Isaiah 14:20 - Exposition

If we make the alteration suggested in the preceding note, this verse will begin as follows: "They that have gone down to the stoner of the pit, with these thou shalt not be joined in burial"—a repetition certainly of the first clause of Isaiah 14:19 , but with amplification, and with the reason appended. Thou hast destroyed thy land ; i.e. "brought ruin on it by displeasing God, and causing him to visit it with a judgment." The seed of evil-doers shall never be renowned ; rather, shall not be named forever (comp. Psalms 109:13 ). The meaning is that they shall have no seed, or, if they have any, that it shall be early cut off, and the whole race blotted out. Pretenders rose up under Darius Hystaspis, claiming descent from Belshazzar's father, Nabenidus; but the claim is characterized as false, and a false claim would scarcely have been set up had real descendants survived.