Sheol from beneath is moved for thee to meet [thee] at thy coming, stirring up the dead for thee, all the he-goats of the earth; making to rise from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
Isaiah 14 is a taunt song over the death of a world ruler. This verse opens the curtain on the place he arrives in, and raises two questions: what is this "Sheol" that stirs to meet him, and who is the king behind such enormous language?
This is not a graveside speech. A freed people sing it, looking back on the power that once crushed them.
The first three verses of Isaiah 14 show that the judgment of Babylon clears the way for mercy to flow to Israel. This came partly true in the days of Cyrus, as the opening verses of Ezra record. It will come far more fully true when the times of the Gentiles come to an end… In that day they will take up the proverb against the king of Babylon, that fills verses 4-23 of the chapter.
Older translations print "hell" here, where the ESV keeps the Hebrew word "Sheol". One writer explains what that word covers.
When the prophet takes up his proverb against the king of Babylon, the "hell" that is moved from beneath to meet him at his coming is Sheol — the Old Testament equivalent of Hades, that is, the unseen world of departed spirits (Isa. 14:9).
The prophet also names the place when he means the people in it. We do the same with cities.
See Isaiah 14:9 for a similar way of putting "hell" (sheol) for those who are in it. It is the usual thing when speaking of cities: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets," and so on.
Everyone in this scene is awake. They speak, and they measure the newcomer against themselves.
Isaiah says something similar about sheol as a place of departed nations who are still conscious. There we watch the king of Babylon go down into sheol… "They will all speak and say to you, 'Have you also become weak like us? Have you become like us?'"… These are solemn words. Behind them stands the undeniable truth that the human race goes on existing, conscious and for ever. But only the New Testament gives the full light on the future state.
Some teach that the soul sleeps between death and resurrection. One writer answers from this passage and from a story Jesus told.
after-note:
Those who insist that the soul sleeps attack the story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31)… Call the story a parable if you like (though the Saviour does not), and there you have men in the world of spirits who are anything but unconscious — fully alive to feelings of bliss and woe. And this is not the only passage of Scripture that shows men talking in the spirit world; Isaiah 14:9-11 and Ezekiel 32:21 are as clear, if not as vivid, as Luke 16:19-31.
The kings already there rise to meet the newcomer, and their welcome is a taunt. His body fares no better.
In Isaiah 14 the souls of the kings in hades are pictured meeting the king of Babylon and taunting him with the humbling fact that he had become one of them. As to his body, it was cast out of its grave like a worthless branch, not found in burial with the glory of kings. In a word — though in shame — the king of Babylon in Isaiah died like any other man.
Two Babylonian kings stand behind this song. One writer finds that neither of them is enough.
So the strong language in verses 9-14 can hardly be said to have been used up in Nebuchadnezzar or Belshazzar. One showed pride and self-exaltation, the other the most degrading and profane luxury. But what we have here will only come fully true in the last days, and not before. After taking this place of power, the lofty one will be brought low as no king of Babylon in history ever was.
Commentators differ on where the human figure ends and another begins. Some read a shift partway through the song.
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 appointed man he is to be. Satan's first sin was to try to lift himself up to be equal with God, and he is to be "brought down to hell, to the depths of the pit," as we also see in Revelation 20.
- Rest first. Babylon's fall clears the way for mercy to reach Israel. A freed people sing this song.
- Sheol, not the grave. "Hell" here is the unseen world of departed spirits, and the place is named for the people in it.
- Awake, not asleep. Those in that world speak, know the newcomer and mock him. With Luke 16, this verse answers the idea that death is unconsciousness.
- Levelled. Kings rise from their thrones to tell him he is now weak like them. He died like any other man, and his body got no king's burial.
- Beyond Babylon. The words outrun Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar. Writers differ on whether the later verses turn from the visible king to Satan behind him.
All of them shall answer and say unto thee, Art thou also become powerless as we; art thou become like unto us!
The dead greet the fallen tyrant, and their welcome is a taunt. Two questions press: who speaks, and which king do they mock?
This taunt belongs to a set day. Commentators tie that day to Israel's release from its oppressor, using the promise at the start of the chapter.
Isaiah 14 opens by showing that the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, will choose Israel again, and set them in their own land. … It goes on to say that on the day the Lord gives you rest from your sorrow, you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon. There you have 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 taunt, from the time Babylon rose to power until now.
So the mockery does not come from the watching nations.
The prophet Isaiah did not put this song about the king of Babel in the mouths of the nations. He put it in the mouth of Israel itself. Israel would celebrate when the pride of Babel's king went down into hades and his scepter was broken.
Verse 9 names the "all of them" who answer here. They are the kings of the nations, roused from their thrones in Sheol, the unseen world of the dead. They greet the new arrival as an equal.
There we see the king of Babylon going down into Sheol. "Sheol below stirs to meet you when you come. It rouses the dead for you, all the leaders of the earth. It raises up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All of them will answer and say to you: 'You too have become as weak as we! You have become like us!'" These are solemn words. Behind them stands the undeniable truth that human beings go on existing, conscious and for ever. But only the New Testament Scriptures give the full light on the future state.
Commentators differ over how much this scene proves. Some read it as evidence that the dead are awake and aware, alongside the story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16.
Some claim that the dead are unconscious. They quote Ecclesiastes 9:5 as proof: "the dead know nothing." But the writer of that book is dealing with things "under the sun." In that passage he means that the dead can no longer follow what goes on down here. The story of the rich man and Lazarus — and passages such as Isaiah 14:9 and Ezekiel 32:21 — is enough to show that both the saved and the lost are fully alive to the reality of their condition in the unseen world.
Others are more cautious. One writer treats the scene as poetry:
Sheol is too vague to say anything… In Isaiah 14 the poetic picture is of the grave: the kings rise from their thrones to meet him.
The chapter shifts as it goes. One writer reads this taunt as aimed at the visible king, and the verses that follow as reaching past him to the power behind him.
Isaiah's prophecy in these verses applies first to the visible king — verses 4-11. The Lord will break his sceptre and cast him into hell, as Revelation 19 explains more fully. But in verses 12-15, we seem to pass from the visible king to Satan, whose chosen man he is to be.
Yet the words also overshoot Babylon's own kings.
So the strong language in verses 9-14 was hardly used up in Nebuchadnezzar or Belshazzar. One was proud and full of self-exaltation; the other sank into degrading and profane luxury. But what we have here will be fulfilled in the last days, and not before. After he takes this place of power, the lofty one is to be brought as low as no king of Babylon ever was in history.
The sting of the greeting is that it is true. Death strips away whatever set this man above others.
The great and the small are alike at rest. Kings whose palaces have crumbled into ruins, and princes who left all their wealth behind, are here at last in deep and equal rest. The wicked cannot trouble them. No master can force work out of his slave. Prisoners and their captors are no different in the presence of death, that great leveller of mankind.
- Rest first. Israel sings this taunt only on the day God gives His people rest from their oppressor. Commentators say that day has not yet come.
- Rest sung. Isaiah gives these words to Israel, not to the watching nations. The people who suffered get the last word.
- Rest disturbed. Sheol stirs, kings rise from their thrones, and they ask the newcomer whether he too has come down to their weakness.
- Rest disputed. Some read this as proof that the dead are conscious. Others treat it as poetry about the grave and look to the New Testament for full light.
- Rest levelled. The king may be Babylon's ruler, or the greater power behind him. Either way, death makes no distinction between captor and captive.
-- Thy pomp is brought down to Sheol, the noise of thy lyres the maggot is spread under thee, and worms cover thee.
This verse sits inside a song Israel sings over the fallen king of Babylon. It strips him down to what death leaves: silence where his music was, and maggots where his splendour was. Two questions follow. Who is this king? And what does this picture of Sheol and worms say about the dead?
This taunt is not a general remark about death. Isaiah hands it to one people to sing at one moment.
Isaiah did not put this song about the king of Babel on the lips of the nations, but on those of Israel itself. Israel would celebrate when the pride of Babel's king went down into hades and his sceptre was broken.
Commentators do not treat this figure as one long-dead king only. One writer reads the old enemy as the pattern of a ruler still to come.
Here God makes the old enemy a pattern of the new one that threatens them. The man who holds Babylon's power last is naturally a pattern of the one who will wield imperial power against the glory of God in the last days… So the strong language of verses 9-14 was hardly used up in Nebuchadnezzar or Belshazzar. The first showed pride and self-exaltation. The second showed deeply degrading and profane luxury. But what we have here will come true in full in the last days, and not before.
Commentators differ on where the focus shifts. Hole sees the subject change just after this verse. Kelly reads verses 9-14 as still describing a human ruler.
Isaiah's prophecy in these verses applies first to the visible king — verses 4-11. The Lord will break his sceptre and cast him into hell, as is more fully explained in Revelation 19. But in verses 12-15, we seem to pass from the visible king to Satan, whose nominee he is to be.
The verse puts worms and Sheol in one line. One writer argues that this fits because the word means more than a world of spirits.
He has started with a mistaken idea of what the word sheol includes. It really takes in the grave, as well as the region where the unclothed spirits wait for their resurrection… For sheol meant what we might call the whole underworld. People thought of both body and soul as entering it. So the prophet can picture the dead in their graves (in sheol) in vivid language, with the worm above them and under them. To a Hebrew this language was not strange, for there are worms in the grave.
The worm is not a random choice for a king's covering. It carries a settled meaning across Scripture.
Scripture uses the worm as a symbol of man's extreme weakness… In the grave man's body becomes the companion of worms, even if they do not feed on it. Job 21:26; Job 24:20; Isa. 14:11… In Job 25:6 man is compared to a worm — literally 'a maggot' — a fitting figure of moral corruption.
A Bible dictionary identifies the instrument that goes down with him.
A stringed instrument. The word is nebel, and is often translated 'psaltery.' Its exact form is not known. Isa. 5:12; Isa. 14:11; Amos 5:23; Amos 6:5.
Verses 9-11 show the dead speaking to the king as he arrives. One writer sets this beside the story Jesus told in Luke 16.
Call the story a parable if you please — though the Saviour does not. Even so, there you have men in the world of spirits who are the opposite of unconscious. They are fully alive to the feelings of bliss and woe. And this is not the only passage of Scripture that shows men talking in the spirit world. Isaiah 14:9-11 and Ezekiel 32:21 are as clear, if not as vivid, as Luke 16:19-31.
Man tries to dress up the end this verse describes.
Man may seek to hide his humiliation in various ways… He may call the last humbling stage of his career by the most honourable titles he can devise. He may gild the bed of death with a false light. He may dress the funeral procession and the grave with the look of pomp, pageantry, and glory. He may raise over the crumbling ashes a splendid monument, engraved with the records of human shame. All these things he may do; but death is death after all.
- Pomp — display and music are what a great ruler owns. Both go down with him. Neither one outlives him.
- Sheol — the word covers the grave and the unseen region at once. That is why worms and departed spirits stand in one line.
- Worms — they replace his royal robes. Scripture uses the worm for human weakness and moral corruption.
- Voices — the dead who greet him talk, they do not sleep. Commentators read the scene as proof that people stay conscious after death.
- Pattern — his pride shows up again in a ruler still to come. The gilding changes; the ending does not.