Isaiah 14:13 - Exposition

For thou hast said ; rather, and thou—thou saidst ; i.e. weak as thou art now shown to have been, it was thou that didst dare to say. I will ascend into heaven, etc. (comp. Isaiah 10:13 , Isaiah 10:14 ; Isaiah 37:24 , Isaiah 37:25 ). Isaiah represents rather the thoughts of the Babylonian monarch than his actual words. The Babylonian inscriptions are full of boasting egotism; but they do not contain anything approaching to impiety. The king may regard himself as, in a certain sense, Divine; but still he entertains a deep respect and reverence for those gods whom he regards as the most exalted, as Merodach, Bel, Nebo, Sin, Shamas. He is their worshipper, their devotee, their suppliant. The Babylonian monarchs may have believed that after death they would mount up to heaven and join the "assembly of the great gods"; but we scarcely know enough as yet of the religions opinions of the Babylonians to state positively what their belief was on the subject of a future life. I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation. The early commentators explained this of Mount Zion, especially on account of the phrase, " in the sides of the north," which is used of the temple-bill in Psalms 48:2 . But it is well objected that Mount Zion was a place of no grandeur or dignity or holiness to the Babylonians, who had made it a desolation; and that no Babylonian monarch would have desired to " sit " there. Moreover, the "mountain" of this passage must be one which is "above the heights of the clouds" and "above the stars of God," which the most imaginative poet could not have said of Mount Zion. A mythic mountain, belonging to the Babylonian theosophy, was therefore seen to be intended, even before the times of cuneiform decipherment (Rosenmüller, Michaelis, Knobel). Now that the Babylonian inscriptions can be read, it is found that there was such a mountain, called " Im-Kharsak ," or " Kharsak-Kurra ," which is described as " the mighty mountain of Bel, whose head rivals heaven , whose root is the holy deep," and which " was regarded as the spot where the ark had rested, and where the gods had their seat". In Babylonian geography this mountain was identified, either with the peak of Rowandiz, or with Mount Elwend, near Ecbatana. In the sides of the north . Both Elwend and Rowandiz are situated to the northeast of Babylou—a position which, according to ancient ideas, might be described indifferently as "north" or "east."