Isaiah 5:14 - Exposition

Therefore hell hath enlarged herself ; rather, hath enlarged her desire (comp. Habakkuk 2:5 ). "Hell" here represents the underworld, into which souls descended at death, not yet perhaps recognized as comprehending two divisions, but regarded much as the Greeks regarded their Hades—as a general receptacle of the dead, dark and silent. Hades ( Sheol ), not viewed as a person, but personified by poetical license, "enlarges her desire" and "opens her mouth" to receive the crowd that is approaching the crowd of those who in captivity succumb to the hardships of their lot. Their glory ; literally, her glory —the glory, i.e; of Jerusalem, which is especially in the prophet's thoughts. "Her glory, and her crowd, and her pomp, and he that is joyful in her , shall go down" into the sheol that gapes for them.