Your pomp has been brought down to Sheol, along with the music of your harps. Maggots are your bed and worms your blanket.
Parallel translations
- WEB Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, with the sound of your stringed instruments. Maggots are spread out under you, and worms cover you.
- KJV 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.
- NKJV Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, And the sound of your stringed instruments; The maggot is spread under you, And worms cover you.’
- NASB ‘Your pride and the music of your harps Have been brought down to Sheol; Maggots are spread out as your bed beneath you And worms are your covering.’
- NLT Your might and power were buried with you. The sound of the harp in your palace has ceased. Now maggots are your sheet, and worms your blanket.’
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The king's pomp and music are brought down to the grave, where maggots and worms now cover him. His splendor ends in corruption and decay.
Overview
The luxury and royal pageantry that surrounded the tyrant give way to the squalor of the grave. The contrast between his former magnificence and his bed of worms drives home the vanity of pride. Such judgment on human glory points to the futility of any kingdom built apart from God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Dan 5:25–30Now this is the inscription that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN.
- Mark 9:43–48If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two hands and go into hell, into the unquenchable fire.
- Job 24:19–20As drought and heat consume the melting snow, so Sheol steals those who have sinned.
- Dan 5:1–4Later, King Belshazzar held a great feast for a thousand of his nobles, and he drank wine with them.
- Rev 18:11–19And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, because there is no one left to buy their cargo—
- Isa 21:4–5My heart falters; fear makes me tremble. The twilight of my desire has turned to horror.
- Isa 22:2O city of commotion, O town of revelry? Your slain did not die by the sword, nor were they killed in battle.
- Job 17:13–14If I look for Sheol as my home, if I spread out my bed in darkness,
- Job 21:11–15They send forth their little ones like a flock; their children skip about,
- Isa 66:24“As they go forth, they will see the corpses of the men who have rebelled against Me; for their worm will never die, their fire will never be quenched, and they will be a horror to all mankind.”
- Amos 6:3–7You dismiss the day of calamity and bring near a reign of violence.
- Ezek 32:19–20Whom do you surpass in beauty? Go down and be placed with the uncircumcised!
- Ezek 26:13So I will silence the sound of your songs, and the music of your lyres will no longer be heard.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 14:11 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.