BOOK 23 OF 66 · MAJOR PROPHETS · KING JAMES BIBLE

Isaiah 14

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Isaiah 14 Overview

Isaiah looks beyond Babylon’s fall to Israel’s rest, gives a taunt over the fallen king of Babylon whose pride sought heaven but ended in the grave, and adds shorter judgments concerning Assyria and Philistia.

IsaiahBook

14Chapter

32Verses

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Before you read Isaiah 14

Coming from

Isaiah begins the oracles against the nations with Babylon: an army is summoned, the day of the LORD is described in cosmic and terrifying language, and Babylon’s pride and population are destined for devastation.

In this chapter

Leads into

A brief lament announces sudden devastation across Moab, tracing city after city in mourning, flight, tears, and ruined agriculture.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The chapter joins restoration for Jacob with humiliation for oppressors. The famous language about falling from heaven is embedded in a taunt against the king of Babylon, though readers have long debated whether the pride imagery also reaches beyond that human ruler.

The interpretive center of Isaiah 14 is the chapter’s own movement: oppressive empires do not have the final word. Read its poetry, signs, historical references, and later biblical connections from that center rather than treating isolated phrases as detached slogans.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Oppressive empires do not have the final word

The LORD gives His people rest while the oppressor’s staff is broken.

Exalting oneself against God ends in humiliation

The king who imagined ascent is brought down to the pit.

God’s purpose against nations cannot be frustrated

Assyria and Philistia are also subject to the LORD’s determined counsel.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Luke 10:18

Jesus speaks of Satan falling from heaven; this resembles Isaiah’s language but does not by itself prove that Isaiah 14 exclusively describes Satan.

Ezekiel 28

Another prophetic taunt uses elevated Edenic and cosmic imagery concerning a proud ruler, raising similar interpretive questions.

Revelation 18

Babylon’s downfall again becomes a major image of arrogant world power judged by God.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not skip the explicit human referent.

Isaiah calls this a proverb or taunt against the king of Babylon.

Do not manufacture certainty about Satan beyond what the passage states.

The language may invite broader theological comparison, but the chapter’s direct target is Babylonian royal pride.

Read Isaiah 14 watching for…

Israel receiving rest

the broken oppressor

the king’s five proud 'I will' claims

descent to the grave

the LORD’s unbreakable purpose against Assyria

Chapter outline3 sections

1-3The LORD will have mercy on Jacob and give Israel rest 4-23A proverb against Babylon’s king celebrates the fall of the proud oppressor 24-32Assyria and Philistia are also warned of coming judgment

For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.

And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.

And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve,

That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!

The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers.

He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth.

The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing.

Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us.

Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.

All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?

Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;

That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?

All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house.

But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet.

Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned.

Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.

For I will rise up against them, saith the LORD of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the LORD.

I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the LORD of hosts.

The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:

That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders.

This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.

For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?

In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden.

Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken: for out of the serpent's root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.

And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety: and I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall slay thy remnant.

Howl, O gate; cry, O city; thou, whole Palestina, art dissolved: for there shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall be alone in his appointed times.

What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation? That the LORD hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it.

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Isaiah 14:4

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