How you have fallen from heaven, O day star, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the ground, O destroyer of nations.
Parallel translations
- WEB How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, who laid the nations low!
- KJV 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!
- NKJV “Howyou are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations!
- NASB “How you have fallen from heaven, You star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, You who defeated the nations!
- NLT “How you are fallen from heaven, O shining star, son of the morning! You have been thrown down to the earth, you who destroyed the nations of the world.
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
Isaiah laments how the brilliant 'morning star' has fallen from heaven, cut down to the ground after laying nations low. The verse marks the dramatic collapse of the proud oppressor.
Overview
The title 'morning star, son of the dawn' (rendered 'Lucifer' in older translations) depicts the king of Babylon at the height of his radiance now humiliated. Christians have long seen here an echo of the deeper pride and fall of Satan (cf. Luke 10:18), though the primary reference is the Babylonian ruler. Either way, the passage warns that exalted pride ends in ruin under God's hand.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Ezek 28:13–17You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every kind of precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald. Your mountings and settings were crafted in gold, prepared on the day of your creation.
- Luke 10:18So He told them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
- Rev 12:7–10Then a war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.
- Rev 8:10Then the third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star burning like a torch fell from heaven and landed on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water.
- Rev 22:16“I, Jesus, have sent My angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the bright Morning Star.”
- Isa 34:4All the stars of heaven will be dissolved. The skies will be rolled up like a scroll, and all their stars will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like foliage from the fig tree.
- 2 Pet 1:19We also have the word of the prophets as confirmed beyond doubt. And you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
- Rev 2:28And I will give him the morning star.
- Isa 14:4–6you will sing this song of contempt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has ceased, and how his fury has ended!
- 2 Pet 2:4For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them deep into hell, placing them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment;
- Rev 9:1Then the fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth, and it was given the key to the pit of the Abyss.
- Jer 51:20–24“You are My war club, My weapon for battle. With you I shatter nations; with you I bring kingdoms to ruin.
- Jer 50:23How the hammer of the whole earth lies broken and shattered! What a horror Babylon has become among the nations!
- Isa 13:10For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light. The rising sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light.
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 14:12 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.