Isaiah 14:1-4

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Isaiah 14:1-3

This comes in here as the reason why Babylon must be overthrown and ruined, because God has mercy in store for his people, and therefore, 1. The injuries done to them must be reckoned for and revenged upon their persecutors. Mercy to Jacob will be wrath and ruin to Jacob's impenitent implacable adversaries, such as Babylon was. 2. The yoke of oppression which Babylon had long laid on their necks must be broken off, and they must be set at liberty; and, in order to this, the destruction of... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Isaiah 14:4-23

The kings of Babylon, successively, were the great enemies and oppressors of God's people, and therefore the destruction of Babylon, the fall of the king, and the ruin of his family, are here particularly taken notice of and triumphed in. In the day that God has given Israel rest they shall take up this proverb against the king of Babylon. We must not rejoice when our enemy falls, as ours; but when Babylon, the common enemy of God and his Israel, sinks, then rejoice over her, thou heaven, and... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 14:1

For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, will yet choose Israel ,.... While the Jews were in captivity, the Lord seemed to have no pity for them, or compassion on them, and it looked as if he had rejected them, and wholly cast them off; but by delivering them from thence, he showed that he had a merciful regard unto them, and made it to appear that they were his chosen people, and beloved by him: and this is a reason why Babylon should be destroyed, and her destruction be no longer deferred,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 14:2

And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place ,.... That is, the people among whom the Jews dwelt in Babylon, who had a kindness for them, and especially such of them as were proselyted to their religion should attend them in their journey home, and supply them with all necessaries for provision and carriage, as they were allowed to do by the edict of Cyrus, Ezra 1:4 and this will have a further accomplishment in the latter day, when the Gentiles shall bring their sons and... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 14:3

And it shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow ,.... In captivity, and on account of that, being out of their own land, deprived of the free exercise of their religion, and at a distance from the house of God, and continually hearing the reproaches and blaspheming of the enemy, and seeing their idolatrous practices, and their ungodly conversation; all which must create sorrow of heart to the sincere lovers and worshippers of God: and from thy fear ... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 14:4

That thou shall take up this proverb against the king of Babylon ,.... Or "concerning" him, his fall, and the fall of the Babylonish monarchy with him; if we understand this of any particular king of Babylon, it seems best not to interpret it of Nebuchadnezzar, whom Jerom mentions, in whom the empire was in its greatest glory: but of Belshazzar, in whom it ended; the king of Babylon may be here considered as a type of antichrist, and what is said of the one may be applied to the other: the... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 14:1

And will yet choose Israel - That is, will still regard Israel as his chosen people; however he may seem to desert them, by giving them up to their enemies, and scattering them among the nations. Judah is sometimes called Israel; see Ezekiel 13:16 ; Malachi 1:1 ; Malachi 2:11 ; : but the name of Jacob and of Israel, used apparently with design in this place, each of which names includes the twelve tribes, and the other circumstances mentioned in this and the next verse, which did not... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 14:2

For servants and handmaids - For thrallis and thrallesses. - Old Bible. Male and female slaves. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 14:3

In the day "In that day" - ההוא ביום bayom hahu . The word ההוא hahu is added in two MSS. of Kennicott's, and was in the copies from which the Septuagint and Vulgate translated: εν τῃ ἡμερᾳ εκεινῃ , in die illa , ( ᾑ αναπαυσει , MS. Pachom. adding ה ), in that day. This is a matter of no great consequence: however, it restores the text to the common form, almost constantly used on such occasions; and is one among many instances of a word apparently lost out of the... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 14:4

This proverb "This parable" - משל mashal , I take this to be the general name for poetic style among the Hebrews, including every sort of it, as ranging under one or other, or all of the characters, of sententious, figurative, and sublime; which are all contained in the original notion, or in the use and application of the word mashal . Parables or proverbs, such as those of Solomon, are always expressed in short pointed sentences; frequently figurative, being formed on some... read more

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