Isaiah 14:4

14:1-23 The whole plan of Divine Providence is arranged with a view to the good of the people of God. A settlement in the land of promise is of God's mercy. Let the church receive those whom God receives. God's people, wherever their lot is cast, should endeavour to recommend religion by a right and winning conversation. Those that would not be reconciled to them, should be humbled by them. This may be applied to the success of the gospel, when those were brought to obey it who had opposed it. God himself undertakes to work a blessed change. They shall have rest from their sorrow and fear, the sense of their present burdens, and the dread of worse. Babylon abounded in riches. The king of Babylon having the absolute command of so much wealth, by the help of it ruled the nations. This refers especially to the people of the Jews; and it filled up the measure of the king of Babylon's sins. Tyrants sacrifice their true interest to their lusts and passions. It is gracious ambition to covet to be like the Most Holy, for he has said, Be ye holy, for I am holy; but it is sinful ambition to aim to be like the Most High, for he has said, He who exalts himself shall be abased. The devil thus drew our first parents to sin. Utter ruin should be brought upon him. Those that will not cease to sin, God will make to cease. He should be slain, and go down to the grave; this is the common fate of tyrants.

True glory, that is, true grace, will go up with the soul to heaven, but vain pomp will go down with the body to the grave; there is an end of it. To be denied burial, if for righteousness' sake, may be rejoiced in, Mt 5:12. But if the just punishment of sin, it denotes that impenitent sinners shall rise to everlasting shame and contempt. Many triumphs should be in his fall. God will reckon with those that disturb the peace of mankind. The receiving the king of Babylon into the regions of the dead, shows there is a world of spirits, to which the souls of men remove at death. And that souls have converse with each other, though we have none with them; and that death and hell will be death and hell indeed, to all who fall unholy, from the height of this world's pomps, and the fulness of its pleasures. Learn from all this, that the seed of evil-doers shall never be renowned. The royal city is to be ruined and forsaken. Thus the utter destruction of the New Testament Babylon is illustrated, Re 18:2. When a people will not be made clean with the besom of reformation, what can they expect but to be swept off the face of the earth with the besom of destruction?

Shalt take up into thy mouth, as it is fully expressed, Psalm 50:16 . How hath the oppressor ceased! this is spoken by way of astonishment and triumph. Who would have thought this possible? The golden city, as they used to call themselves; which therefore he expresseth here in a word of their own language.

Isa 14:4-23. The Jews' Triumphal Song Thereat. "It moves in lengthened elegiac measure like a song of lamentation for the dead, and is full of lofty scorn" [Herder]. Isa 14:4-8. A Chorus of Jews Express Their Joyful Surprise at Babylon's Downfall. The whole earth rejoices; the cedars of Lebanon taunt him. 4. proverb—The Orientals, having few books, embodied their thoughts in weighty, figurative, briefly expressed gnomes. Here a taunting song of triumph (Mic 2:4; Hab 2:6). the king—the ideal representative of Babylon; perhaps Belshazzar (Da 5:1-31). The mystical Babylon is ultimately meant. golden city—rather, "the exactress of gold" [Maurer]. But the old translators read differently in the Hebrew, "oppression," which the parallelism favors (compare Isa 3:5).

4 . this proverb ] The Hebrew word ( mâshâl ) is used in a variety of senses. Originally signifying a similitude, it came naturally to denote a popular proverb or gnomic saying, and finally acquired the sense of a satire or taunt-song , as here ( Habakkuk 2:6 ; Numbers 21:27 ). In ancient Israel wit seems to have passed into sarcasm as readily as in more recent times. The poem which follows might with equal propriety be described as a dirge ( qînah , θρῆνος in LXX.), commencing as it does with the characteristic word ’êkh , and exhibiting the peculiarity of the elegiac measure (the line is broken by a cæsura in such a manner that the second member is shorter than the first. See on ch. Isaiah 1:21 ). Such ironical elegies are common in the prophets of the exile. Another striking example will meet us in ch. 47. 4 . The line may be rendered: How is the oppressor stilled,—stilled the insolent rage! The translation golden city is an attempt to render the received text, but can hardly be justified. All the ancient versions read instead of madhçbâh, marhçbâh , a word which combines the ideas of restlessness and insolence (see ch. Isaiah 3:5 ). 4 b — 8. The first strophe is like a sigh of relief breathed by the whole of creation, when the disturber of its peace has vanished from the scene. 4 b — 21. The song of triumph over the king of Babylon is one of the finest specimens of Hebrew poetry which the Old Testament contains.

Verse 4. - Thou shalt take up this proverb ; rather, this parable , as the word is translated in Numbers 23 , and 24; in Job 26:1 ; Job 29:1 ; Psalm 49:4 ; Psalm 78:2 ; Ezekiel 17:2 ; Ezekiel 20:49 ; Ezekiel 21:5 ; Ezekiel 24:3 ; Micah 2:4 ; Habakkuk 2:6 ; or "this taunting speech," as our translators render in the margin (see Cheyne, ad loc .; and comp. Hebrews 2:6 ). The golden city . There are two readings here - mad-hebah and marhebah . The latter reading was preferred anciently, and is followed by the LXX., the Syriac and Chaldee Versions, the Targums, Ewald, Gesenius, and Mr. Cheyne. It would give the meaning of" the raging one." Madhebah , however, is preferred by Rosenmüller, Vitringa, and Dr. Kay. It is supposed to mean "golden," from d'hab , the Chaldee form of the Hebrew zahob , gold. But the question is pertinent - Why should a Chaldee form have been used by a Hebrew writer ignorant of Chaldee and Chaldea? Isaiah 14:4

(4) That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon. —The prophet appears once more (comp. Isaiah 5:1 ; Isaiah 12:1 ) in his character as a psalmist. In the mashal or taunting-song that follows, the generic meaning of “proverb” is specialised (as in Micah 2:4 ; Habakkuk 2:6 ; Deuteronomy 28:37 , 1Kings 9:7 , and elsewhere) for a derisive utterance in poetic or figurative speech. The LXX., singularly enough, renders the word here by “lamentation.” How hath the oppressor ceased.—If we take “the golden city” of the English version as the correct rendering, it finds a parallel in the epithet of “gold abounding” applied to Babylon by Æschylus (Pers. 53). The word so translated is, however, not found elsewhere, and the general consensus of recent critics, following in the wake of the Targum and the LXX., is in favour of the rendering, the task-master, or the place of torture. The Vulgate, how has the tribute ceased, expresses substantially the same thought. The marginal reading, exactress of gold, seems like an attempt to combine two different etymologies.

That thou shalt take up - Thou shalt utter, declare, or commence. The word 'take up,' is used in the sense of utter, speak, or declare, in Exodus 20:7 ; Exodus 23:1 ; Psalm 15:2 . This proverb - (המשׁל hamâshâl). Vulgate, 'Parable.' Septuagint Τὸν ρῆνον ton thrēnon - 'Lamentation.' The Hebrew word משׁל mâshâl, usually rendered "proverb," is also rendered "a parable," or "a by-word." It properly denotes "a metaphor, a comparison, a similitude;" and is applied usually to a brief and pungent sentiment or maxim, where wisdom is embodied in few words. In these the ancients abounded. They had few books; and hence arose the necessity of condensing as much as possible the sentiments of wisdom, that they might be easily remembered, and transmitted to future times. These maxims were commonly expressed in figurative language, or by a brief comparison, or short parable, as they are with us. The word also means, figurative discourse generally; and hence, a song or poem Numbers 23:7, Numbers 23:18; Job 27:1; Job 29:1; Psalm 49:5. It is also used to denote a satire, or a song of triumph over enemies Micah 2:4; Hebrews 4:6; Joel 2:17. It is evidently used in this sense here - to denote a taunting speech, a song of triumph over the prostrate king of Babylon. In this beautiful song, there are all the elements of the most pungent satire, and all the beauties of the highest poetry. Against the king of Babylon - Over the king of Babylon, or in regard to him.

It is not certain that any particular king of Babylon is here intended. If there was, it was probably Belshazzar, in whose reign the city was taken (see the notes at Isaiah 14:22). It may, however, be designed to denote the Babylonian empire - the kingdom that had oppressed the Jews; and thus the king may be referred to as the head of the nation, and as the representative of the whole people. How hath the oppressor ceased! - The word 'oppressor' (נגשׂ nogēs') denotes, properly, the "exactor of tribute," and refers here to the fact that Babylon had oppressed its dependent provinces, by exacting large revenues from them, and thus cruelly oppressing them. Ceased - Ceased to exact tribute; or (Hebrew) 'is at rest.' It is now at rest, and no more puts forth its power in oppressing its dependent provinces. The golden city - Babylon. The word used here (מדהבה madehēbâh) occurs nowhere else in the Bible. According to the Jewish Commentators, it means "an exactress of gold," as if derived from דהב dehab, used for זהב zehab, gold. Gesenius and Michaelis prefer another reading (מרהבה marehēbâh), from (רהב râhab), and suppose that it means oppression. The Vulgate renders it "tribute" - 'The tribute hath ceased.' The Septuagint Ἐπισπουδαστής Epispoudastēs - 'Solicitor, or exactor (of gold).' Vitringa supposes that the word means "gold," and that it refers to the golden scepter of its kings that had now ceased to be swayed over the prostrate nations.