4 That thou shalt take up H5375 this proverb H4912 against the king H4428 of Babylon, H894 and say, H559 How hath the oppressor H5065 ceased! H7673 the golden city H4062 ceased! H7673
5 The LORD H3068 hath broken H7665 the staff H4294 of the wicked, H7563 and the sceptre H7626 of the rulers. H4910
6 He who smote H5221 the people H5971 in wrath H5678 with a continual H1115 H5627 stroke, H4347 he that ruled H7287 the nations H1471 in anger, H639 is persecuted, H4783 and none H1097 hindereth. H2820
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Isaiah 14
Commentary on Isaiah 14 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 14
In this chapter,
Isa 14:1-3
This comes in here as the reason why Babylon must be overthrown and ruined, because God has mercy in store for his people, and therefore,
Isa 14:4-23
The kings of Babylon, successively, were the great enemies and oppressors of God's people, and therefore the destruction of Babylon, the fall of the king, and the ruin of his family, are here particularly taken notice of and triumphed in. In the day that God has given Israel rest they shall take up this proverb against the king of Babylon. We must not rejoice when our enemy falls, as ours; but when Babylon, the common enemy of God and his Israel, sinks, then rejoice over her, thou heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets, Rev. 18:20. The Babylonian monarchy bade fair to be an absolute, universal, and perpetual one, and, in these pretensions, vied with the Almighty; it is therefore very justly, not only brought down, but insulted over when it is down; and it is not only the last monarch, Belshazzar, who was slain on that night that Babylon was taken (Dan. 5:30), who is here triumphed over, but the whole monarchy, which sunk in him; not without special reference to Nebuchadnezzar, in whom that monarchy was at its height. Now here,
Isa 14:24-32
The destruction of Babylon and the Chaldean empire was a thing at a great distance; the empire had not risen to any considerable height when its fall was here foretold: it was almost 200 years from this prediction of Babylon's fall to the accomplishment of it. Now the people to whom Isaiah prophesied might ask, "What is this to us, or what shall we be the better for it, and what assurance shall we have of it?' To both questions he answers in these verses, by a prediction of the ruin both of the Assyrians and of the Philistines, the present enemies that infested them, which they should shortly be eye-witnesses of and have benefit by. These would be a present comfort to them, and a pledge of future deliverance, for the confirming of the faith of their posterity. God is to his people the same to day that he was yesterday and will be hereafter; and he will for ever be the same that he has been and is. Here is,