble. They sing it once they are settled again in their own land and at rest.
- Rest through judgment. The rest comes because Babylon falls. Judgment on the oppressor clears the way for mercy to reach Israel.
- Rest remembered. The taunt is a mashal — a short, memorable comparison, built to stick in the mind long after the event.
- Rest from the gold-taker. Babylon piled up gold by conquering others. When she falls, her taking ends with her.
- Rest still ahead. Cyrus gave only a first instalment. The full song waits for the end of the times of the Gentiles, and for the fall of the last man to hold that world power — the last head of the beast.
Jehovah hath broken the staff of the wicked, the sceptre of the rulers.
This verse belongs to a song Israel will sing over a fallen tyrant, and it names who ended the tyranny — not an army, not a rival empire, but the Lord Himself. Two questions follow: what the broken staff and sceptre stand for, and when this song is sung.
The song has a set time: God first gives Israel rest, and then they take up this taunt against the king of Babylon. One writer, quoting an older translation, says that time has never yet come.
"And it will happen in the day the Lord gives you rest from your sorrow … that you will take up this proverb against the king of Babylon and say, How has the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers." That is plainly what has never yet happened. No one who knows Scripture can suppose that Israel has ever been in a position to take up such a proverb, at any time since Babylon rose to power. The "times of the Gentiles" began when Babylon took control of the Jews. And to this day the Gentiles trample Jerusalem.
A sceptre is not decoration. It stands for the right to rule, and one Bible dictionary lists this verse among the places the word appears.
One of the marks that set royalty apart: a rod or staff of dignity. The king held it out to Esther (Esther 4:11)… Judah does not hold the sceptre now, while the people are Lo-ammi — "not My people" — but their supremacy will be restored when God's purpose is fulfilled. Many passages speak of Christ sitting on the throne of David, and reigning until He puts His enemies under His feet. A sceptre of righteousness will be the sceptre of His kingdom. Num. 24:17; Ps. 45:6; Isa. 14:5; Heb. 1:8.
So this breaking is not random destruction. God breaks one rule so another can stand.
Proud and lordly powers of godlessness and wickedness stand against the setting up of this throne, so "the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers" must be broken (Isa. 14:5)… The world powers must give way. The Lord Jesus must be enthroned in right and might. The oppressor, and Babylon the golden city, must cease. Babylon is the oppressor. As a political power, Babylon oppressed God's people Israel. In principle, religious Babylon oppresses today.
The staff was in a tyrant's hand, but that hand served a purpose it never intended. One writer sets out the limit God fixes for the nations He uses.
God will not let the nations treat His poor erring people outrageously. He will use them as His rod of discipline. But the moment they give way to their own bitter hatred and try to go beyond the limit He set, He will break the rod in pieces. He will make it clear to all that He Himself is dealing with His beloved though erring people, for their final blessing and His glory.
Another writer names the clearest case: Assyria.
God uses the pride and sin of the wicked to discipline His people, and afterwards He destroys the instrument. The Assyrian was God's rod to strike Israel. He exalted himself against God, and God breaks the rod.
The title "king of Babylon" reaches across a long stretch of history. One writer traces it from Nebuchadnezzar's golden city to the ruler who closes the times of the Gentiles.
When Isaiah gave this prophecy, the Assyrian power still ruled Babylon. A century or so later Babylon became "the golden city" under the great king Nebuchadnezzar, whom Daniel 2:38 calls the "head of gold." With him the times of the Gentiles began, and they will close under the ruler called "the beast" in Revelation 13.
Two verses later comes the result: a world silent from war.
The Millennium will be a further stage of this rest that God gives. Christ will reign for a thousand years and Satan will be bound. Then this prophecy will be fulfilled: "The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet; they break forth into singing." (Isa. 14:7) The noise of war is gone. The cry of the oppressed will cease.
- Rod — God used hostile nations to discipline His own people. The staff in the oppressor's hand was never his own power.
- Limit — when the rod gave way to its own hatred and tried to go past the limit God set, He broke it in pieces.
- Breaker — the verse credits the breaking to the Lord alone, not to Israel's strength or a rival empire.
- Room — the staff and sceptre are marks of a throne; God breaks them so Christ can be enthroned in right and might.
- Rest — with the oppressor gone, the whole earth is quiet and breaks into singing. Only then can Israel sing this song.
He that smote the peoples in wrath with a relentless stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted unsparingly.
The song of Isaiah 14 looks back at a fallen ruler. He beat down peoples and nations, and he never let up. Verse 6 describes the power God has just broken. So who is this oppressor in the end, and why did God let such a rod exist at all?
The words are put in the mouth of a freed people, and the freeing is what gives the verse its weight.
The overthrow of Babylon means the freeing of Israel. So it matters far more than the history of any ordinary power. The Babylon of the past is simply a picture of the fall of the greater power, its final heir. That power enslaves the Jews right to the end. It claims to protect the holy city, but it is really its master.
The oppressor did not make his own authority. God handed it to him, and one writer describes what such rulers do with it.
They hold power that was handed to them. But they use it as a wild beast uses its power. They make a selfish and greedy use of it, right to the end. Human nature that has not been renewed will always do so. By His own arrangements, God let this power over the world fall into the hands of these empires, one after another. They all pervert and abuse it. As Israel had done with its power, so do the Gentiles with theirs. God will provide for Himself a king who will rule in righteousness.
The same thought is put in one line elsewhere: God "gave the Gentile dominion, and they became tyrants, and scourges to the earth."
God used these invasions to discipline His own people. That does not excuse a single blow of them.
God put power into the hand of the Gentile. He gave his armies success, even against the nation of His choice, and even to the overthrow of Zion that He loved. Even so, He does not overlook the pride of heart, the lust of power, the self-will and violence of the rod He uses to correct His erring people. The nations invaded His land again and again, and destroyed life and property for no reason. They were His instruments for correcting His stubborn and stiff-necked people. But doing the will of God was far from the thought of any one of them.
The blows stop because God breaks the instrument. One writer links that breaking to the throne it makes room for, and sees Babylon's oppression still at work today in another form.
Proud and lordly powers of ungodliness and wickedness stand against the setting up of this throne. So "the staff of the wicked, the scepter of rulers" must be broken (Isa. 14:5)… The oppressor, and Babylon the golden city, must cease. Babylon is the oppressor. It was Babylon politically which oppressed God's people Israel. It is in principle religious Babylon which oppresses today.
Commentators read this figure as more than one dead king. Babylon opened a long era of Gentile rule, and the song reaches to the man who closes it.
When Isaiah uttered this prophecy Babylon was still dominated by the Assyrian power. A century or so later it became "the golden city" under the great king Nebuchadnezzar, spoken of as the "head of gold" in Daniel 2:38. With him the times of the Gentiles began. They will close under the ruler called "the beast" in Revelation 13. Satan, who is called "the dragon," will raise him up and inspire him.
Kelly reads the king the same way. He also warns against confusing him with another end-time leader:
The king of Babylon stands for the last head of the Beast, just as Nebuchadnezzar was the first of that line. We must distinguish the imperial chief of the last days from the religious head of the antichrist. We must do so all the more carefully, because ancients and moderns very generally confuse them: they share a similar policy and are partners in evil.
- Given. God handed world rule to the Gentile powers. No man in this verse made his own power.
- Abused. They used that trust as a wild beast uses its strength: selfish and greedy to the end. So the record is one of endless blows and angry rule.
- Used. God swung these nations as a rod to correct His people. He still saw the pride, self-will and violence of the rod.
- Broken. God snaps the staff and the scepter, because proud powers block the throne He means to set up.
- Replaced. The oppressor's line runs from Nebuchadnezzar to the last head of the Beast. When it ends, Israel is free, and God provides a King who rules in righteousness.
The whole earth is at rest, is quiet they break forth into singing.
Isaiah 14 holds a song that Israel will one day raise over a fallen tyrant, and verse 7 is its turning point. Commentators read the rest it announces as far wider than the fall of one ancient king.
Babylon's fall is more than one empire ending. It sets Israel free, and it points ahead to the fall of a later power.
The overthrow of Babylon involves the emancipation of Israel. It therefore matters far more than the history of any ordinary power. The Babylon of the past is simply a picture of the fall of a greater power, its final heir. That power enslaves the Jews to the very end — the would-be protector, but the real master of the holy city. Israel will yet have as their servants the very people who once enslaved them. When you expect this glory for Israel, and this mighty deliverance for the Jewish people, their exulting tone makes sense.
The singing is not a general cheer from the watching nations.
The prophet Isaiah did not put this song about the king of Babylon on the lips of the nations, but on the lips of Israel itself. Israel would exult when the pride of Babylon's king went down into hades and his scepter was broken.
Behind the human tyrant stands another power. That is why his fall changes the whole earth and not one region of it.
In the same way the king of Babylon is only Satan's instrument. Here, though, the human agent is not marked off from the source of his power as clearly as in the case of Tyre… And when he is laid low, the earth is at rest. Does this not look forward to millennial rest, when Satan will be bound for a thousand years?
Read as a description of Christ's coming reign, the quietness is not emptiness.
The Millennium will be a further stage of this rest that God gives, when Christ will reign for a thousand years and Satan will be bound. Then this prophecy will come true: "The whole earth is at rest and quiet; they break forth into singing" (Isa. 14:7). The noise of war is gone. The cry of the oppressed will cease, and "the Sun of Righteousness" will bring peace and plenty to this weary earth. It will keep its Sabbath.
The rest reaches past politics into the natural world, which has lain under decay since the days of Adam.
Creation's long subjection to decay and death will then end… the whole creation will be set free from the bondage of corruption. The burial cloth of death, which has wrapped it since the days of Adam, will then be taken away. The trail of the serpent will disappear before the rising beams of the Sun of Righteousness. The wild beasts of the field will lose their fierceness. The earth will yield her increase, and the wilderness will rejoice and blossom like the rose. Men will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and they will not learn war any more.
The singing in this verse answers an older scene. God's people once could not sing at all, because they were captives in Babylon.
The courts in Zion are silent. The captives sitting by the rivers of Babylon can say, "We wept when we remembered Zion. We hung our harps on the willows there. For there those who carried us away captive demanded a song… How should we sing the LORD's song on foreign soil?" (Ps. 137). But the courts of Zion will resound again with the praises of His earthly people… Then the whole earth, "filled with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea," will take up the glad refrain.
The writer who applies the verse to Christ's reign also marks its limit.
But even this is not the final rest… During the Millennium sin will remain in this world. Satan, though bound, will be loosed again. Eternal rest — this unending Sabbath of God — we will enjoy with the Lord Himself in a coming day, though now we have the privilege of working for Him.
- Cause. The earth's rest begins with a fall. Babylon's collapse breaks the oppressor's power and frees God's people.
- Master. The tyrant was only an instrument; when the power behind him is bound, rest spreads to the whole earth, not one nation.
- Singers. The song belongs to Israel, not to the watching nations — freed captives raise it, and one day the whole earth joins in.
- Reach. The quiet takes in creation itself. War ends, decay loses its grip, and the ground yields again.
- Limit. This is a Sabbath, not the last one — sin remains, Satan is loosed once more, and the unending rest is still ahead.
Even the cypresses rejoice at thee, the cedars of Lebanon, [saying,] Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us.
Isaiah 14 is a song sung over the fall of Babylon's king, and here the forest joins in. Who sings it, why trees carry the tune, and how far ahead the song looks are the questions this verse raises.
The song has a singer, and it is not the watching nations:
The prophet Isaiah did not put this song about the king of Babylon on the lips of the nations, but on those of Israel itself. Israel would celebrate when the pride of Babylon's king went down into the place of the dead and his sceptre was broken. The cedars of Lebanon rejoiced over him and said, "Since you were laid low, no woodcutter comes up against us" (Isa. 14:8).
That day has come only in part. The full one is still ahead:
The first three verses of Isaiah 14 show that the judgment of Babylon clears the way for mercy to flow to Israel. This had a partial fulfilment in the days of Cyrus, as the opening verses of Ezra record. It will have a far greater and more complete one when the times of the Gentiles come to an end. Then Israel will be established once more in their own land. More than that, they will be the supreme nation. They will rule over the others who once oppressed them, and be fully at rest themselves.
Lebanon's forest was real timber. These are the slopes "from where Solomon obtained cedar and fir trees for the temple" (Morrish Bible Dictionary). In Scripture the cedar also carries a meaning:
In Scripture its typical use is always to denote power or exaltation, if not pride. When the king of Israel wanted to pour contempt on the king of Judah, he compared himself to a cedar and Judah's king to a thistle (2 Kings 14:9). The Psalmist uses it to express the prosperity of the righteous, "He shall grow as the cedar in Lebanon" (Ps. 92:12). When judgment comes on the great of the earth, the prophet Isaiah says it is the day of Jehovah upon the cedars of Lebanon (2:13). These mark the cedar as the symbol of dignity and power.
The verse before this one says the whole earth is at rest, and the trees are the proof. That rest looks further ahead than any ancient date:
The king who said, "I will ascend above the heights of the clouds" is yet to be "brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit." He is also called Lucifer (daystar), or son of the morning. And when he is laid low, the earth is at rest. Does not this look onward to millennial rest when Satan will be bound for a thousand years? (Isa. 14:4-20.)
Creation's relief comes at that same moment:
With this breaking of Satan's chain comes the removal of the curse on the earth. "The creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God." Creation, fallen with her head, waits until God openly declares His grace toward man in the redemption of the body. Then it also "will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God." (Rom. 8:19-21.) Well may the earth rejoice, the floods clap their hands, and the hills be joyful together before the Lord… The judgment itself is the effect of love as well as righteousness, for "destroying the destroyers of the earth." (Rev. 11:18.)
The king in this song is a pattern of a world ruler still to come:
The king of Babylon stands for no other than the last head of the Beast, just as Nebuchadnezzar was the first of that line… The king of Babylon is a picture of the man who will finally hold the Jews as his subjects. But it would be a great mistake to think that this means a king of the Babylon in Shinar.
Another writer divides the passage in two. The trees' song belongs to the first half: "Isaiah's prophecy in these verses applies first to the visible king — verses 4-11… But in verses 12-15, we seem to pass from the visible king to Satan, whose nominee he is to be" (F. B. Hole).
- Singer. The song is not the world's applause. Israel sings it, and only on the day God gives them rest.
- Symbol. In Scripture the cedar stands for power and pride. Felled forests mean fallen greatness, not lost timber.
- Silence. The axe stopping is the sign that the oppressor has stopped; when he is laid low, the whole earth is quiet.
- Scope. The quiet reaches creation itself. It waits for the curse to lift and for God's sons to be revealed.
- Sequel. The Babylonian king is a pattern, not the end. Commentators read the song as reaching on to a last world ruler, and beyond him to Satan.